Basements, Attics and Crawl Spaces - Cape style house wasted space
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sullyoneal
11-06-09, 06:51 PM
The two upstairs bedrooms in my house have slanted ceilings and short walls. How hard would it be to build built-in storage in the walls. There is about three feet of crawl space behind the wall with no pipes or ducting. Also if there are any other good ideas for finding space in a Cape I would love to hear it.
Bud9051
11-07-09, 05:36 AM
Hi Sully and welcome to the forum,
If you open up those spaces, make sure you build insulated doors and air seal them well. When my cape was built, they put a shed dormer on the back to extend that side of two bedrooms and make space for the bathroom. Works well, but the flatter roof has snow and ice issues I have to deal with. My side walls are about 4' so the space is easy to get into. At 3' you will have limited access. I have worked on capes where they finished those slanted ceilings all the way down to the eaves, no walls. Then used built-ins in front of that wedge space for storage. Not a difficult task, but would want to super insulate and be sure the rafters remained vented.
Here is a link about capes that might help if you do any construction:Welcome To Home Energy Magazine Online (http://www.homeenergy.org/archive/hem.dis.anl.gov/eehem/95/950309.html)
Stay warm
Bud
If you open up those spaces, make sure you build insulated doors and air seal them well. When my cape was built, they put a shed dormer on the back to extend that side of two bedrooms and make space for the bathroom. Works well, but the flatter roof has snow and ice issues I have to deal with. My side walls are about 4' so the space is easy to get into. At 3' you will have limited access. I have worked on capes where they finished those slanted ceilings all the way down to the eaves, no walls. Then used built-ins in front of that wedge space for storage. Not a difficult task, but would want to super insulate and be sure the rafters remained vented.
Here is a link about capes that might help if you do any construction:Welcome To Home Energy Magazine Online (http://www.homeenergy.org/archive/hem.dis.anl.gov/eehem/95/950309.html)
Stay warm
Bud
wgc
11-10-09, 06:51 PM
I don't know if there are any on your part of the Cape, but there is a regional unfinished furniture chain that sells dressers and cabinets designed as inserts for exactly this type of storage.