Hi

We've just bought a new house and have discovered that the loft spaces
above the garage and above one of the bedrooms are not accessible.
The only way to make them accessible would be for hatches to be put in
the ceilings (however the main loft area in the house does have a
hatch).

Is there some building regulation to state that all roof space must be
accessible? If the roof above the garage or this bedroom develops a
problem, the only way to get to it would be to break through the
ceiling!

Thanks for any advice.

Adrian

No regulation at all that says you must get into it.
If the roof above the garage develops a problem?? leak, water penetration
etc? what do you hope to acheive from the inside except possibly see the
problem better. Almost all of the problems will have to be cured from the
outside. Of course if the roof space is large enough it seems common sense
to give it access if only for storage.

In article ,
(Adrian) writes:
Hi

We've just bought a new house and have discovered that the loft spaces
above the garage and above one of the bedrooms are not accessible.
The only way to make them accessible would be for hatches to be put in
the ceilings (however the main loft area in the house does have a
hatch).

Is there some building regulation to state that all roof space must be
accessible? If the roof above the garage or this bedroom develops a
problem, the only way to get to it would be to break through the
ceiling!

I would _guess_ that any loft hatch in a garage, if garage is intergal
with the house, would have to be fireproof, and must not be able to
be left open (like doors between garage and house have to have
self-closers). Given normal methods of access through loft hatches,
that all sounds difficult to arrange.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Is there some building regulation to state that all roof space must be
accessible?

There's no need. However, it may be worth putting one in so that you can
inspect, renew or increase the loft insulation, which is likely to be
defecient. If the space is big enough, you could use it for storage, too.

Christian.

On 4 May 2004 06:42:18 -0700, a particular chimpanzee named
(Adrian) randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

We've just bought a new house and have discovered that the loft spaces
above the garage and above one of the bedrooms are not accessible.

There should be 30 minutes fire resistance between an integral garage
and the habitable part of the house. Either the separating wall
extends to the underside of the roof, or the ceiling is two layers of
12.5mm plasterboard (or a Fireline-type board) with no perforations in
it (such as loft hatches).
--
Hugo Nebula
"The fact that no-one on the internet wants a piece of this
shows you just how far you've strayed from the pack".

Christian McArdle wrote:
Is there some building regulation to state that all roof space must be
accessible?


There's no need. However, it may be worth putting one in so that you can
inspect, renew or increase the loft insulation, which is likely to be
defecient. If the space is big enough, you could use it for storage, too.

Christian.



But don't cut out all the roof supports to improve the loft space like
that prat in the news last week!!

Phil

Thanks a lot for your help guys - that's cleared up the confusion.

Cheers
Adrian