Building A Knee Wall In Attic

Knee walls the walls that separate conditioned from unconditioned space in an attic can be a source of significant air leakage if a continuous air barrier is not provided to prevent unconditioned air from flowing under the knee wall and under the floor boards of the attic room.

Building a knee wall in attic.

Knee walls are short usually wooden walls installed around the sides of an attic where the rafters meet the floor. Music by kevin macleod pinball spring thanks. You can see the image below for an example of a knee wall. In most instances they are no taller than 3 feet but some builders may custom fit them according to the roof s shape and size.

Step 9 insert dresser photo by. A knee wall is a quick way to enclose those acute triangular portions of your attic where the rafters meet the top plate of the wall. Build the supports out of 2x4s making sure they re flush with the sill of the cutout. The terms knee wall and pony wall are commonly used as if they were synonymous and both terms are often used to refer to the same types of wall structures.

The higher the knee wall the greater the amount of useful wall space you create in your finished attic. Use a hammer to remove any knee wall studs from the opening. Also be sure to remove any insulation. A knee wall is a short vertical wall roughly two or three feet high that blocks in that useless triangular space.

Bonus rooms are often the least comfortable room in a house and the main reason is that they are the most flawed part of the building envelope especially the attic kneewalls. But you do so at the expense of floor space. In the photo at left the kneewall is the short wall with the door in it. Doing this is just one step in finishing off an attic to make it a useful space and it helps to insulate your attic space against air infiltration from the outside.

Framing basics for attic knee walls along the sides of your loft or attic space. Knee walls provide the perfect way to turn an old abandoned attic into a useful extra room that can serve as a bedroom office or other living space. Support and follow me. However some types of walls such as pony walls that rest on a building s foundation or an attic knee wall cannot be properly referred to by both names.

Yesterday i was doing a home energy rating for quality assurance in augusta georgia and the house i was in had a bonus room.