Does your home have an attic? If so, you’re one of the lucky ones! The great thing about attics is that they never feature in the room count when people are advertising homes. You might have a house with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen/dining area. But, if there’s an attic, you’ve actually got yourself a bonus room!
It may seem like empty space right now, but you can convert an attic into just about anything you like. Below, you will find some simple steps to help you perform an attic conversion. Please bear in mind, we’re not going to tell you what to convert your attic into! Instead, these steps can be followed to get your attic ready for its conversion.
Step 1: Board up the attic
Some attics are already boarded up, while others aren’t. Basically, this means that you can walk around in your attic. If you just have the rafters in there, you will need to add flooring to it. Well, you board it up, and this makes it ready for you to then add your flooring of choice, depending on what you think will work best in this room. Most of the time, carpet is a brilliant choice, purely for the added insulation – which brings us onto the next step!
Step 2: Insulate your attic
Your attic should already have some insulation in it, but it needs more if you’re actively going to use it, or it’ll just be too cold. Thankfully, you can get blown-in attic insulation that lets you add more insulative properties to your attic space without doing any invasive construction work. This is going to make the attic a lot warmer in the colder months – especially when combined with the fact that people will be in it more often, generating more body heat.
Step 3: Add some light
Ideally, you want to create some spaces for natural light to come through. This might mean you install new windows on your roof – if you don’t already have any. The reason you want natural light is simply so you keep the energy bills down. You can’t really afford to convert your attic into a room, then have the light on inside it all the time.
Step 4: Create a safe passage to the attic
Lastly, you need to think about how people will get in and out of your attic. There should already be an entrance, but you might use a stepladder to get up there. Instead, you ideally want to install some stairs or a more rigid ladder to climb into the attic. There are loads of attic entrance ideas out there to get inspiration from, just ensure they are safe and suit your home. You might need to widen the entrance hole as well, just to make it easier to get into.
Once these four steps have been followed, you will have an empty attic space that’s primed and ready for decorating. Decide what room it will become, buy the furniture, and your conversion will be finished before you know it!
