Hi All,
I live in a very small 1930s semi and I'm in the process of converting
the loft space to a usable space...floorboards, ceiling and velux
window are installed...

I'm currently using an aluminum ladder for access.
I want to install a stairway but there is too little room for it to be
obvious how best to do it.

One option is to use a modular spiral staircase as seen at my local
dealers but the amount of room on the landing is minimal (with two
doorways to the kids bedrooms to contend with so access to these rooms
will be blocked). ;-(

A friend had their's done professionally and the installers took a
chunk out of their bedroom to run a stairway and repositioned the
hatch at the top of the new stairway. Is this my only realistic
option?

Have you got any ideas or are there any sites that deal with loft
conversions in small houses?

Thanks in anticpation,

Cheers,
Mark
M/cr

to reply by email please take the michael

Mark D wrote:
Hi All,
I live in a very small 1930s semi and I'm in the process of converting
the loft space to a usable space...floorboards, ceiling and velux
window are installed...

I'm currently using an aluminum ladder for access.
I want to install a stairway but there is too little room for it to be
obvious how best to do it.

No way to run the second stairway above the first (parallel to it)?


One option is to use a modular spiral staircase as seen at my local
dealers but the amount of room on the landing is minimal (with two
doorways to the kids bedrooms to contend with so access to these rooms
will be blocked). ;-(

How do you get a bed down a spiral staircase? (okay, someone will let
us know how it's done, it's the issue I am raising here ;-)


A friend had their's done professionally and the installers took a
chunk out of their bedroom to run a stairway and repositioned the
hatch at the top of the new stairway. Is this my only realistic
option?

It's probably a lot to contemplate, but it may be the only reasonable
way.


Have you got any ideas or are there any sites that deal with loft
conversions in small houses?


Whilst others here may reply with chapter-and-verse, there are
regulations out
there intended to ensure that you don't build a fire death-trap.
I would have thought that your Building Control Officer would have
insisted on
a planned permanent stairwell, not as an afterthought once the loft has
been boarded and Veluxe windows installed.

As much as I too complain about the cost of Building Warrants and the
extra
hoops that I have to jump through to comply, often these regulations
have
common sense at their base.
Trying to convince folk with little experience that these hoops are
mandatory is
often a regrettable episode.

You may care to use Google to search here for other people's thoughts
on
similar predicaments.

HTH

Mungo

"Mark D" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I live in a very small 1930s semi and I'm in the process of converting
the loft space to a usable space...floorboards, ceiling and velux
window are installed...

I'm currently using an aluminum ladder for access.
I want to install a stairway but there is too little room for it to be
obvious how best to do it.

One option is to use a modular spiral staircase as seen at my local
dealers but the amount of room on the landing is minimal (with two
doorways to the kids bedrooms to contend with so access to these rooms
will be blocked). ;-(

A friend had their's done professionally and the installers took a
chunk out of their bedroom to run a stairway and repositioned the
hatch at the top of the new stairway. Is this my only realistic
option?

Have you got any ideas or are there any sites that deal with loft
conversions in small houses?


The installation of a permanent stair is the general "rule of thumb" that
defines the loft space as "habitable". Once it is habitable it will be
reqired to fulfil all the fire protection requirements etc., for a habitable
loft conversion. These fire regulations would not allow an unenclosed spiral
stair, as a 30 minute fire door will be required to separate the loft from
the rest of the house (and that's just the start). I have no objection to
the regulations and abided by them for my loft conversion - when you have 6
9 year olds sleeping up there on a sleep-over, you may be glad you did!
Nonetheless, if you want to keep within the law, your existing access may
have to do!


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

Screwfix do a Space-Saver stair, no: 33669.

www.screwfix.com

--
brian
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Ashnook-Plants
www.ashnookplants.co.uk
Quality & Value
"Mark D" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I live in a very small 1930s semi and I'm in the process of converting
the loft space to a usable space...floorboards, ceiling and velux
window are installed...

I'm currently using an aluminum ladder for access.
I want to install a stairway but there is too little room for it to be
obvious how best to do it.

One option is to use a modular spiral staircase as seen at my local
dealers but the amount of room on the landing is minimal (with two
doorways to the kids bedrooms to contend with so access to these rooms
will be blocked). ;-(

A friend had their's done professionally and the installers took a
chunk out of their bedroom to run a stairway and repositioned the
hatch at the top of the new stairway. Is this my only realistic
option?

Have you got any ideas or are there any sites that deal with loft
conversions in small houses?

Thanks in anticpation,

Cheers,
Mark
M/cr

to reply by email please take the michael

Mark D wrote:


I live in a very small 1930s semi and I'm in the process of converting
the loft space to a usable space...floorboards, ceiling and velux
window are installed...

Floor strengthened as well I hope!

I'm currently using an aluminum ladder for access.
I want to install a stairway but there is too little room for it to be
obvious how best to do it.

The rules for stairs into loft conversions are relaxed - more so if
there is only one habitable room up there. A "space saver" stair or even
aspiral may be permissable in these cases.

A friend had their's done professionally and the installers took a
chunk out of their bedroom to run a stairway and repositioned the
hatch at the top of the new stairway. Is this my only realistic
option?

Without drawings / photos it is impossible for us to say.

Have you got any ideas or are there any sites that deal with loft
conversions in small houses?

Try:

www.loftshop.co.uk

My site may also have something of use:

www.internode.co.uk/loft


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Consider whether you are likely to sell your property within 10 years. We
have had loads of people who can't sell because they've something like this
without permission, trying and failing to regularise the works. The usual
big issue is the means of escape layout, but there's the usual
structural/insulation type issues.

You may not consider what you are doing is making the loft habitable, but if
a purchaser's mortgage company does, you could have problems.

IanC




"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Mark D wrote:


I live in a very small 1930s semi and I'm in the process of converting
the loft space to a usable space...floorboards, ceiling and velux
window are installed...

Floor strengthened as well I hope!

I'm currently using an aluminum ladder for access.
I want to install a stairway but there is too little room for it to be
obvious how best to do it.

The rules for stairs into loft conversions are relaxed - more so if there
is only one habitable room up there. A "space saver" stair or even aspiral
may be permissable in these cases.

A friend had their's done professionally and the installers took a
chunk out of their bedroom to run a stairway and repositioned the
hatch at the top of the new stairway. Is this my only realistic
option?

Without drawings / photos it is impossible for us to say.

Have you got any ideas or are there any sites that deal with loft
conversions in small houses?

Try:

www.loftshop.co.uk

My site may also have something of use:

www.internode.co.uk/loft


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:29:30 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:

Try:

www.loftshop.co.uk

My site may also have something of use:

www.internode.co.uk/loft

And also: http://www.titanladders.co.uk/PAGES/home.html