It’s not usable space with a truss build. It’s one of the big drawbacks to trusses. They only bear very light loads for minimal storage. No live loads. No human occupancy. No walking around up there. You would have to completely change how the home is framed, to a stick build.

No kids up there, and how many of them do you plan to use a 22 foot bedroom??? You have no dedicated guest room via a jack and jill .......and a hall bath.

Spend the money somewhere else. Where's the first floor?

If you want to use the attic as a playroom, you need a real stairway, in place of the bedroom 3 closet and linen closet. But your architect and builder have already told you it's cost prohibitive, so I'm not sure why you're second guessing it. Be happy with the extra storage space and find other places for the kids to play.

Jan Moyer, the first floor has a guest room. We plan to have 2-3 boys in that 22' bedroom. I didn't include the first floor in this post as it is not relevant to my attic question.

Too late to do that now. The home would have had to be designed for it from the beginning. Before one thing was ordered or built. Even if it were framed for use, you could not access it through any but conventional means of a code compliant stair. You’re really talking about a death trap in case of fire here.

Is there headroom to continue the currently designed stair up to the attic with a landing? What is second floor ceiling height? I'm assuming it's not truss construction but are ceiling joists designed for 30 psf?

If the construction is not trusses....can you sacrifice your linen closet for a stairs?

Extend the existing stairs from the second floor to the attic. That will give you the most flexibility, best property value, and be the least short sighted. If the attic space is turning out to be enormous, I assume there are no trusses.

I toured a Sarah Susanka house that had a stair similar to your first picture. Regular stairs to the 2nd floor, then those ship’s stairs to a loft. But, it was just a small loft, open on one side, and only about 7 feet above the floor. It was open. Coming down those stairs from the loft was incredibly difficult: you can’t come down facing forwards, you have to turn around and back down. It’s getting down the first few steps that’s hardest!

I suppose you could put in a spiral stair, but they take a lot of room. A friend of my son, they had a spiral stair with a fire pole in the middle! The kids loved it. But it wasn’t the only access to the second floor.

If you are going to do something off-code, do a climbing rope and a fire pole! Fun!

Maybe a ladder in the linen closet. Or a spiral in the big bedroom. But why not just use the existing stairwell?

IMO no 3 kids as they age will want to share a room they all want privacy and alone time sometimes. They also do homework there and listen to music. I think working on the floor plan would be a better use of your money and also why did you design a house with this huge space and no thought to how to use it until now. BTW the main floor has a lot to do with permanent access to the attic and if you truly think kids are all going to be using the space for next 15 years think again. You are not sharing the actual construction but if trusses this is really not workable . This is not a question for us to answer you need to decide if what you want is now worth the money if it is doable at all.

Thanks for all your comments so far. My husband and I specifically said in the planning stage that we wanted the 3rd floor to be a bonus room, but our architect and builder talked us out of it due to the expense of typical attic trusses vs. a livable attic/3rd floor.

Now the attic is turning out to be bigger than anyone expected. Even the builder is surprised by the head height and space. Putting traditional stairs in the current stairwell is not an option, both due to a picture window’s location and the location of trusses where the stairs would come out.

We’re just trying to make what we have a fun bonus room for the kids, never for anyone to sleep, and never for any adults to visit except to move totes in and out for storage.

However, the comments about load bearing and the true meaning of attic trusses is concerning to me, and it all sounds very expensive.

"Now the attic is turning out to be bigger than anyone expected. Even the builder is surprised by the head height and space"

........................................ THAT would rather scare me, truth be told.

There are really not huge surprises in construction documents.

If your home is framed with roof trusses and you have storage area in the attic, I'd conclude that at least a portion of the roof is framed with "attic" or "storage" trusses. The trusses may only be designed for light duty storage (20 psf.) If so, they would need to be redesigned to qualify the space as "habitable" attic space. It's best to check with your architect about the specifics of the design and your builder about the specifics of cost.

If "the builder is surprised by the head height and space" he must not have a full understood the construction documents, which I find very scary.

I doubt you'd have enough clearance to continue the stairs with another half-landing to access the attic - and honestly it would most likely be seasonal and long-term storage where I wouldn't personally justify the cost of said stairs (or trade-off of light/looks) for the access

I think you're best off with an oversized pull-down folding ladder in the hall. Could always get creative in hiding it, that's a different story

Depending on the truss spacing, I've seen some pretty sweet (but residential code gray-area) platform lifts powered by electric hoists. Assumption is you'd have the pull-down ladder for you, then you'd set totes/boxes on the hoist platform. Platform is floating on cables, hoist/pulley system braces among multiple trusses. This isn't something someone licensed would design for you, it's more for someone that "knows enough" to be able to over engineer it. But again it gets back to how much you'd really use the storage space if it's worth it...

IMO true attic storage space sucks to use, the temperature are hard on what you store up there, and these days it only makes sense if you could sneak the ladder into the garage or a closet. So I'd stick to decluttering, using basement, or garage rafter/attic for this kind of storage

@Mark Bischak, While I would infer from the simple geometry of the 1st floor plan that the roof trusses for this home probably aren't all that complicated, if you've ever seen a set of shop drawings and calculations for roof trusses you might be more empathetic. Just thinking about one makes me want to take a nap.

Thanks, Charles. Yes, our builder is excellent, and this is a very beautiful custom home. I only meant to imply that walking around in something in person is different than on paper, and so we are all pleased with the amount of space up there. No hunching over in a tiny attic here!

Becca..my dd is building soon and is putting a boys bedroom, bath, and rec room on the third floor. She has a switchback stairway going up to the third floor from the second floor. Is there any way your stairs could be re-drawn or another added anywhere to access the third floor? Hate to see that space go to waste. I don’t remember what the knee walls were but the roof line was adjusted to take advantage of the space and still not be too high for city height restrictions. It’s a shame your architect didn’t see this space before.....

if you have thick skin would love to see your plans.

Not that you asked, but of course I can't help thinking...

Your bedroom door opens right at the top of the stairs, no sense of arrival. What if... You moved the closet door down a bit, and recessed the bedroom door a bit? If you add a third floor stair, you'll be less bothered by kids stomping past your door. And it will just look nice.

How will the space be insulated and have HVAC? But the point is moot if built with storage trusses. That’s a couple of boxes of Christmas decorations. Not an area for kids roughhousing.

I’m having trouble picturing what you’re talking about. To me, trusses look like this so there wouldn’t be much open space. You also mentions few locations where the stairs go because of the building structure. More information (drawing, pictures) would be helpful

Attic truss. Not built for human habitation. storage boxes only.

Attic trusses can be designed for living space floor loads.

I review truss shop drawings on most projects I specify trusses on. This is page 50 of some truss shop drawings I reviewed a few years ago, and I managed to stay awake during the review, which is a greater feat than the actual review.

Several years ago I asked an engineer from a local truss company for some rules of thumb in designing attic trusses for a living space; he basically told me, "you design the space the way you want it, and we will make it work." They do good work.