I got to thinking about this and had to really wonder. If any zoned mechanical unit was targeted for an attic and accommodated elsewhere is there really a need for an attic other than to give an appearance of a traditional roofline?
Attics were never meant for living space, but it seems to have adopted a role as a place of conveneicne for storage, mechanicals, etc. in the modern world. There are designs for homes where attics do not exist in this conventional sense, so I have to wonder about the costs involved in having an attic.
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gives you a place to store the bottom chord of your truss and your extra buckets of roof-pitch ;-)
I think it's cheaper to have an attic than not to have one. Regular trusses are cheaper than scissor trusses, and you also save by not having to deal with angled ceilings, hiding vent pipe laterals, etc.
'need for an attic'
Storage
However; dont think there is a ;single tract house being built in Seattle area with either an attic or a basement, realtors tell me their 'studies' show the return on investment is not worthwhile. There are a plethora of rental storage units in the area - wonder why<G>
Personally, would not have a house without a basement, nor a truss attic with a kingpost.
Revised the area above the garage of son's house to add storage, reinforcement of bottom truss chords and garage beam another topic and technical discussion.
Oh yeah, their 'attic' is totally packed, thinking of installing a sprinkler, already installed a thermo controlled vent fan.