turning loft into a usable room

LilacPixie

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to turn a loft into a usable room (for storage) but with a proper staircase installed rather than just a pull down ladder or if to get a real staircase we would need to go for a full blown loft conversion.

Budget is tight and i have nerve damage in my leg that makes climbing ladders impossible and I hate having to relay on other to put stuff in the loft for me or get stuff out the loft for me.

iamcornholio

I would suspect that Scottish regulations are the same as those from England, in which case if you put a permanent stair access in, then the full building regulations will apply for a loft conversion - structural floor, insulation, fire precautions etc

Norma_Desmond

I would imagine you could have any type of staircase you want....someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

We're about to board out our attic mainly for storage and accessibility and will be installing a pull-down ladder, but one with a proper handrail for safety and stability; would that do for you?

Gloomendoom

When I looked into it, if a permanent stair was installed then building regs applied.

cyclonebri1

Doesn't it depend on the use of the loft area, ie, what the proposed work gives the home owner,

If it's not inhabitable space then it's different?>


Stand to be corrected

iamcornholio

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Doesn't it depend on the use of the loft area, ie, what the proposed work gives the home owner,

No, under building regulations, as soon as a permanent stair case is installed and extra floor is created and an habitable use presumed

LilacPixie

Looks like it would be back to the drawing board for us. I would imagine building regs, fire proofing would make it unreasonable cost for what is basically a storage room. I would probably be as well adding a single story extension to the side

Norma Desmond - we have a pull down ladder with handrail but the rail starts about 6 treads up and I am too unsteady to get that far up. If you have found a ladder that has handrails that extend down further then i would be interested too. We have looked and maybe switching out the metal ladder for a wooden one with wider treads but I have no idea if that would be any more usable than what we have.

iamcornholio

Have a look at "disappearing stairs" - which are posh loft ladders with a proper handrail. There are also electric assisted options which help if these are too heavy for you to pull down.

Normally these are £1000 plus, but are worth it if it solves the problem of usability.

https://www.loftcentre.co.uk/loft-centre-caernarvon-disappearing-stairway is one link, but google around for others

Jaynne

Does anyone know what the cost might be to board and plaster the loft space? Our 1930s semi has quite an airy space up there and it would be good to be able to use it as office space.

I imagine the floor would need strengthening or at least raising above the insulation we have in there then boarding. I'm not interested in putting in a permanent staircase in as we'd lose our box room. A velux window might be nice but I might be happy to forgo that to start off with.

iamcornholio

It is not just a case of boarding and plasterboarding the rafters. A new structural floor will be needed (which is not just a few timbers an chipboard) and unless you properly insulate the roof, it will be too cold or boiling hot and very noisy

It will be an illegal conversion under building regulations, and worse than that, your house insurance will be invalidated and the fire risk of the property greatly increased. And yes, serious house fires always happen to "other people"

Jaynne

iamcornholio wrote: »

It is not just a case of boarding and plasterboarding the rafters. A new structural floor will be needed (which is not just a few timbers an chipboard) and unless you properly insulate the roof, it will be too cold or boiling hot and very noisy

It will be an illegal conversion under building regulations, and worse than that, your house insurance will be invalidated and the fire risk of the property greatly increased. And yes, serious house fires always happen to "other people"

I wasn't suggesting doing it illegally I was really wanting to know what the minimum you could do to make it into a useable space and what that might cost without going the full way into a loft conversion. So the floor plus obviously using insulated boarding and skimming plus an easy drop ladder.

Its not something we're planning on doing right now but it would be useful to know for the future.