How to Plan Your Attic Refinishing Project
- 1). Create or obtain a blueprint of your attic space. Knowing the current measurements of your floor plan will help you in your design. If you can't create or obtain a floor plan of the attic, lay out your room area, taking care to get the marked-out space square with corner measurement tools.
- 2). Know where you are going to install heating outlets while the walls are open.
- 3). Plan the location of electrical outlets for television, radio, computer or heater.
- 4). Shop for the best price on available insulation, and plan accordingly. Insulation will be installed in the ceiling and walls to reduce heating and air conditioning costs. Either fiberglass or aluminum foil insulation is typically used and is held in place by staples driven into studs and rafters.
- 5). Select wall materials. Once the insulation is fastened, the wall board will be installed.
- 6). Plan storage areas. If the attic ceiling slants, consider how you will place furniture. Add a built-in chest of drawers or book shelves in the knee wall (located under the slope of the roof line). Sometimes, the wall may have to be moved. Measure carefully so you won't have any problem fitting your shelves or drawers.
- 7). Create a finish trim if windows are present. This step is usually taken to make the room consistent with other renovations. If there aren't any windows, often dormers are added to obtain more light, ventilation or headroom. Consider adding headroom at the top of the attic stairs. You can also relocate the stairway, create a spiral stairway or build a new exterior stairway.
- 8). Frame a door opening in your plans, if there isn't one, and estimate final door size. You may want to add molding around the door.
- 9). Plan on painting walls. A flat paint is usually used because it is easy to apply. Semi-gloss paint is used on areas with trim. However, depending on what you will be using the room for, you may want to reverse the two types of paints, especially if you know children will be doing arts and crafts in the room. Semi-gloss is easy to clean and doesn't need to be applied often.
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Decide what type of material you will use for flooring: carpet, wood or tile. Many attics already have a great wood floor that can easily be resurrected with staining and polishing. Consider adding sound insulation if you plan on noisy activities.
