Finishing an attic

[jkjsooner]

Anyone know anything about finishing an attic? I'm buying a house that is about 2300 ft^2. Is will have an unfinished attic but will have walk up stairs to it.

If at some point in the future I want to finish it how much work is that? (I would not try to do it myself.) Here's the kicker, the builder can finish this model but not in the place where we're building it due to restrictions placed on the builders by the development. That means they can't do anything that would move us close to finishing it - no electrical, plumbing, heat/air - in fact no windows but they said I could do it as soon as I moved in.

I'm a little worried because I was told we could do it later if we want but the actual builder called it "not finishable" which conflicted with the sales person. When I questioned them on it they told me it just meant no prewiring, etc.

Assuming I got HOA approval, is this a major deal because it is not built ready to be finished? If I didn't need plumbing and was willing to use a secondary heating/air system would that simplify it? Should I just give up on the idea that the attic could be finished and be happy with an awesome easily accessible storage space?

[XingTheRubicon]

Electrical would be easy to wire thru the attic. I would check exactly what is required for it to meet code in your city. I know Edmond is a ****ing nightmare for these type of renovations. Good luck.

[Romulus]

Ive looked into this same thing. You'll have to get permits and expect a higher tax on your house.

[StoopTroup]

Load bearing Walls.......think load bearing walls....

[Turd_Ferguson]

Load bearing Walls.......think load bearing walls....I hate to assume, but I assume if a set of stairs has been built leading to this bonus room, then 1st floor walls and beams should be in place to allow it.

[SoonerNate]

Not sure why but in Edmond the homes have enormous sized attics.

[Turd_Ferguson]

Not sure why but in Edmond the homes have enormous sized attics.High pitched roofs.

[SoonerNate]

High pitched roofs.

Is that just to try and make the homes look larger? It seems like a waste if so much space gets wasted as attic.

[OU_Sooners75]

Is that just to try and make the homes look larger? It seems like a waste if so much space gets wasted as attic.


:texan:
Has more purpose than that too.

Think more energy efficient too, as in more air as insulator in the attic.

[KuppiKunta]

Make sure the ceiling joists (which will be the floor joists) will support the bonus room. You say it can't be plumbed or wired, but see if they can stub off plumbing for you that can be easily tied into once the project is started.

I went thru a similar built out on a previous home I owned. Builder wanted something like $30k to finish, I did it for under $12k. The only thing I hired out was the heating/air and sheet rock.

[jkjsooner]

High pitched roofs.

That seems to be an Oklahoma/Texas thing. You definitely don't see that out here.

One thing I didn't mention is that there's a trade-off with having the stairs to the attic. It costs a little more and we lose some master bedroom closet space. We'll go from having very nice walk in closet to a much smaller walk in closet. If I decide that we can't or won't finish the attic I might consider chaning that although having easy access to storage will be nice.

Anyway, thanks for the input.