New stronger floor in loft space

paddy's_mum

Have you thought that rather than guessing, you could approach a structural engineer or even the designer for a loft conversion company and see whether they will give you a quick but highly informative visit to see the loft itself, assess the realities and tell you exactly what you need to do to beef up your loft floor. It may cost you a couple of hundred pounds in fees but you would at least be going forward with more knowledge than you currently have.

Alternatively, perhaps your local Building Control Officer would be willing to come out to give you what is called in my area "an advisory visit" as preparatory information for a loft conversion that never takes place. BCO's see this kind of pick-my-brains all the time.

Perhaps you could console your frugal heart with the realisation that a collapsed ceiling and the increased insurance premiums if you get it badly wrong could be offset against the fees mentioned above!

foolishboy

paddy's_mum wrote: »

Have you thought that rather than guessing, you could approach a structural engineer or even the designer for a loft conversion company and see whether they will give you a quick but highly informative visit to see the loft itself, assess the realities and tell you exactly what you need to do to beef up your loft floor. It may cost you a couple of hundred pounds in fees but you would at least be going forward with more knowledge than you currently have.

Alternatively, perhaps your local Building Control Officer would be willing to come out to give you what is called in my area "an advisory visit" as preparatory information for a loft conversion that never takes place. BCO's see this kind of pick-my-brains all the time.

Perhaps you could console your frugal heart with the realisation that a collapsed ceiling and the increased insurance premiums if you get it badly wrong could be offset against the fees mentioned above!

Good advice, obviously.

A friend of a friend is a SE but he's on hols at the moment so I thought I'd get a plan of attack ready and run it by him when he's back.

Plus I'm not a complete plum when it comes to understanding what is at risk (I just lack a lot of practical experience), hence me not wanting to strap a load more unsupported weight on top of the ceiling joists as has been suggested already.

Cheers
FB (BEng)

Gloomendoom

Only confusion now is the ceiling binder which will be totally in the way as it is now. What do I have to do to allow me to replace that? Noggin the ceiling joists? Or bolt the new joists to ceiling joists?

Cheers,
FB[/QUOTE]

When I did something similar, I removed the binder and put in full depth noggins between the extended (in depth) joists.

foolishboy

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Only confusion now is the ceiling binder which will be totally in the way as it is now. What do I have to do to allow me to replace that? Noggin the ceiling joists? Or bolt the new joists to ceiling joists?

Cheers,
FB

When I did something similar, I removed the binder and put in full depth noggins between the extended (in depth) joists.[/QUOTE]

I'm going to noggin the new joists anyway (with offcuts - makes sense) but I'm not planning on connecting the ceiling joists to the new joists at all so how will the noggins replace the ceiling binder?

Cheers,
FB

Gloomendoom

Ah... if you're not attaching the new joists to the existing ceiling joists, it won't.

Maybe you ought to consider attaching them, it would make the binder redundant.

foolishboy

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Ah... if you're not attaching the new joists to the existing ceiling joists, it won't.

Maybe you ought to consider attaching them, it would make the binder redundant.

I was going to but then I thought that any deflection in the new joists would then transfer to the existing ceiling joists which is precisely what I'm trying to avoid. Thinking about it the new structure will be so much more solid (not to mention properly supported) I'm sure that'd be fine even if I just bolt them together in the existing binder position rather than the whole way along. A question for the SE that one, either way the binder has to go or I'll never get the joists to rest on the wall plates

Cheers!
FB

foolishboy

andrew-b wrote: »

Or maybe you should get someone in who actually has a clue as to what they are doing. You know a structural engineer so why not wait and ask them as they can take a proper look and advise you properly.

Very helpful .. do you put that reply on every question asked in the DIY forum?

I want to learn, think things out for myself and of course get a professional to give me the thumbs up before I go cutting my loft around.

FB

plumb1_2

Building Control Cert??? What happens when you try to sell your home?????

foolishboy

plumb1 wrote: »

Building Control Cert??? What happens when you try to sell your home?????

..they'll get a 10x stronger floor in their loft than most people, plenty of photos to prove construction plus some SE figures to prove I did it right.

That is _if_ we sell and don't do a full proper loft conversion before then.

FB