Clearing the bonus room over the garage in Atlanta's OTP subdivisions

The short answer

The bonus room over the garage is the attic of the modern Atlanta subdivision, and it clears like one.

A bonus room used as a playroom or a home office is usually a quarter to three-eighths, $241 to $338. One that has been the family's overflow for a decade runs a half at $431, more if there is a walk-in attic off the side of it.

Or itemize if you can count it. Either way the carry down the back stair is included and there is no stair charge.

Where these rooms are and why they exist

Drive north or east out of the Perimeter and the housing changes completely. Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek, Suwanee, Cumming, Woodstock, Canton, and out east through Snellville, Lawrenceville and Dacula — two-story houses on subdivision streets, three-car side-entry garages, and a framed room above the garage bay.

Builders here added it because the roof volume was already there and the county was fine with it. Homeowners got a room with its own back stair, a knee wall or two, and often a door into an unfinished attic space beyond.

What it becomes, in order: a playroom, a teenager's room, a home office, a guest room nobody stays in, and finally storage. Most bonus room cleanout calls happen at stage five, usually when the house is going on the market or the last kid has left.

Why it is a harder carry than it looks

Four things make this the awkward room in the house.

The back stair. Bonus room stairs are usually secondary stairs — narrower than the main flight, often with a turn and a tight landing at the top. A sleeper sofa that went up as two people and a young back does not want to come down the same way.

The knee walls. The low storage doors along the sides open into unconditioned roof space, and that is where the boxes went. Getting things out of a knee wall means crouching in insulation.

The attic beyond. Many of these rooms have a door into a walk-in attic over the rest of the garage. That space is frequently fuller than the room itself, and it is where the Christmas decorations, the wedding boxes and the kids' old furniture ended up.

Nothing was carried up in one piece. Flat-pack desks and bookcases were assembled in the room. They come apart on the way out, or they do not come out at all.

None of that is billable. The truck tier or the item price is the price.

What comes out of one

The abandoned office: sofa $126 + desk $83 + bookcase (flat-pack) $100 + box of electronics $77 = $386.

The kids-are-grown load: crib $67 + baby gear $33 + bunk bed $123 = $223.

The exercise phase: treadmill $115 + weight bench $69 = $184. Bonus rooms are where treadmills go to retire in this part of the metro — upstairs, out of sight, and far too heavy to bring back down casually.

The temperature problem

Bonus rooms sit inside the roof envelope over an unconditioned garage, and in Georgia that has consequences for what is in them.

Many of these rooms are on a separate zone or a single supply run, and plenty of households just close the vent and shut the door once nobody is using it. That leaves a space that bakes in summer and swings with the humidity all year.

What survives: plastic bins, metal, hard goods. What does not: cardboard, which goes soft; photographs and paper, which stick and curl; anything upholstered, which mildews; candles and vinyl, which warp; and particleboard, which swells at every joint and then fails when you lift it.

So budget for more disposal and less donation than you expect. Boxes stored in a knee wall for eight Georgia summers rarely contain anything a charity will take.

Access in subdivision Atlanta

Different constraints from intown, and worth flagging at booking.

• Gates and call boxes. Johns Creek, Milton, Peachtree City and much of north Fulton and Gwinnett need a code or a name on the list. Without it the truck waits at the gate.
• HOA rules. Covenants often restrict staging items on the driveway or at the curb, and some restrict work hours. Tell us and nothing gets staged where it should not be.
• The driveway is the easy part. Unlike intown, these are long, wide and flat, so the truck backs right up to the garage. That is the one advantage of the OTP job.
• The drive out. Getting a crew to Alpharetta, Suwanee or Woodstock in the afternoon means GA-400 or I-85 north in the wrong direction. The arrival window is fixed at booking, which is the point.

Time it with the listing

Most of these calls come from people about to sell. A stuffed bonus room reads badly in photographs and worse in a walkthrough, because buyers in these subdivisions are specifically evaluating whether the house has enough space for their own things.

Clear it before the photographer, not before the closing. And do the walk-in attic at the same time — it is one visit, one truck, and it is the part that always gets left.

If you are on a listing deadline, book with a buffer of a few days. The spring listing season here is also pollen season, and staging boxes in the driveway overnight means a yellow film over everything by morning.

Booking it

Describe the room, say whether there is a walk-in attic off it, and pick a tier or list the items. Fixed arrival window, price agreed before the truck leaves, and the back stair is not your problem.

Frequently asked questions