Turn your attic into a living space

Published on: 26 March 2018 Last Updated on: 01 August 2024
attic room

When purchasing a home, people have some projection of the future. However, it is hard to predict everything. This is why we like getting a place with the room for improvement and expansion. The attic is probably one of the first choices for home expansion of growing families. It often seems miraculous the way an empty, or a storage room turns into a comfortable living space.

The purpose :

The purpose of your loft-conversion is an important element of project planning. Some of the most convenient and usual purposes are a playroom, an office, an entertainment room, or a bedroom. Decide the most convenient purpose depending on what you lack space for. Perhaps this can give your children enough space to play when they are indoors, or finally give you the master bedroom you’ve always wanted. The purpose will determine the layout, the amenities, and the type of access.

The access :

Perhaps you are used to using the attic ladder, however, when this becomes a room you use every day, the ladder is no longer acceptable. First of all, consider the space you have. Is there anything on the floor below which will make fitting a staircase difficult? Perhaps in certain scenarios, it could block one of the doors into one of the rooms. Hire a professional to make a plan for the stairs, unless you are a professional, or truly experienced. Safety should be your priority. Also if your loft is meant to be a playroom, you should definitely get a banister and safety get at the top and the bottom.

The style :

Does your attic currently have enough space for your purpose? Is the ceiling high enough? Do you have enough windows? Check your local regulations, get the required licenses and choose the style of the conversion. There are three common styles of the loft conversion, mansard, dormer, and roof light. The roof light is probably the most convenient one as it does not require major alterations to your roof. This is the reason why there is usually no need for planning permits.  The other two styles, however, involve creating more space and offer a better choice of windows. You can get more daylight and a possibility of installing shutters and other window treatments greater energy-efficiency.

Electricity/Plumbing/HVAC :

Hire a licensed electrician to establish whether your current system can handle the increase in the electrical load required for the new room. Let them do the wiring. Look for the main stack and plan your bathroom in that area. A professional plumber should have no trouble setting it up. Finally, the last contractor you will need for this type of project is an HVAC specialist. They will tell you if the current system can support another room and set it up.

Insulation :

Insulation is another essential part of the conversion. Perhaps even the most important one. Without it, the room would be impossible to live in due to extreme temperatures. It protects a room from the weather elements and increasing energy efficiency. Hang drywall once you are done insulating.

Flooring :

The floor insulation is not so much for the sake of warmth, but for the sake of noise. Installing floorboards requires an excellent subfloor to reduce the squeakiness. Also, a carpet may be a good choice as it absorbs a lot of noise. While you are at it, carpet tiles are excellent for a playroom. They are not slippery, they absorb sound and they are easily removed and replaced.

The room now fulfills all standards to be lived in. All you are now left with are the finishing touches. You need to select the colors, the furniture, and decor.  Do so according to the purpose of the room and your taste.

Bio: David Koller is a freelance blogger passionately interested in minor house fixes and home décor.

Read More :

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Maintain Garden

4 Essential Tools Needed to Maintain Your Garden in the Winter

You may not expect that it is necessary to do yard work in the winter, but it is more important than you think. Properly preparing your lawn in the beginning months of cold weather and even though snowy conditions will ensure you have the best-looking lawn come springtime. These four tools are essential in maintaining a healthy yard during the winter. 4 Essential Tools For Maintaining Your Winter Garden When you love to spend your leisure time in front of your lawn. The maintains of your garden is quite an important task to preserve the beauty of your favorite garden. Every time seeking professional help is costly so better look at how you can maintain a garden in winter using some simple tools. However, you need to understand that maintaining your garden during winter can be a tough affair. Not only will freezing temperatures deter you from engaging in outdoor work, but the tools and machines can become non-operational. This is why a good idea would be to engage an expert to do the needful. Tree Service Round Rock can maintain your garden during the winters and ensure that you stay safely and cozily within the warm confines of your home. Here are the names of four tools to maintain a garden in the winter season. 1. Aerator: Cool-season grass, which is the most common type, should be aerated in the early spring and late fall. For those of you that may not be familiar with this machine, it digs small plug-like holes out of the ground. This helps the grassroots have access to more water, nutrients, and air. The point of this is to make the roots deeper and healthier so the grass has a stronger foundation to grow. Use this equipment on a day that the ground is slightly moist, maybe the day after rain, for the best results. It will relieve the soil from compaction that causes the roots to be starved and suffocated. Making sure your grass gets all the nutrients it needs before it is covered in snow will help it grow back better when the weather warms up. 2. Chainsaw: Pruning your trees and bushes during the wintertime is an essential part of a healthy yard. Plants will waste too much energy trying to send nourishment to dead limbs which affect the living ones. Investing in a chainsaw would be beneficial so that you can cut down the dead branches. If you are a seasoned expert, you will know to not only trim dead branches but also cut any that are rubbing together. Damage to the tree from the rubbing can create an entry for bugs to get inside. When it comes to finding a good quality chainsaw, get this it works! The better the quality of equipment, the less risk when it comes to the safety and wellbeing of your yard. 3. Drop Spreader: Fertilizer is the basis for giving your lawn what it needs to look its best for next year. There are winterizing products that slowly release nitrogen during the offseason. Using a spreader makes this task time-efficient and well done. It allows you to evenly distribute the fertilizer throughout the lawn, maximizing the benefits of this product. Putting grass seed down at the beginning of the winter can help maintain your yard as well. You will use the same drop spreader to put this down, but you’ll want to make sure you set the amount it is releasing slightly less than recommended. In doing this, you can overlap your passes, so nothing is missed, and you still have enough to do the whole yard. As a pro tip, it is encouraged to spread a thin layer of compost before laying the seed. Combining the seed and the compost keeps your grass moist and germinated during dry and cold weather. 4. Rake: Before a snowfall, it is crucial to clear your yard of any leaves, branches, or debris. When this waste sits on your grass all winter it will cause these patches to brown or die. Simply raking every once in a while will prevent dead spots and inconsistency in height and color. Raking will also help mix in any seed or fertilizer you have laid down in the soil previously. Something to keep in mind is to make sure you are not raking when the ground is frozen. The protective layer in the frozen blades of grass gets destroyed from the pressure of footsteps. While this will not kill the grass, it may cause it to be brown when it grows back in. Get a leg up on those who do not know to still maintain during the winter months. Investing in these tools will ensure you have the lushest green grass on the block come spring and summertime. Wrapping It Up: Maintain Garden is simple when you are already having the essential tools to do the job. But the professional touch every time required. When you already have these tools your hard work related to garden maintains in the winter is becoming a much easier process. So what is your opinion? Are you going to maintain your garden on your own? Or do you seek professional help? Do not forget to share your opinion with us. Read Also: 5 Summer Garden Maintenance Tips And Tactics You Have To Know 5 Essential Tips To Designing A Beautiful Front Yard Garden

READ MOREDetails
yard signs

Weed or Flower – Political yard signs

In just a few short months most of America will be back into campaign season. We will be electing not only local representatives but also people to send to Washington DC for House and Senate races. Even the President is up for reelection. This means that a special type of flower that blooms in suburbia every few years is set to make another appearance, the campaign yard sign. These signs show up for a few months in just about everyone’s yard signs, declaring their allegiance to the specific candidates, parties, and causes of the resident’s choice before retreating back into the ground for a few more years. Where can you get your Political Yard Sign? Where do these signs come from, you might wonder. After all, they all seem to pop up at exactly the same time. In fact, all of these yard signs tend to come from the same places, and that is from custom printers. Campaigns can get in contact with these businesses, usually, through the internet, design their signs in a few shorts hours and then have boxes of them delivered in a couple of days. They can then take these boxes of signs and distribute them to their supporters to show how strong their campaign is in that particular town. Be Safe, Protected and Happy with Custom Yard Signs Yard sign printing offers not just political campaigns the ability to get their message out there. Businesses have been known to use this service as well. Remember the last time you drove through a fancy neighborhood? Chances are there were a few houses with a “Protected by such and such” sign in the front yard, signifying that they used some home protection system from one of the major companies. This is, of course, an advertising usage for the company, but the homeowner wants any potential thieves to know that they will have a more difficult time breaking in at his house than they would anywhere else. Other companies that provide temporary services tend to do this as well. Plumbers, electricians, and contractors like to bring their own yard signs that they can plop down in the front yard to let the neighbors know what is happening. Just imagine the lady next door talking to her husband, “Mrs. Smith got new cabinets, we should do the same!” How to order your Own Custom Signage? It is relatively easy to order your own custom yard signs for whatever purpose you deem necessary. Simply go online and find the business that seems best to you and designs your signs through their portal. Oftentimes, you will be able to upload whatever graphics you like and position them on the sign in the way you deem best. Sometimes you will be able to make a design right on the sign in a digital interface. After this, you can submit your order, telling the company the size and number of signs that you want. They will then send it on to be manufactured to your specifications and size request. After this, they will ship it out to you and a box of however many of the signs you ordered will show up at your home or residence in a few days. What are you waiting for? Campaign season is upon us! Read Also: How To Use Chromecast From Firefox How much does a yard of topsoil weigh? Where Do Healthcare Companies Buy TVs In Bulk?

READ MOREDetails
wineracknew

What Species of Wood is Right for Your Wine Cellar Furniture?

Most of the vintage wines which you now have in your cellar are a lot more than just proper storage and preservation. Wine cellars are often called the entertainment center of an abode and today you can find all kinds of custom-built wine cellar furniture. These furnitures run the whole gamut right from customized chairs and tables to lighting to tableware and other artistic works. You can equip your cellar with just about any type of wooden wine furniture that will enhance the aesthetic appeal of your home and provide cozy culinary service. If you really prefer timber for your wine cellar furniture, make sure you pick a durable one that will not decay or be affected with mildew in the humid environment of your cellar. Or else what you can do is create a separate room next to your wine cellar for entertaining your guests in order to get rid of the humid environment. Now that you have the option to select from a wide variety of wood types from top providers, picking your wood species to meet your personal preference is no exception. Undoubtedly, the 4 most popular wood species used these days while building wine cellar furniture are given below: Pine- Pine, the most common and least expensive of all the popular wood types is used for manufacturing wine storage rack. It is best known for its durability and strength. This wood species is available in faded colors that assist in making it blend well with any interior decoration. The major benefit of pine is that has attractive and consistent grain patterns that can be stained to match the aesthetics of the rest parts of the wine cellar. Cedar- A durable and light-weighted type of hardwood, slightly pinkish-gold toned cedar is able to resist rotting away of the woodwork. Its grain patterns are more consistent that other wood species and are released easily by sanding the wood. This kind of wood is ideal for giving a simple aesthetic appeal to an abode. Redwood- Best known for its resiliency and sturdiness, redwood is a beautiful reddish wood species that grows in hot and humid places. Hence, redwood is an ideal choice for wine cellar furniture within the cellar since it contains natural wood preservatives within it that aid in resisting the humid conditions. There are 2 types of redwood and they are: Premium Redwood- It is the least expensive and has much more variations and color in the wood than All Heart Redwood. All-Heart Redwood- Its wood is much darker and consistent than Premium Redwood. Mahogany- The most durable and appealing of all the 4 wood species commonly used in wine cellar doors is mahogany, a reddish-brown color redwood. Neither does it swelled up nor twisted out of shape over time. Apart from that, it is resistant to decay, making it perfect for the higher humidity levels usually found in wine cellars with climate-controlled systems. Those people who want that “furniture-grade look”, mahogany is undoubtedly the perfect choice as it is ideal for both lacquer and stain applications. Each of them is unique in its own way. Moreover, to help preserve the quality of wines, it is better to avoid using any other wine rack material types rather than the above mentioned wooden wine racks. Author Bio - Gary Wise, who has decided to go full time to wine writing this year, has recently written a wine article on wine cellar furniture where he shared about how beautifully wine cellar doors displayed his wines in his wine cellar.

READ MOREDetails