Under the steep roof of an older Greensburg house there may be a third floor waiting: tall in the middle, lit by a round gable window, filled with a century of storage. Our carpenters turn that space into a room the house can use again.
Greensburg Attics
Roughly 2,300 Greensburg houses predate 1940, with the tall rooflines of their time, and renters fill 45 percent of the city's homes. That pairing shapes what attics here are asked to become.
Academy Hill alone counts 252 buildings put up between 1880 and 1949, in styles from the turreted to the formal. Steep roofs from that era can leave real standing room up top, and owners want more from it than storage.
We check the old rafters for size, cracks and past cuts, reinforce the floor for living loads, and set the room where the ridge is highest. Original trim and windows stay where they can, and new work is matched to them.
Full attic conversionsIf your house is balloon-framed, the wall studs run unbroken from the sill to the rafters, leaving open channels between floors. Air, heat and, in a fire, flames can travel up those channels into the attic you plan to live in.
Before insulating, we block each open stud bay at the attic floor with lumber or approved fire-blocking material, then seal around pipes and wires. The new room stops the draft from below and meets the code's fire-blocking rule.
Insulation and ventilationSingle people and housemates make up the majority of Greensburg households. For many, the room in shortest supply is a quiet place to work, and an attic gives it distance from the street and the household below.
A desk where the ceiling peaks, its own circuit and network cable pulled early, and the old gable window restored or enlarged for daylight. Outlets sit where the desk and printer will, and sound batts between the joists keep it quiet.
Home offices and studiosRental buildings in Greensburg get a routine city inspection every two years or sooner, under the maintenance code the city adopted. A landlord adding a bedroom in the attic needs it to pass that visit, every time.
A bedroom-legal escape window, a hard-wired smoke detector, a railed stair and permitted circuits are built in from the start. Durable floors and trim stand up to turnover, and the room is finished before the next lease begins.
Attic bedrooms and suitesDowntown District buildings need Council's sign-off for outside changes like new windows, and a dormer reshapes the roof everyone sees. Owners there want headroom without a surprise at the permit counter, or a design the city turns down.
We draw the dormer to suit the building's style and scale, assemble the paperwork the planning commission reviews, and frame it after Council's vote. Elsewhere in Greensburg, the zoning permit is the only extra step before framing begins.
Dormers and headroomAbout one Greensburg household in five has children at home, often in older houses with small bedrooms on the second floor. Parents want one more room, and the city lot leaves no space to build out, only up.
The attic becomes a bedroom or playroom with full height along its center, stiffen the floor, and fit storage into the eaves. A new stair with a rail replaces the narrow attic steps many older houses came with.
Playrooms and bonus roomsFigures: ACS 2020–2024 (U.S. Census Bureau) for the city. District count: National Register. Rules: city code sections 265-134 and 265-40.2, Chapter 205.
The rest of the job
How it runs, what it costs and who builds it are on our main attic finishing page.
An Attic in the City
An attic goes through Greensburg's building and rental rules like any remodel. Two zoning rules bear on it more directly, and both concern the roofline.
2021 UCCThe city's building code
Greensburg enforces the 2021 construction code, wants notice of every tenant change and inspects rentals on a two-year cycle. Each rule is laid out with our Greensburg kitchen remodel. A new attic room falls under all of them, and we handle the paperwork.
Greensburg rules, explained§265-134Zoning permit before enlarging
Before a structure is enlarged or its framing altered, Greensburg wants a zoning permit signed by its planning director. A dormer adds volume to the house, and reinforcing an attic floor alters its structure, so either one starts with that permit. We file it first.
Greensburg Code §265-134 (opens in a new tab)CouncilApproves downtown exterior work
Downtown, outside changes such as new windows go to the planning commission and then City Council for approval. A new dormer or roof window there can need the same review, so we check with the city before drawing it and build its timeline into the schedule.
Greensburg Code §265-40.2 (opens in a new tab)Attic Questions
Greensburg owners and landlords tend to start with these five. For the whole job, see the attic finishing service.
Ask a QuestionIt follows the house. A tall prewar attic with sound rafters and room for a stair can cost less than a low newer one needing a dormer. Fire-blocking, rewiring and a downtown certificate can add to it. We price after measuring, and the attic service lists usual ranges.
Attic cost rangesUsually, for light and looks. Most decorative gable windows are too small to serve as a bedroom's escape opening, which must clear 5.7 square feet when open. We keep the old window and add a code-size one elsewhere, often in a dormer or the opposite gable.
Attic bedrooms and suitesOften, when it sits over an existing bath and the old cast-iron stack can carry a new branch, or when a new drain can run down an interior wall. Big prewar houses usually have room for the pipes. We check the stack's condition and the floor framing first.
Full attic conversionsYes, if it is part of a rental. Greensburg's routine and pre-sale inspections cover every room of a rental building, and an attic bedroom is judged like any other. We build it with the escape window, smoke alarm and stair the inspector will look for.
Greensburg Code §205-3 (opens in a new tab)Yes. Older houses there need careful demolition, plaster patched rather than torn out where it is sound, and new trim milled to match the old. We plan for the century of changes earlier owners left in the walls and roof before the price is final.
Other Services
Across the city we also rebuild kitchens in old houses, redo apartment baths and repair porches and windows. Choose a service below.
Kitchen RemodelingNew layouts, new cabinets, new counters: framed, built, and installed by the same crew.View Service
Bathroom RemodelingFull gut renovations with proper waterproofing, new framing, and tile set by hand.View Service
Basement FinishingUnfinished basements turned into real rooms: framed, insulated, drywalled, and finished by our crew.View Service
Additions & ADUsAdditions and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), framed from the ground up and tied in clean.View Service
Windows & Exterior DoorsWindows and exterior doors set, flashed, and trimmed so water stays out of the wall.View Service
Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsRotted trim and siding, sagging joists, failed sills: opened up and repaired to solid wood.View Service
Decks & Covered PatiosDecks, covered patios and three-season rooms, flashed to the house and built for Westmoreland winters.View ServiceVerified Google Reviews
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Get in Touch
Tell us about the project in the form or give us a call. Either way, estimates are free and the number is the number — priced to the actual work, written down before anyone swings a hammer.
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
