What You Need To Do If You Have An Attic Extension
Don’t confuse a loft for an attic, because although both are essentially extensions to your house they have different properties. A loft is pretty much an open area which is accessed by fixed stairs. An attic is also accessed by stairs that are fixed but it’s the hollowed out space in your roof made inhabitable. If you have an attic extension such as a spare room, there are certain things you must do to maintain the strength of your home. You have to understand, that by making the attic into a room you may have weakened the overall structure of the home. Now of course, if this was dangerous there would be no such thing as attic extension so don’t worry. These concerns are small and can be easily dealt with but the bottom line is, you must be conscious of them.
Keeping cool
Hot air throughout the home will be shooting upward and exiting out of the roof. Since you have a room in the attic this makes things tricky. The hot air may rise but it gets trapped in the carpet, flooring, bed and other things like clothes. This can cause damp to develop and from the bacteria that is allowed to form, health concerns may rise also. So proper ventilation is required for the attic room. Having roof windows is therefore pretty much essential. With the windows, the air can escape and a free flow of fresh cool air can suck away the moisture in the room. It’s also good to have an extraction fan built into the roof so even on cold days when you don’t want the windows open, you don’t have a build up of muggy condensed and humid air.
Strength over time
By far the most concerning part of any attic extension is the strength of the roof and how well it will stand up over time. That’s why you should really be doing yearly roof inspections to see if the structure is still sound despite some of the support beams being removed that were originally fixed when the home was first being constructed. The fact that you also have roof windows also puts a test on the rigidity of the roof itself. When there are powerful winds and very strong downpours, the roof will be bearing the brunt of mother nature’s wrath. So it’s good to just do a checkup every year until you feel that the roof is as strong as it can be.
A bend or a groan
And of course, since you’re in the attic, check to see how the flooring is holding up. We must not forget that the first floor ceiling over every home was never designed the same way and the ceiling of the ground floor. It’s not as strong and yet with an attic extension the ceiling or floor must carry the weight of a bed, wardrobe and a person.
When you first declare the attic extension a success everything is great. However you should do yearly checks of the roof, make sure you have full ventilation of rising warm air and that the floor is not bending or groaning under the weight.
