DIY Loft Conversion

cyclonebri1

keith969 wrote: »

The house I recently bought started life as a bungalow, and had a loft conversion about 12 years ago. Couple of things to think about:

- insulation. Make sure you have plenty as its almost impossible to change it once the roof is up.

- storage space. I really miss having a loft to fill with junk! You might be able to make small areas of the roof space (behind vertical bedroom walls) accessible, even a little is useful.

- electrics. Make sure anything above the ceiling that needs to be accessed can be. Again without removing part of the ceiling/roof its impossible to get to...

Good point Keith, what we've done in the past is to run a length of 40 waste pipe in the ceiling void between the lower ceiling/upper floor. Almost in variably the joists are the right way round for this. Each end ends in the triagular void at each edge. Simple then to get power or even possibly gas from one side to the other with no disruption

Gizzmom, what I was hinting at in the previous post is that if you use the council BI, and he finds any changes to what is specifically indicated on the plans as approved by planning, he is obliged to inform that dept.
If a private BI is used he does not. That can help if minor problems arise during construction. Don't take that as gospel untill you've checked it out but a trusted architect aquaintance pointed it out to me.

MX5huggy

I would consider timber frame construction for extending the walls.

cyclonebri1

MX5huggy wrote: »

I would consider timber frame construction for extending the walls.

You can't as it has to carry the roof :mad:

Gizmosmum_2

Haven't heard of a private BI before .... I'm planning to go through BR with a Building Notice rather than plans. I'm really peeved with the guy who's drawn the plans and I've no intention paying him to make an even bigger mess of the building regs plan.

Our BR guys are usually really helpful, lets hope that there aren't too many snags along the way

Working out the storage and pipe runs etc as soon as loft empty, (which we're doing this afternoon.) bearing in mind what you've all said. Where does all of this rubbish come from??

MX5huggy

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

You can't as it has to carry the roof :mad:

Of course you can, whole houses are built of timber and they carry the whole weight of the roof and all the floors and the people standing in them and all there clobber.

Here we are just talking about the roof!

darich

MX5huggy wrote: »

Of course you can, whole houses are built of timber and they carry the whole weight of the roof and all the floors and the people standing in them and all there clobber.

Here we are just talking about the roof!

I agree that timber can be used to support the roof but how would you propose to connect the timber to the existing brick/concrete walls?

It may be easier to simply use bricks and mortar and just build higher using the same materials as the existing walls.

cyclonebri1

MX5huggy wrote: »

Of course you can, whole houses are built of timber and they carry the whole weight of the roof and all the floors and the people standing in them and all there clobber.

Here we are just talking about the roof!

No they don't. The load is spread over the internal walls by a complicated series of roof trusses and other supporting timbers. In this case there will be no internal timber work to carry the roof. It will all be carried on steel girders to leave a habitable space.

This conversion will have strengthened floor joists, strenthened rafters, added dormers and dirty great steel joists spanning the length of the roof. You will not get away with supporting this on timber work and neither would you want to.

GMM, check out the cost of using a private BI, it will be cheaper.

Gizmosmum_2

Thanks Cyclonebri1 - where do I look for a private BI? Can they sign off the work at the end just the same as the local authority building inspector?? It's going to cost me about £250 for the local authority guy do you reckon it'll be cheaper privately? I was hoping to use the LA BI as a bit of a sounding board if I'm not sure about things - then again I've discovered the joys of this forum

Gizmosmum_2

Met with the planning officer today who told me that the gable that they had recommended we have drawn up didn't meet with their approval. :mad:

When I pointed out that they had emailed me with the gable as a suggestion they accepted that perhaps it wasn't such bad idea after all. NOt at all impressed - they don't respond to phpone calls or emails and when you travel 45 miles for an appointment they haven't even had the courtesy to look at the drawings they've had for 2 weeks.

BC on the other hand were absolutely fab and gave me loads of advice and have bent over backwards to help us negotiate all the red tape.

We've put a stop on eveything now until the foundations are exposed and BC visit on Monday to deliver their verdict. If we need underpinning - it's bye bye DIY loft conversion:eek:

downshifted

Good luck - fingers crossed for you