raise attic roof

[shanebran]

We currently have two bedrooms on our second floor and the attic. The attic ceilieng is not as tall as the other rooms. We want to raise the attic ceiling and make it into another bedroom. Is this a possiblity? We had a friend tell us it is generally cheaper to move than to renovate. We need more space, but love where we live. Help! :?

[giddonah]

I take it you're raising the attic *floor* to increase the headroom in the room below? You're looking at a pretty tricky project. It's possible, but without more facts nothing much can be said about it. What are all the dimensions? How old is the house? Is the roof stick framed or is it trusses?

[grumpydasmurf]

It's not tricky. Simple answer: Hire a professional carpenter and a professional roofer to work in conjunction with one another.

[Cole]

I agree.

[montytx]

Ill give you an example of how not to do this. THere is an old house for sale in my area for 400K. Someone, at some time, decided to convert the attic on the 3rd floor. Well 20-30 years later all that extra weight has had serious problems. All the floors are bowed up in the middle on the second floor. THe extra weight has pushed the walls out of wack and basically the house is trash without 100K worth of repairs. It will likely go into foreclosure B4 someone will take it and fix it properly. So I would get an engineer to tell you how to properly shore up the load and then get a GC to do it.