Garage conversion and existing attic


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Old 10-14-18, 11:03 AM
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Garage conversion and existing attic

Hi All,
We have a large garage that is attached to our house. Part of the house is currently being used as a laundry and storage room. We are officially converting the storage and laundry to permitted square feet for our house. I am acting as the builder/owner. The permitting process has been a "treat" in that we've had to hire structural engineer to spec out a subfloor etc. The last remaining issue that is keeping me up at night is that their is an existing attic directly on top of the "new" space for light storage that the previous owners built that is accessible by a fold down attic ladder. When the previous owner built this he reinforced with floor joists and 1/2" plywood floor.

I'm not even going to open up the pandoras box to try to get this permitted. I If the space is unused and empty when the inspector comes out to inspect everything else will I have a problem with this "attic" area that is really not an attic...

Any strategies anyone can suggest would be very much appreciated!
rg
 
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Old 10-14-18, 12:30 PM
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I re-read twice.... maybe it's me but I'm not quite understanding the situation.

You have a laundry and storage area inside the house.
That should already be included in the house square footage.

Are you wanting to move that out to the garage ?
Is the garage the issue here ?
 
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Old 10-14-18, 12:32 PM
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The first thing that comes to mind is that code requires a minimum insulation value for the ceiling. If the attic area above is decked over the inspector might not be able to inspect and measure the insulation.
 
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Old 10-14-18, 07:10 PM
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There's no location in your profile so no one knows how much insulation in the ceiling is required in your area.
No pictures so we can see what your seeing.
If you had to hire an engineer to spec something as simple as the floor I'm guessing your in the CA.
Most likely any inspector is going to be looking for the correct amount of insulation in the ceiling, fire caulking any place where wires where ran through the top plates and later on 5/8 fire rated sheetrock on the ceiling.
 
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Old 10-15-18, 01:49 PM
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Thanks for the feedback.
We are located in Los Angeles. The situation is that the laundry and storage is currently located in the garage and we are converting that space to square footage/ part of the house.

Based on the replies, seems like the inspector will be looking to inspect the roof for insulation. So maybe we will remove all the junk and neatly "stack" the plywood subfloor that is currently nailed on 16 O.C to the 2x6 ceiling joists. Exposing the way the ceiling joists were reinforced will also allow us to better inspect how this was originally constructed so we can reinforce if necessary. And I just found this https://www.ladbs.org/docs/default-s....pdf?sfvrsn=36

Seems since this is "new" construction I will need to make sure the ceiling joists and the span is correct. based on my 16 o.c. 2x6 we can only do a span of 13 ft for 10 psf of "dead" load (pounds per square foot).

Thanks again.
rg
 
 

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