How to Finish Your Attic Living Space

Image by jon.roberts via Flickr

Finishing your attic living space can be simple or as complicated as it has to be. The simplest way to finish it is by leaving a V-shaped roof. In this case I have to do is to put sheet rock for roughing rafters after you have installed whenever utilities like electricity or telephone you are going to need. If you’re only going to have one room that goes the length of the house you are virtually finished now.

The other thing you are going to have to do is install a floor and it is advisable to install the floor first. Some floor should be three-quarter inch plywood or chipboard. In this particular installation extended the three-quarter inch sub-flooring under the eaves of the roof. Finish the subfloor by laying a carpet or a hardwood floor on top of it. At this point your living space is virtually done except for moving in the furniture and storing whatever you want to under the eaves of the roof.

This is assuming of course the UN Windows already installed on the gable ends of your house. If you don’t you’re going to have to install Windows now and the gable ends. You can also install skylights on the roof before you cover the roofing rafters with sheet rock.

If you want to have a flat ceiling at the top of your living space you going to have to install ceiling joists that are short enough to bridge between two roof rafters on opposite sides of the roof so that you close the V. Most of these remodeling projects involving attics still use part of the roof as its walls.

When you’re framing the knee boards under the eaves they should at least 4 feet high so that you can use a full sheet of sheet rock. If your knee wall is 5 feet high you can use a 4 x 10′ panel of sheet rock that you have cut in half along the way. When you’re building in the wall just remember this is same as a wrecking any other partition except that you will not need it top plate. However you will be the sole plate that consists of a 2 x 4 running the entire length of the attic, or the length of the wall. For the actual erection of the wall you’ll be a plum bob the traps from you the edge of each raptor aligning it with one edge of the sole plate. In this way you’ll know where to place the stud. To find the length of the stud you have to measure the length of the cross line between the sole plate and the rafter. You will also have to mark the location of the plumb bob on the rafter when you are taking your measurements. If this distance berries by less than a quarter inch you can square cut equal length studs that are long enough to lap up against the rafters. Then you can face nail the studs against the rafter. After this is completed for each stud you can then face nail studs to the face plate.

If the measurements are greater than a quarter of an inch you may be able to take the drooping rafters by cutting your studs in an angle. This is so they can be jammed under the rafters and the toenail in the place.