Just completed and discovered loft conversion

mark55man

interesting. I think I agree that it is not a loft conversion - having had one. but I would regard it as a bonus a sort of loft-plus. The bonus element is slightly tarnished by uncertainty so you need to remove that

* could you contact the previous tenant/landlord and ask what they used it for
* without it being "living space" think what could you like to use it for - an office, a video room, ....

Depending on what you decide I would get a tradesman/general builder in (warn him its a bit of an unknown) and ask him to explore the options with you - at worst you end up with a loft, and best you may get an extra room and the builder has a chance of some work

(*edit - or phone a carpet company and ask them to lay a new one - :-)

mahoney

The carpet in there is deep pile and looks barely used ... Now what does that mean? I think the tenants living there before we bought it never went into the loft. It was rented for 5 years. I never went in the loft when I rented.

It's the first house I've owned with a loft - apart from my parent's house, but only Dad ever went in the loft - hopefully this explains why I'm denser than the average when discussing lofts.

Wickedkitten

Ha that's pretty awesome. Surprised that the surveyor didn't spot it but then again, you might have just had a lazy surveyor. Ours has a ladder that he keeps in his car so he can get into lofts and even for homebuyers surveys has a look.

getmore4less

Sound like a boarded loft to me.

loads of houses have them.

This one is just a bit fancy


board actual strenthen the the situation spreading the loads across multiple joists. and provide firm footing than a single joist that you can slip off.

poppysarah

What sort of window would you not notice? Do people not look up at the roof when they view a property?

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

^^^ Exactly what i thought!!

OP - Can you not see the window from the ground!??

RLH33

Personally I wouldn't be too worried about walking on it - what I would be worried about is if they have cut the roof trusses, joists or otherwise altered the roof structure to make the room. If they haven't done it properly then your roof could collapse:eek:

I would get a builder/structural engineer/surveyor round quick just to make sure it isn't dangerous.

Milliewilly

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Fire regs will specify the size and location of the window as it needs to be accessible by the fire brigade. To pass buildings regs the loft conversion will need a proper staircase with full head height and a fire door either at the top or the bottom. It may well cost more to put this right than it would have done to start from scratch.

Surveyors often don't report on areas they can't get access to; if you want a thorough job you would need to request permission to lift fitted carpets and check that there is loft access so they can check the roof timbers. Having said that I can't understand how your surveyor didn't notice a velux window!

For a Homebuyers survey I would be asking serious questions as to why the Surveyor didn't pop his head into the loft space at least or report on the presence of the hatch (but had forgotten his ladders so couldn't look in!) let alone the window!

GDB2222

Milliewilly wrote: »

For a Homebuyers survey I would be asking serious questions as to why the Surveyor didn't pop his head into the loft space at least or report on the presence of the hatch (but had forgotten his ladders so couldn't look in!) let alone the window!

The terms of a homebuyers report are quite restricted. I can't recall for sure, but I vaguely recall it excludes climbing up any ladders at all. So, ladders not forgotten, just not required?

Doozergirl

mark88man wrote: »

* without it being "living space" think what could you like to use it for - an office, a video room, ....

:wall:

Lofts which have not been converted properly are not rooms because they are not safe!

It's not about 'pretending' it's not a room but using it as one anyway. It's not about whether you call it a room or not, it's about whether it's safe or not. If the joists have been put there to hold up a ceiling they are not strong enough to hold the weight of a room.