RE: OT - loft floor reinforcing

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Scott,

No doubt others here will be more knowledgable than me, since I haven't
actually done it...

However, I did consider doing a "proper" loft conversion a year
or two ago,
and did a little preliminary research into these questions. The thing that
scuppered it for me was that the building regs demand a minimum height
clearance in the loft in order for it to be considered a room. IIRC this
magic height was 2.4m and I was about .2m short... :-(   - upshot being
that
the *only* way I could do a compliant loft conversion was to lower all the
upstairs ceilings... Since I had already completed some quite expensive
renovations in most of the upstairs rooms in the previous 3-4 years, that
was just not ever going to be an option, hence the plan has been dropped.

During other discussions I had with my builder, he informed me that I would
need to install uprated floor joists, and would require (IIRC) 2" x
9" beams
to support a load bearing floor. - that immediately meant 9 inches of that
precious space lost as well, - or a further lowering of the ceilings to
acommodate... He indicated that the new 9" joists could be suspended
above
above the existing ones(which of course would have reduced the headroom
even
more), and would be hung from the two end walls... - one of these being a
party wall with our neighbours house would have meant additional party wall
planning headaches....

I seem to recall as well, that it is mainly the fixed staircase that makes
it officially a room, (so you can then "legally" change your
house
description from a 3-bed to a 4-bed or whatever...), but I'm sure it must
probably be a bit more complicated than that...

I have resigned myself to the fact that I am never going to do it in this
house, so I have had a decent loft ladder fitted, I've boarded the entire
floor area on the original 2"x4" joists, and I've started
plasterboarding
the ceiling. Later this year, I will also have a couple of Velux roof
windows fitted. It will be made into a state where I consider it to be
"habitable" (not the official definition of habitable that
various building
regs use) and I will use it as my workshop/den/storeroom.

I already have a *huge* amount of "stuff" up there... the loading
on the
floor is easily as much as would ever be likely to occur if it were in use
as a room... I have 2 portable aircon units (v heavy), shelf units packed
to
the gills with all my tools, unused flatpack furniture, spare timber,
several PC's, monitors, boxes full of books & videos, office chairs, my
old
microwave, and so on.... - barely room to swing a cat in fact... The only
effect this has had on the ceilings below has been to produce 1
"popper" in
the master bedroom, where one of the nail heads holding up the plasterboard
has pushed back through the skim coat on the ceiling.

HTH

Paul G.



>From: Scott Crowther <scrowther@xxxxxxx;
>Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>To: "'ukha_d@xxxxxxx'" <ukha_d@xxxxxxx;
>Subject: [ukha_d] OT - loft floor reinforcing
>Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 11:47:23 -0000
>
>
>Problem: the floor! I'm struggling to find out what I need to do to
>reinforce the floor in the loft to comply with building regs and
>(eventually) be considered as a new room.
>

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