We recently purchased a house with dormers. Between the window and the rest of the room there is six foot recess in the two bedrooms. Is there a way to cut them back so I get most of the space back? The dormers look like a U with the window at the bottom of the U. On each side of the window, there is a large empty cavity. Thanks!
on 8/14/2007 7:50 AM snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com said the following:
Have a whole new roof built.
You can do whatever you want. Only thing is how much is it going to cost?
The walls in place may be structural, in which case you can't just remove them. Would need to replace them with some kind of support.
I would have a pro (architect) look at it and tell you what your options are. Perhaps shelves or cabinets could easily be built in? Maybe the entire walls could be removed? Maybe they could be moved back?
An empty space that you have the use of? Or a "recess" in the opposite direction, because the roof is there?
Isn't the cavity outside of the house? If not, I don't understand your description.
He is talking about the knee walls, which may or may not be structural, depending on how roof was framed. Utilities are often run through those spaces, but reclaiming them somewhat by adding doors and using for storage is not unknown. Either simple doors, or cabinet carcasses set into the knee wall. They are pretty useless for living space, since there is no headroom, the reason dormers were invented in the first place. That, and people get disoriented in rooms without vertical walls.
Any competent home remodeling contractor could take a look, and tell you if there is any practical way to reclaim the space. Is there any access at all, like in the back of a closet, or from the upper attic, or sometimes the garage attic? Good builders try to avoid making totally inaccessible dead spaces. McBuilders, trying to save a buck, aren't so fussy.
aem sends...
No, the empty space is on each side U shape I described. I believe they are called shed dormers. The previous owner had made a "closet", using the word loosely on one side. When you look in the closet, you see the where the roof runs and the framing for the dormers.
Thanks
Based on your clear explanation below, both of my choices are bad here. It's not a space he has use of. It is something like what I meant by a recess in the opposite direction, but it's not caused because the roof is there. It's because short walls are built there, after the roof is finished.
The word recess confused me, because once it is covered by the knee walls, I wouldn't call it a recess anymore. The dictionary calls a recess a bay or an alcove.
I get it. The right word makes all the difference.
When I was in H.S. English, we had to take some device, maybe mechanical, and explain how it worked. I chose a manual can opener. Then some some of us had to read his paper in class. One guy chose a cylinder lock, and until he read his thing, I didn't know how they worked and afterwards, I knew. Then I had to read mine. It was very hard even for me to understand, and I wrote it. I doubt most of the class could understand it at all. After 45 more years I'm not that much better. I'm also getting dumber so I need extra clarity.
"Shed dormer" seemed like it would be all I needed, but at the two websites I went to, even ones with drawings, the dormer was the bulge out of and above the roof where the window is. "Knee walls" is the phrase he was looking for.
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