A friend of mine is looking at buying a two bed terrace house in Wales which I suspect was built in about 1890. It’s got a “loft conversion” in which the loft space has been boarded and plastered, nicely carpeted and there’s a Velux window.

It all looks very presentable on the photos I’ve seen on the Estate Agent’s website but it’s approached via a loft ladder, not a proper staircase.

My friend is wondering whether they could have a proper staircase fitted.

This set me wondering about the floor of the loft. Mine was built in 1930 and has relatively substantial timbers holding up the ceiling of the bedrooms but I don’t think they’d be strong enough to support a full loft conversion without some serious insertion of joists – but back to the house in question.

I know some Victorian houses are “over engineered”. How likely is it that this house’s loft would not need stronger timbers to support the floor of the loft?

I’d go and do some poking around and measuring but it’s 150 miles away!