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Thread: Anyone ever add a Master Suite over garage or similar?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    Falls Church, VA
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    I opened up about 300 sq feet over garage by putting a door in the back of a closet. What I found were 6” joists that held up the garage ceiling. I could walk on them but I wouldn't have used the space for living. I beefed up the insulation, laid flooring and covered the rafters with osb to protect my head from the roofing nails. I ran a couple of lights and it was a dandy storage area. I was very careful not to put anything heavy in there.

    when we sold the house, I had that space excluded from the inspection. I’m sure it wasn’t up to code. I put a note in the disclosures that the area wasn’t suitable for living and to only store light things in there.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    Upland CA
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    I don't know what the building codes are in your area, but where I live, I suspect the building department would tell me the garage footings were not designed for two story structures, and they need to be reinforced.

    My first step would be to ask the local Building Department for their requirements.
    Rick Potter

    DIY journeyman,
    FWW wannabe.
    AKA Village Idiot.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    NE Ohio
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    6,983
    I opened up about 300 sq feet over garage by putting a door in the back of a closet. What I found were 6” joists that held up the garage ceiling. I could walk on them but I wouldn't have used the space for living. I beefed up the insulation, laid flooring and covered the rafters with osb to protect my head from the roofing nails. I ran a couple of lights and it was a dandy storage area. I was very careful not to put anything heavy in there.
    We have a bazillion Cape Cod style houses around us. They went up like weeds in the post WWII building boom.
    They were originally two bedrooms and a bath downstairs and an unfinished attic upstairs.
    The joists on the 2nd floor are also 2X6.
    About 7/8ths of them have had the attic finished off. Plywood over the joists & carpet on top - drywall right over the wall studs & on the ceiling - with little to no insulation - heating was cheap in the 40s/50s and 60s.

    You bounce as you walk in the upstairs....
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
    Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Engelhardt View Post
    We have a bazillion Cape Cod style houses around us. They went up like weeds in the post WWII building boom.
    They were originally two bedrooms and a bath downstairs and an unfinished attic upstairs.
    The joists on the 2nd floor are also 2X6.
    About 7/8ths of them have had the attic finished off. Plywood over the joists & carpet on top - drywall right over the wall studs & on the ceiling - with little to no insulation - heating was cheap in the 40s/50s and 60s.

    You bounce as you walk in the upstairs....
    well, I’ll be,
    Rich, you may have hit on why my great uncles bedroom upstairs in his house bounced like a trampoline. He did all sorts of things that weren’t to code. Even after they installed indoor plumbing, he wouldn’t give up his outhouse. I don’t know exactly when but he moved the outhouse to sit over a rain sewer manhole. The electrical looked like that scene from A Christmas Story.

    He had this old refrigerator that predated frost free. To defrost it, he would empty it and put an old space heater in there. I can still hear the water sizzling on the exposed nichrome wire. My mom nagged him for years to get rid of that thing. One day he called her and said he’d called the furniture store and told them to bring out their best new fridge. My mom asked him why and he replied, “Light went out.”

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