Add Some Light To Your Attic With A Shed Dormer

Structurally, there are quite a few changes you can make in an attic. It's just a request of how far you have the guts to go, or more exactly, how good your carpentry is and how many friends you can press into slave labor for your attic.

Quite a few years back, dormers were all the rage for the attic. They were built to let more light into a dim attic. However, since they presented wildly difficult decorating problems for the housewife, the dormer gradually became a shed dormer.

Carpentry Framing

What's the difference? Instead of several miserable limited window dormers, the shed dormer is an prolongation to the roof area that continues almost all the way over the width of the house. In other words, you have one big dormer with several windows (or even a photograph window) sharing the same wall. Inside you get lots more light, and wind up with truly usable space in your attic.

A shed dormer for your attic is, however, a rather unabridged construction project. Unless you have the time and skill for it, you will probably be best off if you put the harder part of the job in the hands of a competent contractor. You may be able to split up the remodeling: call in a expert to tackle the actual structural work in your attic and leave the detailed interior finishing for yourself.

Structural work, if poorly done, can ensue in damage to the house, not just the attic alone. Then, too, the problem of weather enters the picture. It's very foremost to cut out the opening and close it in again as speedily as possible. Should a torrential downpour come along while your roof still has a huge hole cut in it, the results would be more than embarrassing for you and your attic.

Building Procedures

With the above qualifications out of the way, here's the step by step policy (in general) for construction a shed dormer.

1. Working from the inside, cut out and wholly remove the roof sheathing and face in the area in your attic that will be occupied by the dormer. Leave the rafters intact for the time being.

2. Attach duplicate studs (two studs nailed together side by side) at the two corners of the opening that are near the edge of the roof. The height of these timbers is the finished height of the new roof. To infer this distance, be sure to allow a minimum interior height below the finished ceiling of your attic of 7 ft. 6 in.

3. Nail a duplicate plate to the ends of the studs.

4. Frame in the rest of the studs plus any rough opening for the windows. Studs should cover not only the front area but also the triangular sides of the new dormer for your attic. 5. Add stringers. These timbers rein force the new roof and also act as a nailing face for the new ceiling in side. Stringers overhang the plate at one end by about 6-8 in. Carry the other end through the cut-out roof opening and spike each stringer (incidentally, they are whether 2x4 or 2x6 timbers) to the old rafters near the top. Use a level to make sure each stringer is perfectly horizontal.

6. Nail a 1x6 timber flat at the top of the new opening.

7. Set the rafters (2x6 timbers for this) in place alongside the stringers. One end of each rafter rests on the plate and is nailed both to the plate and to the adjacent stringer. The other nail is toenailed to the 1x6.

8. Cut out the old rafters so the roof opening is outlined only by the new timbers.

9. Add the roof sheathing using appropriate tongue-and-groove boards.

10. Sheath the front and sides of the dormer. In both cases, you'll probably use the same wood as for the roof of your attic.

11. Add the waterproof roof coating (roll roofing, shingles, etc.)

12. Put on the finished siding (clap board, shingles, etc.)

13. Fit the window frames into the rough openings in the front of the dormer.

14. The rest of the job is mostly interior finishing.

The shed dormer can be an arresting increasing to your attic.

Add Some Light To Your Attic With A Shed Dormer

Structurally, there are quite a few changes you can make in an attic. It's just a request of how far you have the guts to go, or more exactly, how good your carpentry is and how many friends you can press into slave labor for your attic.

Quite a few years back, dormers were all the rage for the attic. They were built to let more light into a dim attic. However, since they presented wildly difficult decorating problems for the housewife, the dormer gradually became a shed dormer.

Carpentry Framing

What's the difference? Instead of several miserable limited window dormers, the shed dormer is an prolongation to the roof area that continues almost all the way over the width of the house. In other words, you have one big dormer with several windows (or even a photograph window) sharing the same wall. Inside you get lots more light, and wind up with truly usable space in your attic.

A shed dormer for your attic is, however, a rather unabridged construction project. Unless you have the time and skill for it, you will probably be best off if you put the harder part of the job in the hands of a competent contractor. You may be able to split up the remodeling: call in a expert to tackle the actual structural work in your attic and leave the detailed interior finishing for yourself.

Structural work, if poorly done, can ensue in damage to the house, not just the attic alone. Then, too, the problem of weather enters the picture. It's very foremost to cut out the opening and close it in again as speedily as possible. Should a torrential downpour come along while your roof still has a huge hole cut in it, the results would be more than embarrassing for you and your attic.

Building Procedures

With the above qualifications out of the way, here's the step by step policy (in general) for construction a shed dormer.

1. Working from the inside, cut out and wholly remove the roof sheathing and face in the area in your attic that will be occupied by the dormer. Leave the rafters intact for the time being.

2. Attach duplicate studs (two studs nailed together side by side) at the two corners of the opening that are near the edge of the roof. The height of these timbers is the finished height of the new roof. To infer this distance, be sure to allow a minimum interior height below the finished ceiling of your attic of 7 ft. 6 in.

3. Nail a duplicate plate to the ends of the studs.

4. Frame in the rest of the studs plus any rough opening for the windows. Studs should cover not only the front area but also the triangular sides of the new dormer for your attic. 5. Add stringers. These timbers rein force the new roof and also act as a nailing face for the new ceiling in side. Stringers overhang the plate at one end by about 6-8 in. Carry the other end through the cut-out roof opening and spike each stringer (incidentally, they are whether 2x4 or 2x6 timbers) to the old rafters near the top. Use a level to make sure each stringer is perfectly horizontal.

6. Nail a 1x6 timber flat at the top of the new opening.

7. Set the rafters (2x6 timbers for this) in place alongside the stringers. One end of each rafter rests on the plate and is nailed both to the plate and to the adjacent stringer. The other nail is toenailed to the 1x6.

8. Cut out the old rafters so the roof opening is outlined only by the new timbers.

9. Add the roof sheathing using appropriate tongue-and-groove boards.

10. Sheath the front and sides of the dormer. In both cases, you'll probably use the same wood as for the roof of your attic.

11. Add the waterproof roof coating (roll roofing, shingles, etc.)

12. Put on the finished siding (clap board, shingles, etc.)

13. Fit the window frames into the rough openings in the front of the dormer.

14. The rest of the job is mostly interior finishing.

The shed dormer can be an arresting increasing to your attic.

Add Some Light To Your Attic With A Shed Dormer