How Can I Create Attic Storage Above Attic Insulation?

Our Answer

You unfortunately can’t have both, as most attics are not designed as storage spaces. Either you have an attic with the correct amount of insulation – 15 to 20 inches – or you have attic storage if you insist on it at the attic floor joist level.  Joists are 8 to 10 inches deep, so they only give you that much depth for insulation.  But you need more – and it’s not as simple as crushing it, or it won’t insululate.  Here are my suggestions: Either build an elevated storage platform, or strategically carve out an area of the attic toward the middle, where less insulation is needed, and reduce insulation in the interest of floor-level storage there.