RE: OT - loft floor reinforcing

["David Yeend" <david.yeend@xxxxxxx>]

In an attempt to add Humour.....



Obviously you know your property better than I do but I think your roof is
possibility the inspiration for one of the themes of the Asterix the Gaul
stories.



"Vitalstatistix has only one fear; he is afraid the sky may fall on
his head tomorrow. But as he always says, 'Tomorrow never comes.'"



Now the attempt to be serious......



My opinion, for anyone who wants it, is that it is best to get a proper
conversion done if you intend on adding to resale value.



I am far from knowledgeable on the subject however I read an article once
about overloading lofts, structural integrity and the such which basically
said don't just board the thing out (probably in Loft Conversion weekly or
something....;-)). From what I remember it identified considerations such
as the fact that the structure is designed to support a static weight of X
plus a covering of snow, not all of that and a heap of plaster board.....
Also another consideration is the load on the roof beams, these are
designed more for load bearing along their length and not from directly
above. The upshot was that a proper conversion upgrades the structure to
cater for these considerations.



My next door neighbour recently had his loft converted and all of the
joists were doubled in width - this had the effect of taking out a lot of
sag due to the weight of the tiles and they gained an extra 8 inches across
the loft at the previously most saggy point - when I saw it I was amazed!
The beams were supplemented with floor joists that were doubled up where
stud walls were to be fixed.



Just as another thought I also had a mortgage application turned down once
on the basis of a full structural survey report which identified the loft
'conversion' as more damaging to the property than beneficial. I can not
remember all of the details and I do not have the report to hand, it's
probably in the loft ;-). IIRC it went along the lines of the space could
not be classified as a habitable living area as the structure and access
regulations had not been adhered to. There was also something else to with
ventilation as well - I can not remember the detail but it was concerning
the actual ability of the roof structure to dry out properly and not suffer
damp problems due to condensation.



Anyway just a little food for thought, as I said I am far from an expert
and stand to be corrected.



Regards,



David.



-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Gordon [mailto:paul_gordon@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 04 February 2004 12:30
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] OT - loft floor reinforcing



*         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.





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