How To Turn Attic Into Conditioned Space

Not addressed can lead to several problems.

How to turn attic into conditioned space.

Pull down stairs won t work for an attic room so you must add a permanent staircase. Fortunately this is a fairly easy fix. The missing piece of information is those miserable little beasts called the building and energy codes. The attic space becomes indirectly conditioned as a result of the air leakage heat transfer and vapor diffusion through the ceiling.

Humid indoor air that escapes into the attic can condense on cold roof sheathing resulting in potential moisture problems. The loss of conditioned air increases heating and cooling demand. Warm air that escapes into the attic in winter can warm the roof deck and increase the risk of ice dams. Any water that leaks through the roof will pool on top of the vapor barrier and possibly next to the sheets of decking on the roof.

I m unsure of what to do and i m unsure of the most economical way to do it. A fundamental requirement of an unvented attic assembly is the use of air impermeable insulation on the underside of the unvented roof to prevent air infiltration and exclude airborne moisture from the attic. Use closed cell foam insulation. Fine homebuilding more musings of an energy nerd ventilation requirements in the covid era.

Open cell foam when properly installed with a vapor barrier should operate very similarly to closed cell foam. Currently the attic is vented and has zero insulation anywhere. The attic is fairly small at about 1 000 sqf total. You might open up your attic and find bare joists with fiberglass or cellulose insulation between the joists.

However when open cell foam is installed without a vapor barrier which appears to occur often in real world applications the foam will absorb the water. That means you ll need 2x10 floor joists or maybe 2x8 in rare circumstances and at least 2x12 roof rafters. From my research it looks like the best option is to make the attic a conditioned nonvented space. That is it too will prevent moisture from penetrating into the attic area.

Codes vary from place to place but the rule of 7 for using an attic as an actual room typically applies. Once you convert attic space into living space you need to bring it up to the standards of modern building codes.