Attic Could Become Your Own Private Hideaway

Chuck Levy turned the attic of his Victorian Village home in Columbus, Ohio, into a sunny space where he can play his violin, throw a party or just get away from it all.

Levy, a physician, calls it his “clubhouse.”

You, too, might have space for a clubhouse lurking overhead. But, like just about everything in home construction, an attic conversion is more complicated than it might appear.

“People that have older homes with high-pitched roofs tend to stick their heads up into that attic hole and say, ‘Look at all this room up here,”’ said remodeling contractor Ron Landis of R.J. Landis Design & Construction. Sometimes it’s practical to turn all that room into a room, and sometimes it’s not.

Here’s one rule of thumb: If your house was built around the turn of the century by rich people, you probably have a usable attic.

“In a Victorian house, the attics were huge,” said Kevin Brubaker, a carpenter and cabinetmaker who does old-house restorations, including attic conversions.

In the Levy family’s house, the attic had a pine floor and some insulation. Brubaker refinished the floor, put in skylights, finished the walls with drywall, and built a window-seat alcove and some shelving and other storage. It has a clean, uncluttered look, with a touch of exposed brick to remind you that this is an old house. The large, open space also has pleasing acoustics - something important to Levy, a musician as well as a physician.

John and Kathy Conway use the attic of their large German Village house as a guest bedroom, exercise room, a place for him to indulge in his model train hobby, and somewhere to go for a change of pace. The attic’s roof windows offer views of downtown to the north and the steeple of the landmark St. Mary Church to the south.

The attic has a fireplace, full bathroom, and a separate heating and cooling system.

Landis, the remodeling contractor, said one of the more unusual attic conversions he did was in a 10-year-old house in southern Delaware County with a steeply pitched roof. The owners wanted more storage space, so Landis removed the ceiling from a walk-in closet and built a second closet on top of it, with a stairway for access.

Even a seemingly simple conversion like that, however, illustrates the complexities involved in attic work.

For example, Landis said, ceiling joists are not designed to be walked on. To support the floor of the new closet, he had to put in bigger joists. This is a step commonly overlooked by do-it-yourselfers, he said.

Landis, Brubaker and architects William Hugus and Gary Alexander said there are some other factors to consider before launching into an attic conversion:

You will need adequate headroom. Most building codes require that the ceiling be at least 7 feet 6 inches high. Dormers can solve some headroom problems.

If yours is a new house, the roof is probably supported by trusses, which are triangular, prefabricated framing members that cannot be cut. Slicing into them can cause serious structural problems.

You will need room for a stairway. In Victorian houses with big attics, these are usually already present. In others, you will need to find room.

The heating and cooling system that serves the rest of the house may not be adequate for the attic. Sometimes it requires a separate mechanical system.

Roof framing needs to be deep enough to hold adequate insulation. Insulation is critical in an attic conversion because attics can be difficult to cool and heat.

If the attic project will include skylights or roof windows, buy only the best. Otherwise, leaks may be a frequent problem.

Getting building materials into an attic can be a major undertaking. Brubaker had to remove part of a wall in Levy’s house to get drywall to the third floor. He removed a window and installed a winch to bring some other materials up.

Landis said the cost of an attic conversion can range anywhere from $45 to $90 a square foot, depending on how it is finished.

Still, an attic conversion may make sense, especially when the size of the lot severely limits the ability to enlarge the house in other ways.

Besides, there’s something magic about an attic.

If conditions are right, said Brubaker, there’s no reason not to take advantage of the space overhead.

“Use it,” he said. “Absolutely. Use it.”