Make your attic look bigger and brighter

Gone are the days when the attic was just a lum­ber or laun­dry room. These days, many people use the space under­neath the roof for liv­ing, eat­ing or work­ing. Mod­ern roof win­dows and full glaz­ing provide plenty of light, free­dom and space. Par­tic­u­larly trendy are super-large roof win­dows that almost resemble a bal­cony or dormer in size. When real­iz­ing their dream attic, how­ever, build­ing own­ers and ren­ov­at­ors should always have the res­id­ents’ health in mind. Qual­ity seals such as EMICODE^® provide use­ful guid­ance when select­ing mater­i­als that are safe for liv­ing. This applies in par­tic­u­lar to the seal­ants and adhes­ives used for the install­a­tion of roof win­dows.

Until well into the post-war peri­od, attics were neg­lected rooms that did­n’t get the atten­tion they deserved. They were only used for stor­age or for dry­ing the laun­dry. Today, the situ­ation is com­pletely dif­fer­ent: In search of indi­vidu­al liv­ing space, more and more people are trans­form­ing their attic into a small oas­is of well-being. Cru­cial ele­ments in this pro­cess are the roof win­dows. They can be opened with the flick of the wrist and con­vert the room into a sun ter­race. Large pan­or­amic win­dows with full glaz­ing allow sweep­ing views across the city or land­scape. You can even take a sun­bath stark naked – in most cases well hid­den from the pry­ing eyes of nosy neigh­bors. So, get your­self a nice tan on your own “sun­bed” high up under the roof!

But gen­er­ous roof win­dows can do so much more. In no time at all, slid­ing win­dows are pushed aside so you can enjoy a nice “out­door break­fast” with a view of the bril­liant blue sky. In the even­ing, you may want to sit down and enjoy the fresh air while read­ing a good book. But the lov­ingly con­ver­ted attic with its large win­dows is not only a com­fort­able place of retreat – it can also serve as a per­fect home office. XXL win­dows allow plenty of fresh air into the room, which has a pos­it­ive effect on the room cli­mate.

Depend­ing on roof pitch and access­ib­il­ity, you can choose from dif­fer­ent win­dow solu­tions. Top-oper­­ated pivot win­dows are suit­able for low-pitched roofs and for loc­a­tions where access to the win­dow is impeded by a desk or oth­er piece of fur­niture. When there is free access to the win­dow, a top-hung pivot win­dow is the first choice: its gen­er­ous open­ing angle provides more head­room and an even bet­ter view – the ideal solu­tion for attic flats without bal­cony. An altern­at­ive to dormers are wedge frame win­dows: they are ver­tic­ally inser­ted into the roof and usu­ally not sub­ject to approv­al. Bot­tom-hung or top-hung dormer win­dows are a less expens­ive solu­tion. With a floor-to-ceil­ing type roof win­dow, even a small bal­cony can be real­ized so that you can step out­side and enjoy an “out­door feel­ing”. Of key import­ance is the right sol­ar shad­ing of the roof win­dow to pro­tect you from the sum­mer heat. The most effect­ive solu­tions are installed out­side, for instance roller shut­ters and awn­ings. They ward off the heat much more effect­ively than blinds moun­ted on the inside. If you ini­tially shy away from the extra cost of sol­ar shad­ing, you will cer­tainly regret your decision at a later date.