Home & Garden Columns

I recently visited Tokyo. What a wonderful experience in so many ways. Too many to touch on in a single article, but one thing that did strike me again and again was the use of and respect for space. Japanese people tend to live in much smaller spaces than we take for granted and they endeavor to use each space as efficiently and richly as possible. It alters the aesthetic. Also, there’s no shame in packing things in to these tight spaces. On the contrary, I think that the Japanese view a waste of space or living in unnecessarily large quarters as egregious misconduct. 

Given the cost of homes today, this sensibility regarding space seems to be growing among us as well. Perhaps we’re all turning Japanese in a small way and I think it’s a good thing. There are few things that bother me more than seeing a family of two living in a 4,000-square-foot house. Waste is unattractive and small is nice, smart and respectful. I also see more and more people taking an interest in developing their attics, as an alternative to either moving or building on. While sensible, in the use of space, attics do pose some issues which must be considered prior to a serious emotional or physical commitment (this sounds like a column for the lovelorn). 

Attics are not generally built for living. They are lacking in features that modern building concepts demand for living space but these need not always be major impediments. Nonetheless, they should be given due consideration. 

Let’s start with ingress and egress, the construction words for stairways and other means of escape. Stairs are really, really, important. They provide safe travel between levels and should accommodate physical disability and instability. When looking at stairs and railings I like to imagine a drunken woman in heels (or a drunken man in heels if you prefer). Stairs are treacherous, as any ER doctor can tell you, and we should do all we can to control their perils. 

Developed attics often rely on ladders of various kinds and these almost never meet modern building standards and are genuinely dangerous. Some attic development projects become prohibitively complex or expensive when stairs are taken into the equation, but from my own experience I’d say that safe stairways are the baseline criterion for attic habitability. Stairs take up quite a bit of space and require roughly 9-10-inch treads and no more than about 8 inches on risers (codes vary but his is a good rough picture). Stairs also need to be 3 feet wide, although my own perspective is that this is a bit stringent and I’d like to see the codes loosen up to allow some stairways to be narrower than this. 

Here come more difficulties. If an attic is to function as a living space, the floors need to meet some minimum “live load” requirements and many do not. Most attics are framed to support the weight of the ceiling below and end up far too slender to adequately support active bodies and furnishings. Of course, this is based on our western concept of inflexible floors and not on the ability of the floor to bear weight. A floor of 2x4s can generally bear the weight of a small office and a couple of occupants but modern codes demand much greater rigidity that generally demand the use of 2x8s or 2x10s for floor joisting. A 2x4 floor can be augmented in strength but this will usually require removal of everything above it and sometimes the ceiling below. This also bites into the total remaining ceiling height, which can be a serious matter when we’re wrestling for inches. 

If the ceiling can be made sufficiently rigid and a stairway and landing can be installed to meet modern standards, you’re well on your way. I do see a few old houses that already look like this and if you’re lucky, your attic may be ready for you and the baby grand. 

Next is the issue of ceiling height. To take my tiny pulpit for just a minute, I want to say that the presence of rules regarding ceiling heights in the code is just plain silly and a needless waste of governance and money. If I want to build a house with 5-foot ceilings and live in it, it ain’t nobody’s business but mine. If I want to build a house for a couple who are both under 5 feet in height, there is no reason to build it to suit people who are 6-foot-4. If you go shopping for houses and see one that’s too short inside, you won’t buy it, right?  

There is one exception that I agree with and that is doorways and stairways where people tend to get smacked. Setting some minimum heights is not a bad idea to prevent harm but I still think that there are many items far more critical and deserving of code enforcement that ceiling heights. That said, your city official will want you to have a ceiling that is substantially 7-foot-6. There are exceptions that allow for sloped or beamed ceiling and one can get away with 7-foot ceilings for at least a part of most attics. The formulas are too complex to present here and codes and local enforcement varies quite a bit so let’s leave it a little vague. If you’re trying to tackle this issue, take a sketch to your local building department and talk it over with them. If you’re afraid of getting caught, talk to an architect. 

Although attics often have wonderful and useable wedges of space right down to the eaves, they don’t count as living space when calculating minimum room dimensions. A room, if it is to function as a bedroom, has to be at least 70 square feet with neither dimension less than 7 feet. Now remember that this is allowing for at least 7 feet on a sloping ceiling. Now balance this cup on your nose and grab these pliers with your teeth and stand on this ball. Tough, eh? Yes, this is not simple but to meet code requirements you’ll have to somehow figure this stuff out. But wait, we’re not done. There’s plenty more. 

Backing up to structural issues for a moment, I’ll throw you a real doozy. It’s the foundation. Many building departments consider the legal development of the attic as the addition of another floor (at least partially so). This can mean, if they choose to enforce it, that your foundation now needs to meet a higher standard and may need to be either replaced or at least modified to carry the extra weight of people and furnishings on this newly anointed level. While this may be a relatively minor issue for a small room, it’s definitely a serious issue for large attic conversions that add a suit of rooms. 

So now we’ve hit stairways, floor strength, ceiling height and possible foundation issues. These are the big and complex ones that end up nixing so many remodeling jobs and if you’ve tackled these you’re basically there. There are, however, some niggling issues that are worth a mention. Having a second means of escape is required in most cities but a window can usually suffice. This means that at least one window has to open to some minimum size. Usually 20 inches wide and 24 inches tall, but, again, check with your local official. This window can also provide required ventilation and light for the space (both are code requirement and both make sense, although a skylight can substitute for these.  

Heat is also required for all living spaces and while this does make sense, I would lobby for attic living spaces to be exempt on the basis of physics. Since heat rises, attic rooms are rarely the coldest and often the warmest. This means that it makes a lot of sense to insulate as much of the attic ceiling as possible. Attic floors are often insulated in undeveloped spaces and, while that’s still fine for your developed attic, the ceiling of the attic should be insulated if you’ve made this into a practical living space. 

There’s a lot more to say about attic conversion as well as the removal of ceiling and inclusion of the attic space in the volume of living space below, so watch this spot. I’ll devote another column to this soon. 

Attic conversions are complex and anticipating all the issues that can arise in this sort of project is trying. If you venture this way, get good advice from contractors and architects before you invest money in actual remodeling and expect people to be wrong and to make mistakes. The Japanese would say: Saru mo ki kara ochiru—even monkeys can fall from trees. I think they mean “fall from attics,” but hey, I don’t speak Japanese.