Anybody know about loft conversions ?

[MassiveJim]

We have a new build house so that means unfortunately we have a truss style roof (more work and more expense)

I would like to find out roughly what cost I would have to convert my loft space to a useable "space", the reason I say space is realistically the rooms on the 1st floor are so small we couldn't afford to lose space out of any of those rooms to make way for a staircase, so I would have to have access to this space via a loft ladder.
I plan on making the room my office which is currently in bedroom 3.

the timbers in the loft are 5 x 2, am I right in thinking I would need to upgrade toi a 7 x 2 to support a floor without causing esxcess stress on ceilings and door frames in the floor below ?


Most loft conversion places want £10k+
As I will never be able to fully and properly convert the room, how much would I be looking at to fit the new floor beams and move the trusses/add new supports for the roof.

The rest of the work I could either do myself or get done later.

for example
I could fit the floor,
I could install insulation in the roof and plasterboard over it.
I could run wire for lighting and sockets then have an electrician connect my wiring to the house and check he is happy with my wiring.


I seem to think I could save quite a bit of money doing it this way and I am not bothered about it ever being classed as a proper room. it will just create office space for me to work in.

 

[MassiveJim]

See that is the thing I don't want it classifying as a room as there simply isn't enough space to install a staircase.

I know that people have access to loft spaces via ladders, what is the issue with it ?
Is it fire regs or something ?

There is plenty of headroom by the way. But a full on loft conversion is off the cards
a - because of available space for additional staircase
b - because of cost.

 

[MassiveJim]

I do love these bodge type jobs. If you're going to do it, do it properly.
you say do it properly but I have said below that I can't due to the house being small anyway which leaves nowhere to install a staircase. the 2 smaller bedrooms as an example are roughly 3m x 2.4m, I would basicly lose one of these rooms if I installed a staircase, which in that case isn't worth doing as the cost outlay to properly convert the attic wouldn't actually gain me and real additional space or add value to the house due to it still having the same number of rooms, ie I would spend 10k+ for absolutely nothing

Alarm points listed :-

New build = minimum material to maximise profit (not much room for 'error')
please expand on this point
am I right in thinking I would need to upgrade toi a 7 x 2 to support a floor without causing esxcess stress on ceilings and door frames in the floor below = no because we don't know how far you're trying to span with the floor and if there any loadbearing partitions below to split the span.
who would know or how would I find out if the partitions below were load bearing ? and assuming that there aren't any, what additional work are we talking about ? Haven't measured the space exactly but it is roughly 4m x 4m

Most loft conversion places want £10k+ As I will never be able to fully and properly convert the room = See opening statement to my response.

I could run wire for lighting and sockets then have an electrician connect my wiring to the house and check he is happy with my wiring. = sparkies are self certifying so doubt he would put his name to your work so if your house burned down due to an electrical fault who would you blame and do you think your insurance would pay out?
moot point really, I would consult said sparky first and understand what he is or isn't willing to do and make sure the work was a - safe and b - certified

I seem to think I could save quite a bit of money doing it this way and I am not bothered about it ever being classed as a proper room. = but you'll not be able to sell the property if after you've done it and no one in their right mind will touch it without the proper warrants.
Any work done will need to have proper certs I understand this, for example messing around with roof trusses so I don't expect it to be done proper cheap cheap just don't want to spend 10k. I don't want to sell the loft space as additional space either, it is purely for me to use

But other than that, yeah you should be fine in converting it as you've stated.....

Thanks for your advice/comments, please see my responses in bold

 

[MassiveJim]

Partly to do with Fire regulations when you have a building over three floors but since you want just an access hatch you can get a half hour fire rated hatch if you are wanting to pursue this.



I typically work with timber frame construction but I'll assume your house is block cavity with block partitions?

When i state that theres no room for error I'm referring to the manufacturer will use the minimum amount of timber for the house to be stable (in this case the roof structure) but any type of alteration / future expansion you'll need to beef things up considerably.



the space you want to work with is approx 4 x 4 m but the trusses will either be free spanning external wall to external wall or will have a mid support (loadbearing wall). Typically these can be identified if there is a 'spine' wall running the full length of the building which line up on both floors, quite often these will be at one side of the corridor / stair opening. Regardless of whether you do or dont have any loadbearing partitions you would need to have floor joists which run the full width of your house so that they are supported at both ends. This throws up the issue of any pipework / fixtures which are already in place. Any roof transplants that we do we raise the floor level by about 100 mm so that all existing services / ceilings remain untouched.

Sparky - I'm assuming you know a sparky personally as I would doubt someone would certify someone elses work / certify a 'homer' where you're essentially doing their job for them i.e a job missed out for them.



Regardless of whether the space is just for you if you do decide to sell in the future when your estate agent is looking around your property they will look in the loft and if its all lined / insulated with electrics they will include it in the schedule as useable space which a buyers solicitor will look for the paperwork for.

I've had first hand experience of this when a client phoned in requiring a retrospective building warrant where they had carried out the work using planning drawings (no construction details) over 10 years ago and wanted to sell their house the buyers solicitor flagged it up and he had to rip out parts of the plasterboard so that insulation etc could be upgraded to a better standard since he didn't get a warrant at the time of works.

Thanks for that.
There is no load bearing wall in the house at all, apart from externals.
build is block cavity, brick external walls, only internal walls are upstairs and they are timber frame clad with plasterboard.

Sparky side of things, I understand what you are saying, I would either do it myself and get one to signoff the work OR just get them to do the work I don't need a lot of sockets etc so it wouldn't be too much extra cost on the whole project.

But from what you are saying it doesn't sound like I would get permission to do this without having a staircase which kind of makes the whole idea pointless.

 

[MassiveJim]

what kind of paperwork needs completing to make the whole thing legit once it has been finished ?

 

[MassiveJim]

Conflicting info in this thread.

Some say it cannot be legit unless "done properly"
others say it can be boarded out and would be fine.

and TFC I do not want to use it as a permanent room without first strengthening the floor (as per my original post)

Suppose I had better speak with a builder.

 

[MassiveJim]

This it's perfectly legit to sell a house with a converted loft or sellar that wasn't done to specs and just list them as storage space.

Ignore the people saying sparkies won't touch your work, plenty will sign off first fix work done by others as it's a crappy job they don't want to do and they still make nearly the same money for doing the second fix and certifying so they don't need to get dirty.

If your not bothered about regs I'd just inulae board and install a ladder chances are it will be fine, I knew loads of people growing up who had loft like that as play rooms etc. I wouldn't want it as an office though for any serious length of time as the lack of natural light would make it horrible to be there for any length of time!

So using this logic,
it isn't worth spending lots of money on the loft as it won't add any value to the property.
I don't think my joists would stand regular use, I have seen people mention a method of joist strengthening where you add a thicker stronger joist on top of the one that is already there, is this sufficient ?

I flat out will NOT do this if it is going to cause damage to ceilings below etc.
I also do not want to spank 10K+ on a full loft conversion as I just won't see the money back and it does not give me enough extra space to warrant the outlay