RootsRain

I know, I know, this is turning into the Attic-O-Matic Blog, and for that I apologize. I’ll try to post something terribly interesting in the coming days, but for now all my news centers on how an attic may go a’progress through the guts of a house.

I’ve managed to get pretty much all the framing done (just need to finish a few things which aren’t needed for the rough framing inspection). I’ve also gotten in all the electrical, from the breaker all the way over to the various outlets, lights, and switches. I’ll be calling the electrical inspection on Monday. You can see the Romex cable (the yellow wire thingies) strung around the room in the picture to your left. You can also see the outlet boxes and the recessed lights wired in. Also note the 2×4s I put on the ceiling rafters. I had to increase the space between the roof OSB and the (eventual) sheetrock because I’ll need to put in extra thick insulation (plus the air channel spacer) in the ceiling. So I had to nail on 2×4s down the length of each rafter to give the necessary depth.

And since I’m always posting pictures of rows of boards and piles of tools or insulation, I thought I’d add some human interest to one of this week’s pictures. Voila. Human interest.

I went home a bit early this afternoon to try to get the attic stairs “finished” before the weekend. Yes, I know I have several days until the weekend, but my evenings will be filled with freelance, so it was today or nothing.

I routered down the edges on some 2×10s and cut them down to length for use as steps. Then I took the stringers, squirted glue into the dado grooves I’d made, then just started sandwiching the whole schlamiel together, screwing in the steps as I went.

I still have to put on railings, paint the stringers (to match the room), and put matching carpet on the actual steps (to provide a code-worthy non-slip surface and to keep the noise down), but those projects will come much later. Right now, I’m just glad to have an alternate entry into the attic so that I can finish framing in the room (since I couldn’t frame in the final wall because it would have blocked my entry and exit into the attic from the pull-down attic stairs).

And here’s a fun picture of what it’s like to walk down these funky steps. If you’re afraid of heights, you might not feel very secure (especially since there aren’t any handrails yet!). It’s really not that bad. It only took me a couple walks up and down before I felt comfortable with it. It’s probably not the best thing for small children, but…

See the other posts in this series for more information on alternating tread stairs. You can also visit daveosborne.com, which is how I got some of my ideas and information about alternating tread stairs.

Well, I spent a few meagre evening hours this week on the attic project. I didn’t get to work much today due to taking my final exam in Macroeconomics and also making up some hours at work. But I managed to get the stair stringers cut and notched for the individual steps using a handy dandy router that Chris loaned me. You can see the alternating notches in the picture. The picture with the step is just for show. I put in a scrap piece of wood to show how the step fits into the notch.

I also ran some electrical this week. I dropped two Romex 12/2 cables into the breaker box and ran them across the house to the new attic room. I threaded about half the Romex into outlet and switch boxes, but the rest will have to wait for a little more framing work to be finished.

I connected the HVAC line at the main duct in the crawlspace and ran the flex tube up through the floor and into the HVAC wall I built in the study closet. Like the electrical wire, I’ll need to wait until the framing is complete before I run it the rest of the way. But I need to get the stairs finished before I can finish the framing. So… it’s like… the circle of life, dude…

Here are some additional clarifying pictures:

Earlier in the week, I worked on putting bracing across the north side of the area where I would be cutting the hole in the ceiling. I basically just laid a 2×10 across the back side of the studs and nailed the studs and the 2×10 together and nailed the 2×10 to the floor on the east side and to a support stud on the west side. Then I spent most of the day on Saturday ripping a massive hole in the ceiling with the help of Will. Once we cut the hole in the ceiling and nailed the header into place (on the south side of the hole… so the stair stringers would have something solid to nail to), Will helped me figure out the geometry of the stairs (107.5″ / sin 70 and all that). It’s nice to have smart friends.

Now I’m sitting down trying to make sure I’ve got the correct riser height and everything before I start cutting stringers. Fortunately, since I’m putting in an alternating tread stair, the stringers aren’t quite as much of a one-screw-up-and-you’re-dead situation. But it’s still pretty confusing.

View the previous installments.

I worked last weekend on the attic but I just never took pictures of it until now. I managed to get all the OSB (plywood) down and the beginnings of the north wall. You can see (in the picture) the area where I’ve swept away most of the cellulose insulation and where there’s no OSB. That’s where the alternating tread stair will be going. That’s going to be a fairly large and tricky project, so I’m trying to get every last thing done around it before I actually take the plunge and cut out the rafters in the study below… (scary music)

View the previous installments of this saga here, here, here, and here.

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

I worked this evening on beginning the HVAC wall in the study closet. The idea is to build a second wall in there so I can run an HVAC pipe up into the attic (since all HVAC stuff is currently in the crawlspace under the house). I cut the hole in the ceiling and cut out the carpet and molding below. Then I put in the top and bottom plates and studs. Now all I need to do is get some 8″ HVAC tubing and hook it up under the house, cut a hole in the floor, run the tubing into the attic, and viola! I’ll have HVAC up there! Of course, there’s currently no vent to hook it up to, but that’s beside the point. At least I will have done a “dry run” of cutting through the ceiling… which hopefully will prepare me for cutting into the ceiling for the staircase project…

I’ve been working on the attic in the evenings this week since I’ll be in Atlanta on the weekend (and since I need to have my uncle Mike’s air compressor back to him by Friday afternoon). You’ll have to pardon the hastily cobbled-together “wide angle lens” picture. I just did a quick Photomerge in Photoshop without color correction or anything. The area where I’ve actually made noticeable progress is getting too large for my little digital camera’s lens.

I basically reinforced the center section of the attic floor, which turned out to be the most difficult due to the pipes and electrical work coming out of the bathroom below. But that section should be the last of the floor reinforcing that I need to do. I ran the third (and final) course of OSB down the length of the room and cut around the attic stair hole. Now I need to start working on a serious plan for getting the permanent stairs in place… that’s going to be a very sensitive project. I’ll need to brace the rafters so that when I create the hole (by cutting them in half) I won’t have part of the room below cave in.

I’m having a blast.

Well, I spent another long Saturday working on the attic. I started out the day by nailing down a sheet of OSB and then realized I hadn’t put any Liquid Nails underneath. Nuts. So I ran to Lowes, bought the Liquid Nails along with a nice DeWalt reciprocating saw (which came in very handy).

So once I had the OSB in, I roughed-in the south wall (leaving a hole for the door access into the storage area) and removed the roof braces that had been splitting up the space. From my estimates, the room will be about 130 square feet (which will add about 110 square feet to our house total because 20 sq. ft. of the room is under 5 feet high, so it doesn’t count towards house square footage).

I’ll be visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Atlanta next weekend so I’ll have to be done work on the attic for a few weeks.

Almost as soon as my wife and I moved into our (brand new) house, we started talking about finishing out the attic, which had a lot of headroom. A couple weeks ago I took the plunge and bought a nice, expensive Pella window to make certain I would feel obligated to work on the attic. It’s proved to be a wonderful tactic.

Day One

The first thing I went to work doing was removing some of the studs that were in the way of the window. Then I measured and drew some lines for where the opening should go and cut through the side of the house (through the OSB and the siding). I put in the side studs and cripples and made the header for above the window. Then I removed the center, load bearing stud and put the header in. Then I just finished out the cripples above and below the window and put in the sill. All in a day’s work.

Day Two

I came back a week later and, because it was threatening rain for the whole next day (Saturday), Emily and I put the window in on Friday night. I was very cold and I couldn’t get the ladder up high enough to get good leverage on the window. But with a lot of thinking and a whole lot of my hands getting trapped between the siding and the window, we got it roughed in.

Day Three

About a week later, we were going to have company over and, strangely enough, we needed a place for them to sleep. (We’d taken all the junk out of the attic and stored it in the guest bedroom.) But I figured: “Hey! Another chance for forcing myself to be motivated!” So I borrowed my friend TJ’s truck, bought a bunch of wood, and began working on reinforcing the floor. I had to get it done before the rain came on the weekend (yellow pine tends to do the twist if you leave it in the elements) and before Emily’s family came as well. I had to put 2×10s next to the 2×6s to act as sister-joists to reinforce the floor. Code only specifies an additional 2×6 as a sister joist but I needed to also raise the floor above a bunch of plumbing that was protruding out of the bathroom below. But it worked with very few problems and we laid the OSB sheets down temporarily so we could move the junk back into the attic.

I’m itching to get back in there and put the OSB down in a more permanent fashion… next weekend, I guess. Right now I have to go to work and this evening I need to study for my Macroeconomics test.

See the other posts about this attic remodel.