The Junk Vortex
Today I’ve been working in the junk vortex. I have to remove a few feet from the top of the chimney so I can get the new liner in. About 2 years ago when I rewired the house I had this space mostly cleaned out. The junk vortex is, of course, the attic. There is a full stairwell leading to the attic and the floors are sheathed in redwood planks. It is just too easy to put things up there and forget about them. I pulled up many of the boards to run new wires and the idea was to not nail them back down so I could put in insulation when the new heating system goes in this summer. That is all good and well but now there is a ton of crap up there.
The attic is huge. It is maybe 1200 to 1400 sq ft with about half that as usable space you can stand up and walk around in. I’m doing a somewhat period restoration on the first two floors of the house and the idea has always been that this will one day be a high-tech media room. When I rewired I gave the attic a dedicated circuit. I also pulled 2 CAT5 network cables and 2 coaxial cables from under the house all the way to the attic. Someday, it will get done.
3 comments:
You have to be careful of the weight in some attics too. Our house has 2 rooms in the attic, and I've wanted to use the hip space for storage, but the floor is only 2"x6", one room sags almost an inch in the middle of the span. My neighbours have almost the same house, and their attic is crammed full. Yours doesn't look too bad, it's amazing how much stuff you can acquire in a short period.
These are 2 by 7.5 joists but the spans are relatively short. The floor is pretty stiff. They are full dimensional so I guess they would be equivalent of a 2.5 X 9 (?) in today’s lumber. I guess it is not really crammed full but still, it was almost empty 18 months ago.
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