Space for loft conversion

NyimaR

Hi,
I'm considering buying a house and putting in a loft conversion but am wondering what the minimum space I would need on the first floor is (for putting in a staircase etc.). Can anyone help?

MX5huggy

Its controlled by building regs part K see here http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/professionals/buildingregs/technicalguidance/bcpffpartk/bcpffpartkappdoc

NyimaR

Thanks for that - I will take a peruse!

LlamaKarma

Don't suppose it's possible to get a loft conversion company round to look at it? Having just had a loft conversion done, it seems to me that the staircase is a complex issue and a professional would need to look at it..

iamcornholio

A straight flight will require something like 1m wide and 2.4m long. If you need to twist the stairs than the width will be more

Generally, if you can't get the new flight above the existing, then the next option is to take a strip off the biggest bedroom, and least preferable is to use/lose the smallest bedroom. Other options such as rejigging all the rooms starts to impact on cost/viability

The roof shape will also determine where stairs can go - gabled roofs are not too bad, but hipped roofs are a pain. Generally stairs need to rise to the centre of the loft. This gives a problem of messing up the floor plan. Alternatively stairs rising to near the perimeter require a new dormer to be built to give the stairs headroom - but planners don't like these