Attic conversion in WA - anyone here done this?

We are currently building a house and at the roof stage.

Seeing how the roof frame is constructed has made us think that there might be a decent space for an post handover attic conversion in a particular spot in the house.

We have a friend who had done an attic conversion to his current house (cost ard $10K), with insulated sheet walls, flooring and ladder. I've been up in that attic, and while it is a great use of additional space, I can't seem to justify the $10K cost for that conversion?

Is there anyone here that has done an attic conversion for storage purpose that would care to share their experience?

Thank you

There are some attics that are small - 4 sq m then there are those that are a lot bigger. You don't tell us how big your friends is to compare.
There are a few things to consider too especially if it is an existing trussed roof. See here for a few pointers...
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=74787
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=67539

Stewie

Yes about $2k for a ladder and chip board (or down thing like that) put in the garage ceiling as an attic floor. Also installed a whiskey bird to take heat out in summer and it was the best $2k spent. Was a bit less actually but can't recall exact amount. Some Perth based company.

I cant see $10K for a dozen beams and chipboard...DIY
How many m^2?

I did one at my last place
$16 manhole cut in
$100 or so on marine ply
about 5m2 of storage
Jobs done

Wild Turkey ?

If it is a true attic conversion as opposed to just a manhole, ladder and some chipboard thrown down on top of the ceiling rafters then there is a world of difference. We've done a couple in the past roughly 4m x 3m in older traditionally framed houses with a 30 - 35º roof pitch that had upgraded floor joists installed, stud walls built where the roof dropped down to 1m high and the whole thing lined with gyprock, taped joins and painted with a couple of ceiling lights plus a power point and shelving plus a half height door to access the rest of the roof. The clients wanted a sealed room so anything stored up there wouldn't get as dusty as the rest of the ceiling space.
If all you want to do is store your christmas decorations up there with a box of your plastic camping gear then the cheap version of a couple of sheets of pineboard thrown over the existing bottom chord of the trusses and a manhole in the ceiling is fine. Anything more substantial and you'll spend a lot more as per the ones we've done otherwise risking bowed ceilings and worse.

Me too Perth_Euro ???? At least it would make your ceiling space smell nice !

Stewie

+1 to Stewie D.

For a living area as such, there's a lot to be done, as one of the first things to ensure is that ceiling can support all the extra weight that it now needs to support, without causing you all sorts of other issues.

I know my new home won't support much extra weight up in the ceiling, however it will be fine if I spread the load and ensure it isn't heavy stuff.

agreed with the last 2 comments. Spose i should have clarified mine was for "crap" storage and yep it got covered in dust.

I am looking to do the same and am using attix. There is a bit to it actually and the ladders can be as much as 2k.

They have to saw the structafloor into manageable pieces that fit through the ladder hole.

Mate of mine got a 20sq meters dust free conversion for about 10k from memory

A lot of modern homes have trussed roofs. Both the ones we did plus some others for access reasons were in older homes with traditional roofs and ceiling joists resting on internal top plates. It made it very easy to do what we had to do regarding upgrading the ceiling joists in the attic space to be floor joists. You just can't or shouldn't put much load on the bottom chord of a truss as they are designed for just the roof load and ceiling weight plus a bit extra for live loading.
We made life easier for ourselves by erecting a quick stage aluminium scaffold next to the roof then removed roof tiles and sarking between two rafters to pass all the sheets up from the ground then through to the new attic space.We only had to cut pineboard sheets and gyprock to length and saved ourselves a bit of extra work. Then all we had to do after we finished was replace and lap the sarking in that area the re-lay the roof tiles we had removed.

Stewie

Hey guys, thanks for the great information here, I will have to look into those points mentioned, especially how much load the roof can take. However, I don't think I will be putting heavy stuff up there for storage.

Unfortunately I don't know much about the specs about our friend's attic. I saw it at the time when we hadn't even considered building or weren't quite interested in attics yet. Maybe I'll have to pay him a visit again soon lol...

Hi

We have just had a storage attic installed in Caversham. We used andy from A1attics he was very competitive on price and open to my ideas. We also had a whirly bird installed to extract some heat from the roof space works amazingly. Its great to have some space back in our spare room. cheers