2Bdecided
wibbled on Friday 20 November 2009 11:49

We're about to buy a house, and _next_ _door_ the neighbour has
"converted" his loft. He's a roofer, his father is a builder. I don't
know them from Adam.

The conversion (and the loft!) isn't very tall - it's about 6ft tall
along the very middle, but move 1 ft either way and you bang your
head.

He's using it as his main bedroom - though he said that, if sold, the
room couldn't be counted or listed as a bedroom because of the reduced
head height, though it would probably be valued as one.

The bizarre thing is that in this 1973 terraced house, he claims not
to have strengthened the roof, rafters, etc because "it was already
strong enough". He's used kingspan+plaster board, added a velux window
at the back, the stairs are accessed via a door, and the whole thing
looks very nice. Other doors in the house are new, but I've no idea if
they would survive a fire for 30 minutes.


The thing is, I would like to convert the loft of the house we're
buying (next door!) in a similar way. I want a habitable room (not a
loft). I don't care if it doesn't count as a bedroom due to the
height, but I certainly _do_ care that it's safe (they'll be some
records kept up there - they're heavy!), and wouldn't impair a future
sale of the house.

I've searched this group for "loft conversion" stories, and found that
some people seem fine with "attic rooms that aren't really bedrooms",
while others find problems getting a mortgage due to rooms without
building control approval.


So, two questions:

1. how has the neighbour got away with it (or how does he think he'll
get away with it when he comes to sell)?
2. what should I do?

Cheers,
David.

You can insulate your loft without PP, though technically you might need BR
(modifcation of 25% of a thermal element) but no one is going to bust you
for this - just do it.

You can board your loft floor.

You may even be able to shove a velux window in - this is the only bit AFAIK
that PP may be involved with if you don't change the roof line.

Adding fixed stairs becomes dodgey, but if you had a ladder going through a
hatch, well, that's pretty normal.

If you then wanted to shove a bed in your *loft* that's your problem...

The point being, that if you are able to undo anything that may be dubious
at the time of sale (ie remove bed and ladder), I can't see it matters what
you do. As long as you accept the risk of falling down the ladder half
asleep, or your insurance company getting arsey about someone sleeping up
there. But your a big boy, you decide. You're not going to let any children
kip up there presumably?

Your main problem is how strong is the loft floor? Your bed is going to
point load up either 2 or 4 ceiling rafters significantly not to mention
your other stuff.

If you do something to strengthen the floor, then you may need BR as this is
rather more permanant.

I've seen this done in a house I was looking at buying - all the owners had
done was one velux window (legal round my way on the rearside) and a guard
rail around the hatch which was otherwise pretty standard. And the "ladder"
was bolted on.

They were quite upfront with the floor not being beefed up and that it
wasn't really a bedroom.

Didn't phase me in the slightest. What's the worst I could have done -
unbolted the ladder and called it a loft with a window.

But - if you'd like to do a pukka job, including possibly getting more head
height with a dormer and beefing up the floor, then it would be worth
having a chat to some firms. At least your efforts will partly payback with
added value on the house.

--
Tim Watts

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