Simple Loft Conversion/Storage Area - How Much?

Primrose85

I live in a fairly pokey 4 bedroom house - lots of rooms but little storage space. My partner and I are both collectors; he has comics and figures and I have china - both of these are not ideal collections to have on display in a house full of children!

We have a large loft space which is currently very simple - a ladder up, a light and insulation laid down on the floor. I would love to be able to use this space to display our precious things on shelves, and just generally use the space to organise all our linen/towels, store toys blabla but have it all accessible and not boxed away in a dingy spider webby hole.

Am I allowed to floor it and generally make it into some sort of 'room' without planning permission and am I allowed to not have a window?

If anyone can give me some sort of idea on how much something like this would cost it would be great! Am I talking thousands upon thousands here?

Thanks for any help!

macman

You do not need PP just to use it as a storage area. If it's to be used a a living area, then it's building regs that are the main concern, not PP. For that you need windows, ventilation, a fixed staircase (not a ladder), compliance with fire regs, and a proper load-bearing floor, which will usually require steels inserting to take the load for which it is not currently designed. PP may or may not be required, depending on design and location.
A loft conversion means conversion to a permanent living area.
Draw up some rough plans and discuss with your LA's duty planning officer if you think PP may be required.

Primrose85

I am a bit confused, sorry. If I wanted to decorate and put furniture up there - shelves/china cabinets/display cabinets, perhaps carpet it, would that not also need a proper load bearing floor, compliance with fire regs etc, meaning I WOULD have to get PP?

exarmydreamer

If there is any change to the roof i.e a dormer window, you would need PP.

You could get away with a loft room, but you have to follow building reg's. To put a room up there, you would definately need to reinforce the floor with steel's, to put a window in on a flat side of roof does not need planning. But you will need 2m head clearance for stairs or a possible turn. If your hall stairs are not boxed in, then you would need fire doors to each room off the hall on all floors.

We live in a four bed victorian terrace and the loft room conversion, was costed at 20K, that's with two windows (no dormer), plastered, steel in floor, electric, radiator and stairs fitted. No planning permission necessary, just checked off by council building reg's. Hope this helps you.

Primrose85

exarmydreamer wrote: »

If there is any change to the roof i.e a dormer window, you would need PP.

You could get away with a loft room, but you have to follow building reg's. To put a room up there, you would definately need to reinforce the floor with steel's, to put a window in on a flat side of roof does not need planning. But you will need 2m head clearance for stairs or a possible turn. If your hall stairs are not boxed in, then you would need fire doors to each room off the hall on all floors.

We live in a four bed victorian terrace and the loft room conversion, was costed at 20K, that's with two windows (no dormer), plastered, steel in floor, electric, radiator and stairs fitted. No planning permission necessary, just checked off by council building reg's. Hope this helps you.

Thanks for that info!
I think I am just gonna scrap that idea completely. There is no way I am going to find in the region £20,000 to do it!
Nevermind

macman

Primrose85 wrote: »

I am a bit confused, sorry. If I wanted to decorate and put furniture up there - shelves/china cabinets/display cabinets, perhaps carpet it, would that not also need a proper load bearing floor, compliance with fire regs etc, meaning I WOULD have to get PP?

No, but you might need building regs approval. The two are entirely unconnected, don't link them.
PP is basically concerned with changes that affect the exterior. So for a loft conversion, if you didn't put a dormer or velux in, no PP would be necessary.
However, if you failed to put those in, it wouldn't pass building regs anyway.
You can put shelving and a carpet in a storage area without any approval. The test is whether it is to be used as a living area.