Any builders/architects? I'm trying to avoid my roof caving in..

If your roof is a truss roof I doubt you'll be able to do it anyway, which im presuming it is going by your drawing, be more work anyway. Have you even got the height and headroom? A traditional roof usually only has purlings running the length of the roof, gable to gable, Might have some headers in too. Its not by any means a cheap nor quick job, can tell you that as I've done a fair few. You'd need some steel and floor joists in as you cant use your existing ceiling joists as a floor. You're best off ringing and seeing if you need building regs atleast first, as you need stairs, fire exits etc, so youd need a top hung velux in there too,and a decent builder, preferably by word of mouth than some tom dick and harry thats advertising.
 
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It will probably take a lot of work to turn it into a really useable space, and, I can't say I know the planning permissions required. If its a bedroom it usually needs to meet a load of regs, office, not so sure.

Ultimately, ring around friends, get a reference for a good builder if you don't have one, a reputable one who won't skip things like planning permission or doing things right, and see if you can arrange a quick visit to see if they can give you the general gist of what is required. There will probably be a dozen things a professional builder can see by actually taking a look that you haven't described, that will make it possible, or not and what other adjustments need doing.

If its a cold space and the insulation is in the floor, that might mean even more work turning it into a proper usable space, insulation, ventilation, maybe plasterboaring the whole thing up, windows, stairs. Maybe that is money you want to spend or maybe its not remotely worth it to you. Realistically, a 5 min look and a builder can tell you with a relative degree of accuracy if its a 2 week 10k job, or a 2 month 50k full on conversion that needs planning permission and can't get done for a year.
 
Get a structural engineer to look at it and do some calculations, then get a builder in, provide notification to council if necessary

Not the cheapest way but it covers your backside
 
heres a shortlist of what you'll need.

as listed above an engineer will be a must so that you can change the trusses into attic trusses / room in roof, whatever you want to call them.

If you're looking to putting a proper stair up you'll need 2m headroom over the whole of the stair as well as the landing top and bottom. Regardless of whether its a bedroom or an office it will still be classified as a habitable room and will therefore require daylighting, insulation, ventilation as well a variety of space standards.
As mentioned above depending on whether the attic will be classed as a third floor you may have to upgrade all doors (that require them) to fire doors around your stair.

Employ an architect though because in the past couple of months I've had a couple of jobs to deal with where a client has gone straight ahead and done work without the relevant building warrant (up to ten years previously) and we've had to sort out the mess (regulation wise) to keep Building Control happy and I can tell you its a bloody nightmare! :mad:
 
Are you making the space more usable to store things or to make a little hideaway up there?

If you're going to go to all the hassle of changing the supports consider just going the whole hog and getting a loft conversion with a dormer. It'll cost anywhere from 15-40k but the value of the house would increase.
 
Vanilla said:
Are you making the space more usable to store things or to make a little hideaway up there?

If you're going to go to all the hassle of changing the supports consider just going the whole hog and getting a loft conversion with a dormer. It'll cost anywhere from 15-40k but the value of the house would increase.
Click to expand...

he mentioned he would like to use it as an office ;)
 
If you want to live in a pile of rubble then:

A: Dont consult a structural engineers
B: Knock out the supports
 
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