Mackenzie Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Hello, I'm currently drawing up an attic remodel and looking for help with some problems or even just a starting direction on what tutorials I could watch to learn myself. We're trying to fit a bathroom and bedroom in this attic and I keep running into issues that I think come from not having my floor levels set properly or maybe the structural settings and I'm snappingg to the wrong floors. It seemed to be working better when I just had the one floor but was concerned the stairs I'm adding wouldn't look right without a floor below. My current problem is that some of the walls I'm trying to draw will display only the base molding and then a portion of cut out drywall above but no wall in between. To get the roof line in the attic I set the second floor ceiling height to 1" so that the rafters would start at floor level, unchecked the flat ceiling over this room box and then went around the exterior to shift + select all the roofs and set the pitch to be 12-12 so this step may be where most of my problems come from. Additionally this home has a neat ~10'x10' flat portion of roof in the middle that you can climb up to, this is less pressing but what would be the proper start to changing part of my roof to be flat like that? Attic.plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackenzie Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 I seem to keep having the same issues with my walls rendering, It will show fine when drawn within 43" of the roof edge or more than 53" away but my problem is that I need the wall positioned at 48" and I only get the base moulding and missing drywall in that range. do you know why that is happening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackenzie Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 Here it is, did the first plan file not come across correctly due to me having chief open still? Attic.plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_N Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 (edited) Hi Mackenzie. First question is are you sure about the slope of the roof. What is the actual pitch of the roof, and do the rafters sit on the ceiling plate of the exterior walls? Using the model that you posted there isn't anywhere in the attic that would give you enough ceiling height for what you are talking about. Here is a cross section of the highest part of the attic. I changed the floor thickness to 2 x 8 floor joists (probably what was used for the ceiling joists) but that is just a guess. I also reconfigured the stairs to have 10" run and about a 7" rise. You can set your desired attic ceiling height to, say 7', and set the roof default to ignore the upper floor. Now you can create walls that will fit between either the bottom surface of the roof or the ceiling height of 7', whichever is lower. But first you need to make sure the model of the shell of the house is correct, including the roof pitch. I suspect the pitch is more like 16:12 or so. If you want to do new floor joists, and leave the ceiling joists undisturbed, they you just the method that Eric suggested, setting the ceiling height of the second floor to 1 inch or so, and then create a 3rd floor. That would also slightly raise the roof, but then you can lower the roof by the same amount that it got raised by adding the new floor. Do a before and after cross section printout to determine the amount that the roof got raised to figure out how much to lower it. Hope this helps. Attic.plan Edited February 11 by Doug_N Added plan file Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackenzie Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 Hi Doug and thank you for taking the time to try and help me solve this. I went back and checked the slope of the roof again and it looks to be a 12-12 when I measured off of a level but closer to a 7' rise over 6' when I measured from where the rafters meet the exterior wall to the flat portion of roof, I will attach some photos of the space as well since drawing it is an issue for me before I learn a bit more. First photo is me trying to measure and show the slope one handed, the second is taken from about where the bathroom wall is drawn and facing the bedroom space, the third is facing the bath alcove while standing to the right of where I had the top of the stairs drawn and the final photo is a rough sketch of the flat roof size 97"x178" with a note that it is about 7' away from the west wall. I think my main problem that I can identify at least right now is that wall not generating in the bathroom, I didn't follow what Eric was saying since the wall will work if it's below 43" or over 52" but just doesn't work at the 48" I needed. I only started learning the program middle of 2023 so understand I have plenty left to learn, particularly in the technical framing portions of the program but would happily watch some training videos if you could recommend one/some that would cover most of this. I'm trying to convey a lot of confusion at once so please let me know if there's anything I need to elaborate on and thanks again for your time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusanC Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 @Mackenzie, You are doing really well to tackle an attic while being so new to Chief! I find attics to be one of the trickiest parts to the program. You might want to consider calling up Chief and asking for a private session with one of their personal trainers who will go through your plan with you step by step, teach you how the tools work, and can answer your questions as you work together. I've used them many times and found it really helpful - especially when I've needed to figure something out to get a job completed. Good luck! Susan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_N Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Hi Mackenzie, I sorted out some of the problems that you listed in your post and adjusted the stairs a bit. The pictures posted here were not my final version of the plan file (also attached) but it may help you get to the goal that you are trying to achieve. I have suggested a 7' ceiling to get the widest flat ceiling practical using the 12:12 pitch that you mentioned. It is not possible to see what the ceiling joists are for the first floor, but you should make sure they are sufficient to support a typical residential floor load. Attic Walls.zip 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_N Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 One more hint, if you have a second floor with a roof that ignores the upper floor, make sure that the floor area has a room height definition that makes sense, and that a flat ceiling is part of the room DBX. Also make sure that the open to below area stairwell has the same ceiling height as the rest of the room. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackenzie Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 18 hours ago, solver said: Thank you! that solved my issue and the walls are rendering how I need them to know, I messed with too many settings I didn't understand when trying to get the roof line down into the room and the video cleared it up. Also the wall that you selected to move to 48" was the correct wall and measurement, I just had it at 46" when I took the screenshot and probably should have moved it to represent my question more accurately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackenzie Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 16 minutes ago, Doug_N said: Hi Mackenzie, I sorted out some of the problems that you listed in your post and adjusted the stairs a bit. The pictures posted here were not my final version of the plan file (also attached) but it may help you get to the goal that you are trying to achieve. I have suggested a 7' ceiling to get the widest flat ceiling practical using the 12:12 pitch that you mentioned. It is not possible to see what the ceiling joists are for the first floor, but you should make sure they are sufficient to support a typical residential floor load. Attic Walls.zip 856.48 kB · 0 downloads Thank you for all the help, I will be starting on the flat roof portion soon and your file will be an awesome reference for me on how to do it correctly. Unfortunately our ceiling joist from the floor below (attic floor joist) are old full size 2x6 but we dont have them spanning over 10'. is there an easy way to change the flat portion to be a flat roof instead of a soffit under the roof line? I dont think this difference will matter for the purpose of this print but I'm just trying to do more things correctly as I learn to make future projects easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackenzie Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 38 minutes ago, SusanC said: @Mackenzie, You are doing really well to tackle an attic while being so new to Chief! I find attics to be one of the trickiest parts to the program. You might want to consider calling up Chief and asking for a private session with one of their personal trainers who will go through your plan with you step by step, teach you how the tools work, and can answer your questions as you work together. I've used them many times and found it really helpful - especially when I've needed to figure something out to get a job completed. Good luck! Susan Thank you! I wasn't aware I had that resource as an option. I think it would be very helpful for me to setup at least an hour training package for someone to guide me through some of the more confusing aspects in place of sorting through a lot of long videos to find the small bits of relevant info. The videos are all very helpful but the roof relevant ones have a lot to learn in them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_N Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 7 minutes ago, Mackenzie said: Thank you! I wasn't aware I had that resource as an option. I think it would be very helpful for me to setup at least an hour training package for someone to guide me through some of the more confusing aspects in place of sorting through a lot of long videos to find the small bits of relevant info. The videos are all very helpful, but the roof relevant ones have a lot to learn in them. 2 x 6 ceiling joists may be able to support a floor, depending on the span of the joists. Typically, ceiling joists are joined over a wall which may not be a actual load bearing wall because of support from the structure of the first floor. I would recommend that you contact a structural engineer to review the loads that will be imposed by your proposed attic room. That may be the best money that you spend on this project. The cost shouldn't be prohibitive for a short meeting. You should also see if a building permit would be required for the contemplated construction. If one is required, and you don't apply for one, and a neighbor complains, it could get very expensive quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNestor Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 This video may help a bit... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackenzie Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 1 hour ago, Doug_N said: 2 x 6 ceiling joists may be able to support a floor, depending on the span of the joists. Typically, ceiling joists are joined over a wall which may not be a actual load bearing wall because of support from the structure of the first floor. I would recommend that you contact a structural engineer to review the loads that will be imposed by your proposed attic room. That may be the best money that you spend on this project. The cost shouldn't be prohibitive for a short meeting. You should also see if a building permit would be required for the contemplated construction. If one is required, and you don't apply for one, and a neighbor complains, it could get very expensive quickly. Thank you, this project is definitely going to have a permit for the work, on top of being a rather difficult layout it is also in a Historic district that adds a bit of extra complication. A beautiful neighborhood to work in but not a convenient one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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