Old House Attic

The insulation materials used in older houses are not as effective in keeping heat in as the new ones.

Old house attic.

The insulation must meet doe standards. Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new insulation on top of the old. Every attic is different but a few established norms and practices will guide your renovation. Even if you bought the house with insulation already installed into it it s best to double check.

But if the floor is covered in plywood you can t stuff enough insulation beneath it to do the job sufficiently not even in warm climates. Making an attic into a master closet. One of an attic s most important features is its framing. It was transformed from a basically unusable space to this charming vaulted ceiling exposed brick chimney family room.

The answer to making an old house inhabitable is insulation. See all the winners and finalists from the search for america s best remodel 2015. Many older houses and plenty of new ones too are framed with rafters 2x or engineered lumber that extends from the ridge board at the roof peak down to the top plate of the exterior wall where each rafter typically overhangs to form the eaves of a house. Here are our top picks for attic renovations chosen by the editors of this old house.

If you think attics are creepy crawly spaces meant solely for cobweb dusted storage think twice. Account for codes and safety photo by casey dunn. We started the renovation on our 100 year old house 3 years ago and the attic renovation was an amazing transformation.