Is It Safe To Walk In Attic

So the assumption that you can in fact go into it may be an erroneous assumption.

Is it safe to walk in attic. It s not without risks but is also not all that hard. Knowing how to walk around what to check for and how to maintain it is key to staying safe while you re working up there. It is to keep the heat of the sun beating on your roof from overly heating your house. Is it safe to walk crawl in an attic.

But jobs such as electrical work insulation removal and pest control even the most experienced diyer should leave to the professionals. If the inspector answers yes the attic is safe for a non professional to go in a professional knows how and where to walk in it to check for roof leaks an. That ceiling is made from drywall or plaster which is not strong enough to hold your weight or any storage items or boxes. Attic spaces are constructed to hold the weight of a couple of guys doing work in there in addition to the weight of the ceiling finishes insulation etc.

Then smoothly get across or to a point where you can re establish a safe posture grab your light or whatever and continue on. You can either walk on the 2x4s laid at the truss points on either side or you can walk right down the middle where you ve got more clearance as long as you re stepping on the bottom chord of the truss. The safest way to move around an unfinished attic is to create a catwalk or walking platform by attaching some 1x6 or 1x8 boards or strips of 3 4 plywood to the joists with screws don t use nails because the hammering might disturb the drywall or plaster ceiling below. First let s be sure not to fall into the room below.

You must realize this is the time when you re most vulnerable to a mishap. If you were to remove all the insulation you would see the drywall or plaster of the ceiling below nothing more. If the roof is built with trusses they are usually 24 apart. More attic work and safety.

It might look like the attic has a floor but unless it s made from wood floor boards and supported by floor joists that floor is really just the top of the ceiling of the rooms below. Before you set foot in your attic determine if it has its own floor. It is held in place by the ceiling joists which inside the attic become the floor joists. Many arizona attics do not.

This entry was posted in safety and tagged falling through an attic how do i walk through an attic. As a home inspector i walk in attics every day.