Attic Storage in Sugar Land (Houston: 2013, renting, insurance)

[Htown2013]

We have a single story house in Sugar Land. It's a great 5 BR 3 BA 3000 sf house but it has no storage! It has a cavernous attic that is at least 3000 sf b/c it also covers the garage.

We would like to use our attic as storage, as there is a ton of space up there and the house has no storage, but we want to do it right and are very concerned about having a fire hazard up there.

We mostly want to store Christmas decorations (in plastic tote boxes and cardboard boxes), luggage, cardboard boxes, and tote boxes. We would not store flammable liquids, but are worried about fire hazard as it seems extremely hot there in the summer. There is no radiant barrier.

Problem is we have all that space in the attic, but only access is simple retractable wood stairs, and there is no radiant barrier.

We love our house and don't want to move. We are willing to spend some money to have attic storage. What are our options?

We would like a better retractable stairs (aluminum or fiberglas?), aftermarket radiant barrier to lower temps so no fire hazard but need one that is breathable so no attic mold and rot, and want to expand attic flooring.

What are our options? Has anyone done anything like this before?

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by Htown2013

We would like a better retractable stairs (aluminum or fiberglas?).... and want to expand attic flooring.

Both fairly easy to do.

As far as the radiant barrier... not sure how effective it would be in comparison to what it would cost you.
What fire hazard are you worried about? Spontaneous combustion? It gets hot up there but not THAT hot. As long as you are not playing with matches in your attic, you should be fine. I keep all kinds of flammable liquids including gas cans in a simple wooden outdoor shed with no radiant barrier or ac or anything and that's not a problem either.
Just make sure your attic has proper ventilation. Ridge vents, air turbines, etc.

[imback]

It's good to consider the fire hazard aspect, but you need to also consider the Houston humidity, which will still be considerable even with a radiant barrier. Most materials - wood, cloth, leather, paper, cardboard, even some metals - will inevitably warp, mold, mildew, corrode, and/or deteriorate if exposed to Houston humidity on a long-term basis, especially when combined with the heat. (These statements are based on personal experience).


Aside from conversion to full air-conditioning, I am not sure how these humidity effects can be avoided in a Houston attic - or garage or shed for that matter.


Most of the items you want to store seem to be of the seldom-used type, like holiday decorations and luggage. Have you considered renting a climate-controlled space at one of those storage places like Uncle Bob? Their prices are rather reasonable (a large space could be rented for many decades for the cost of insulating/air conditioning a 3000 sq ft attic plus the increased utility bills).

[Htown2013]

Originally Posted by imback

It's good to consider the fire hazard aspect, but you need to also consider the Houston humidity, which will still be considerable even with a radiant barrier. Most materials - wood, cloth, leather, paper, cardboard, even some metals - will inevitably warp, mold, mildew, corrode, and/or deteriorate if exposed to Houston humidity on a long-term basis, especially when combined with the heat. (These statements are based on personal experience).


Aside from conversion to full air-conditioning, I am not sure how these humidity effects can be avoided in a Houston attic - or garage or shed for that matter.


Most of the items you want to store seem to be of the seldom-used type, like holiday decorations and luggage. Have you considered renting a climate-controlled space at one of those storage places like Uncle Bob? Their prices are rather reasonable (a large space could be rented for many decades for the cost of insulating/air conditioning a 3000 sq ft attic plus the increased utility bills).

We want to easily be able to access everything on site. Climate controlled storage was very inconvenient for us and is $1000/year for the size we need. Not cheap. We are using a spare bedroom as storage but don't think this is a long term option.

I do not plan to add a new AC. Both renting storage and AC'ing the attic would cost more than the items are worth in short time. We just want additional on-site storage. I can seal the boxes and treat attic for pests, etc. Luggage we can store in the house if needed.

[Htown2013]

The whole transaction of getting a larger house in the same area with the storage we need will cost us $100k all in so that is out of the question. We just want space in our existing house, which is great for us long term in every way except for storage. Willing to pay some up front, but don't want to be paying $1000 more every year. All the stuff I want to store is worth no more that $3000 collectively - it just takes up space. Honestly half of the volume is just a lot of empty boxes for electronic items that just take up empty space and is only good to protect the items if work relocates me in the future or if I need to send them back for repair. I'm not paying thousands to climate control that stuff.

[ilikeme]

I was lucky that the previous owner of my house floored a good chunk of my attic. I actually enclosed part of the floored area and made it a storage room. It is insulated and has a portable a/c unit that vents outside. Access is still by the fold up stairs. I'm sure some of the a/c techs that have gone up there have wondered why there is a room hidden in the attic, although I have shown it to one or two of them.

[aba030]

For flooring, don't you just need to buy/cut sheets of plywood? And as for radiant barrier, why not look into getting a roof vent instead?

[trbstang]

We keep most of our outdoor Christmas and Halloween decorations in the attic of our uninsulated detached garage and have for 17+ years with no issues. We keep our more fragile items like candles and cloth items like stocking and runners and such indoors, and have an insulated, but not heated or cooled, section of our garage where we keep our ornaments and other interior decorations. That section usually stays between 40 degrees in the winter and 90 degrees in the summer. Might be something to consider setting up in your attic. The main thing to think about regarding a fire hazard would be to keep all items in storage away from the heating equipment. Otherwise there should not be any issue keeping items up there.

Regarding the attic stairs, you can probably find some wider replacement stairs to replace yours. A neighbor even put two of the standard stairs together so he could have a double wide opening, but he basically rebuilt the whole opening and assembled the stairs himself. Works pretty good for him. I've also seen the electric cable operated "elevator" system for raising and lowering items to the attic. A pretty neat setup that takes the difficulty of walking items up the stairs out of the equation.

Good luck on it!

[Failed Engineer]

If it's half empty boxes, I'd throw them out and pay for new boxes with proper shipping and buy insurance for it when/if the times comes to move. Then you don't have any ongoing storage costs and/or modifications to the home.

[d2mini]

Yeah, i tend to keep some boxes too, especially for things I might want to eBay in the future like camera equipment, computer equipment, etc. We just shove them in the attic (some in larger cardboard boxes or plastic totes) and they are fine for years and years.

So just put some plywood sheets up there to create a floor and that should be all you need.
Make sure the attic is properly ventilated and spray for pests.