I am finishing a 3rd floor walk-up attic/room. I installed Durovent between
the rafters for ventilation and then insulated between the rafters. I built
a 3-foot high knee wall that closes off the space under the rafters near the
eaves where the rafters go down to the floor level. That space will be
inaccessible -- not used for storage and with no access door.

The rafters, ceiling, and knee wall will be sheetrocked above and around the
living space. But there will be no sheetrock covering the paper-faced
insulation that is between the rafters behind the knee wall in the to-be
unused space.

My question is, would there be any pros or cons to adding some type of
plastic or Tyvek or whatever over the paper-faced insulation between the
rafters in the unused space behind the knee wall? Maybe it would serve as
an additional vapor barrier? Or, could that cause a problem by having both
the paper facing and the plastic/Tyvek vapor barrier?

"JayTKR" wrote

I am finishing a 3rd floor walk-up attic/room. I installed Durovent
between the rafters for ventilation and then insulated between the rafters.
I built a 3-foot high knee wall that closes off the space under the rafters
near the eaves where the rafters go down to the floor level. That space
will be inaccessible -- not used for storage and with no access door.

To bad. Had an aprtment once were the 3rd bedroom was a 'finished off'
attic. The eaves made great storage. What we did was put up caffee curtin
rods all along it and lots of pretty and simple gingham check. Insulated
but didnt finish back there, yet made great storage.

Looked nicer than it sounds against the solid wood floors. Ceiling was
insulated and drywall between the beams with a little molding to make the
seams look nice, so you had about 1 inch of wood rafter showing.

an additional vapor barrier? Or, could that cause a problem by having
both the paper facing and the plastic/Tyvek vapor barrier?

Ower used cloth tacked up to keep any insulation dust in. More wasnt needed
and might have created a problem.

"JayTKR" wrote

I am finishing a 3rd floor walk-up attic/room. I installed Durovent
between the rafters for ventilation and then insulated between the rafters.
I built a 3-foot high knee wall that closes off the space under the rafters
near the eaves where the rafters go down to the floor level. That space
will be inaccessible -- not used for storage and with no access door.

To bad. Had an aprtment once were the 3rd bedroom was a 'finished off'
attic. The eaves made great storage. What we did was put up caffee curtin
rods all along it and lots of pretty and simple gingham check. Insulated
but didnt finish back there, yet made great storage.

Looked nicer than it sounds against the solid wood floors. Ceiling was
insulated and drywall between the beams with a little molding to make the
seams look nice, so you had about 1 inch of wood rafter showing.

an additional vapor barrier? Or, could that cause a problem by having
both the paper facing and the plastic/Tyvek vapor barrier?

Ower used cloth tacked up to keep any insulation dust in. More wasnt needed
and might have created a problem.

"cshenk" wrote in message
...
"JayTKR" wrote

I am finishing a 3rd floor walk-up attic/room. I installed Durovent
between the rafters for ventilation and then insulated between the
rafters. I built a 3-foot high knee wall that closes off the space under
the rafters near the eaves where the rafters go down to the floor level.
That space will be inaccessible -- not used for storage and with no access
door.

To bad. Had an aprtment once were the 3rd bedroom was a 'finished off'
attic. The eaves made great storage. What we did was put up caffee
curtin rods all along it and lots of pretty and simple gingham check.
Insulated but didnt finish back there, yet made great storage.

Looked nicer than it sounds against the solid wood floors. Ceiling was
insulated and drywall between the beams with a little molding to make the
seams look nice, so you had about 1 inch of wood rafter showing.

an additional vapor barrier? Or, could that cause a problem by having
both the paper facing and the plastic/Tyvek vapor barrier?

Ower used cloth tacked up to keep any insulation dust in. More wasnt
needed and might have created a problem.


That's an interesting idea, and it is something that I may want to think
about for my own house where I am living.

I neglected to mention that the attic that I am finishing now is in a
property that I bought that will be rented out to tenants. Also, when I
bought the property the attic was already "started" by the previous owner.
Basically, the framing was already done, including the knee wall and a large
closet area. Since it will be a rental, I wouldn't want to have any exposed
insulation and I'd rather just close off the potential additional storage
area behind the knee wall.

Jay-T wrote:
"cshenk" wrote in message
...
"JayTKR" wrote

(snip)
I neglected to mention that the attic that I am finishing now is in a
property that I bought that will be rented out to tenants. Also, when I
bought the property the attic was already "started" by the previous
owner. Basically, the framing was already done, including the knee wall
and a large closet area. Since it will be a rental, I wouldn't want to
have any exposed insulation and I'd rather just close off the potential
additional storage area behind the knee wall.

Knee walls, yes. Inaccessible dead space, no. Make a screwed-down access
cover, and make it such an obvious pain to remove that the renter will
never mess with it. Or get inventive, and make an invisible access
panel, with seams hidden in trim, or covered with a shallow 'built in'
bookcase or something. Attic room = playroom in most cases, so toy
shelves would be a big plus to prospective renters.

--
aem sends...

"Jay-T" wrote
"cshenk" wrote

rafters. I built a 3-foot high knee wall that closes off the space under
the rafters near the eaves where the rafters go down to the floor level.

To bad. Had an aprtment once were the 3rd bedroom was a 'finished off'
attic. The eaves made great storage. What we did was put up caffee
curtin rods all along it and lots of pretty and simple gingham check.
Insulated but didnt finish back there, yet made great storage.

That's an interesting idea, and it is something that I may want to think
about for my own house where I am living.

I can go in more detail too if needed. BTW, sorry about the burp. I see
Cox sent the message 4 times.

I neglected to mention that the attic that I am finishing now is in a
property that I bought that will be rented out to tenants. Also, when I
bought the property the attic was already "started" by the previous owner.
Basically, the framing was already done, including the knee wall and a
large closet area. Since it will be a rental, I wouldn't want to have any
exposed insulation and I'd rather just close off the potential additional
storage area behind the knee wall.

Yeah, they might damage things back there.

The apartment attic I used, was a 'diamond in the rough' level. It spanned
1/2 the house so was a HUGE room. Access was from a pull down ladder in the
kitchen. No separate heat but we were looking at adding something. The
pull down was over the oil radiator in the kitchen, so it wasnt totally
intolerable for Clemson SC area. When it got really cold, I slept on a sofa
downstairs but that was only 2-3 weeks or so a year.

There was no 'closet' so with permission, I made one from more of a matching
gingham materal. I used round rods saved from old brooms (grin, they didnt
toss much away so had them stored up there) and the existing wood beams with
spare hardware they had. One side was a suspended rod about 4ft or so long,
and the other was a double tier (about 3ft) so you had 'shirts and jackets
on top' and 'pants or skirts' below. Used a 2x4 with a U shaped 'dip' for
the center of the 4ft bar (mounted on a little wood block about 6"x6" at the
foot). Basically wanted to be sure it didnt stress the rafter hangers over
time for that longer run. The shorter section was nailed to this and
another 2x4 support ran on the outerside up to a abut a rafter with a / cut
to fit. 4th bar across the front gave me a 'door' to close (again, just
material you sewed a pocket to slide through the bar like the rest but even
easier since didnt have to angle the front, only the sides).

To make the side pieces, I had 28 inch wide material in a bolt. I think
that was the size. Not far off if not quite right. I measured the highest
part then cut 4 panels per fit to fit that. Then got up on a chair with a
buddy and just wrapped it over the bars, and safetypinned it so the floor
part was even. Took'em off and used iron on sewing tape for the seams and
trimmed the excess. Did same for the 'doors' except didnt sewing-tape seam
the panels together on the front.

Hey, I was a poor college student with imagination (grin). Looked down
right spiffy when I got done!

Biggest problem (besides heat in winter) was outlets. Owner had electrician
run a metal pipe pretty much in the edges of the eves with boxes standing up
with outlets every 6ft or so on both sides, but that was only in my last 6
months there. It wasnt a big house so if memory serves, this attic room was
something like 40ft long (maybe a bit more), and about 20 wide 'usable
space' then the rest was too far in the eves. The flooring ran flush to
the very outer edges which met the finished off drywall/wood rafters
perfectly. I remember he had to upgrade the electrial system to be able to
add this and it was multiple lines run through this 'runway' so it wasnt
like he had it all on one circuit. I recall breakers labeled 'attic' and
pretty sure there were 6 of them supporting 12 outlets. I moved out in
summer but recall his plan was to be able to add electric heaters (oil
filled electric radiators?) every 6ft offset from side to side (12 total)
but he was gonna start with just 6 of them (3 per side) and see if that
worked.

Oh, he also added a heavy duty outlet by the only window (side of house).
I'd been using a box fan in the window with a stand rotating fan over the
bed, but he added this to support a window AC unit which did come in while I
was still there.

Why did I move? Had to. It was his son's place and he was returning from
the Army to go to school and bringing a wife and baby (grin). No hard
feelings. Me and my roomates found other digs, but never one as charming.

cshenk wrote:
"Jay-T" wrote
"cshenk" wrote

rafters. I built a 3-foot high knee wall that closes off the space
under the rafters near the eaves where the rafters go down to the
floor level.

To bad. Had an aprtment once were the 3rd bedroom was a 'finished
off' attic. The eaves made great storage. What we did was put up
caffee curtin rods all along it and lots of pretty and simple gingham
check. Insulated but didnt finish back there, yet made great storage.

That's an interesting idea, and it is something that I may want to
think about for my own house where I am living.

I can go in more detail too if needed. BTW, sorry about the burp. I
see Cox sent the message 4 times.

I neglected to mention that the attic that I am finishing now is in a
property that I bought that will be rented out to tenants. Also, when
I bought the property the attic was already "started" by the previous
owner. Basically, the framing was already done, including the knee
wall and a large closet area. Since it will be a rental, I wouldn't
want to have any exposed insulation and I'd rather just close off the
potential additional storage area behind the knee wall.

Yeah, they might damage things back there.

The apartment attic I used, was a 'diamond in the rough' level. It
spanned 1/2 the house so was a HUGE room. Access was from a pull down
ladder in the kitchen. No separate heat but we were looking at adding
something. The pull down was over the oil radiator in the kitchen, so
it wasnt totally intolerable for Clemson SC area. When it got really
cold, I slept on a sofa downstairs but that was only 2-3 weeks or so a
year.

There was no 'closet' so with permission, I made one from more of a
matching gingham materal. I used round rods saved from old brooms
(grin, they didnt toss much away so had them stored up there) and the
existing wood beams with spare hardware they had. One side was a
suspended rod about 4ft or so long, and the other was a double tier
(about 3ft) so you had 'shirts and jackets on top' and 'pants or skirts'
below. Used a 2x4 with a U shaped 'dip' for the center of the 4ft bar
(mounted on a little wood block about 6"x6" at the foot). Basically
wanted to be sure it didnt stress the rafter hangers over time for that
longer run. The shorter section was nailed to this and another 2x4
support ran on the outerside up to a abut a rafter with a / cut to fit.
4th bar across the front gave me a 'door' to close (again, just
material you sewed a pocket to slide through the bar like the rest but
even easier since didnt have to angle the front, only the sides).

To make the side pieces, I had 28 inch wide material in a bolt. I think
that was the size. Not far off if not quite right. I measured the
highest part then cut 4 panels per fit to fit that. Then got up on a
chair with a buddy and just wrapped it over the bars, and safetypinned
it so the floor part was even. Took'em off and used iron on sewing tape
for the seams and trimmed the excess. Did same for the 'doors' except
didnt sewing-tape seam the panels together on the front.

Hey, I was a poor college student with imagination (grin). Looked down
right spiffy when I got done!

Biggest problem (besides heat in winter) was outlets. Owner had
electrician run a metal pipe pretty much in the edges of the eves with
boxes standing up with outlets every 6ft or so on both sides, but that
was only in my last 6 months there. It wasnt a big house so if memory
serves, this attic room was something like 40ft long (maybe a bit more),
and about 20 wide 'usable space' then the rest was too far in the
eves. The flooring ran flush to the very outer edges which met the
finished off drywall/wood rafters perfectly. I remember he had to
upgrade the electrial system to be able to add this and it was multiple
lines run through this 'runway' so it wasnt like he had it all on one
circuit. I recall breakers labeled 'attic' and pretty sure there were 6
of them supporting 12 outlets. I moved out in summer but recall his
plan was to be able to add electric heaters (oil filled electric
radiators?) every 6ft offset from side to side (12 total) but he was
gonna start with just 6 of them (3 per side) and see if that worked.

Oh, he also added a heavy duty outlet by the only window (side of
house). I'd been using a box fan in the window with a stand rotating fan
over the bed, but he added this to support a window AC unit which did
come in while I was still there.

Why did I move? Had to. It was his son's place and he was returning
from the Army to go to school and bringing a wife and baby (grin). No
hard feelings. Me and my roomates found other digs, but never one as
charming.


You were damn lucky there was never a fire there. I used to know
somebody who lived a year in a similar setup, but at least she had
stairs in a closet. To get to her area of attic, you had to walk past
chimney stack. I installed a smoke alarm the next day, and visqueen and
duct taped the rattly window to cut down the breezes. And we weren't
even going out or anything- she was just a buddy's kid sister.

--
aem sends...