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Remodeling Woodworking

Framing Ceiling

last month

I plan to finish the space above my garage. Its all framed and will add another 1000 square feet to my home. I have had a couple contractors out but they both have said that it really just needs insulation, drywall and flooring so I can really hire those trades out myself. I am looking at it now and cant wrap my head around how they would drywall this portion of the ceiling. The entrance to the attic is off of my sons bedroom and there are four steps leading down. When you open the door you can see the celing rafters in front of you. I have included pictures to show what I mean.

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Comments (2)

PRO
PPF.
last month
It's not clear what you are showing in the pictures, but your questions should be directed to the one doing the work. One reason you pay a contractor is they solve problems like this.

Will all the traffic to this new space go through your sons room? Maybe that needs to be considered too.
3onthetree
last month
If you plan on finishing this mechanical attic space to be a habitable space, then lots of other criteria need to be met. Like windows, a compliant stair, and proper insulation to name a couple. The door shape nor it's location is not optimal for other than HVAC unit access, and the egress path going through a bedroom may not be allowed by your AHJ. Also, adding 1000sf to a house without permitting could be a can of worms in the future.

I think I see mending plates in the first pic and a lack of ridge board/beam in the second, which means you have trusses. From the looks of it probably attic style trusses, which could have been designed to be sufficient structurally for a habitable space, but trusses cannot be altered. So the ceiling at the entry would have to conform, maybe by turning the stair sideways to align within the first rafter bay, but again, the stair would need to be compliant with dimensional criteria.
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Make the ceiling the same distance from the floor at all four corners. Establish this plane with string lines. It your building has top plates on the walls, you could rest the ceiling framing on those, but I suspect you want the ceiling higher than that. Casey
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one more thought--if the concern is that the new supporting beam will sit too low in your remodeled area, you can do a 'hidden' beam. This involves building a temp wall on either side of where the beam will run, and then cutting each of the joists the width of what you are installing. You then push the new beam up into the slot you have created, post the ends, and then reattach each side of the cut joists to the new beam with joist hangers. It is more work, but it reduces (and sometimes eliminates) the drop down of the new beam. We did this last year in a high-end kitchen reno, and as if worked out, the sized beam(lvl) fit completely up into the ceiling plane, the new posts (to ground) disappeared into the dining room wall, and the owners had a fully open kitchen, with nothing to show that a wall was removed when we were done.
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inside the house you see the supply grill or register inside the attic is the supply box the supply grill is attached with screws through the sheetrock & into the supply box.(usually 2 1/2 to 3" screws) the duct attaches to the supply box at attic floor the other end of the duct attaches to supply plenum. and the knee bone is connected to the leg bone and the leg bone is connected to the hip bone... best of luck
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I can't speak from a code perspective, but I don't think it's a terrible idea, unless you would penetrate it at some time in the future if you were drilling up into that area for some reason. One idea I can offer is this: would it be possible to get a length of pvc piping that was somewhat larger than the diameter of your line, but small enough that it was still a fairly flexible size, and get that shoved into place in that space? If you could get a piece in place for most of the run, it would both serve as a physical support for the water line, and provide it some physical protection. If you couldn't get a whole, unbroken length of PVC up there at one time, you could do it with several shorter pieces joined by couplings (gluing sparingly as you go so you don't get any squeeze-out inside the PVC), and then fish the line through it.
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