No Loft Access -suspicious or normal?

choccyface2006

We bought a house dated 1890 and there was no loft access to the main (front and middle) loft but the small loft at the rear had access.

We made our own access and its a really big useful storage area but it was a very dirty job as the construction was lath and plaster.

Sarah

warehouse

PasturesNew wrote: »

Long and short of it was: neighbour had taken down the dividing wall in the loft, laid down a floor and rented it out.....

Unless the old dear was stone deaf then surely she'd have heard people walking about up there or the initial building work being done?

Otherwise OP there's no way I'd buy it without it being crystal clear regarding access.

MattinLondon

Cheers guys - will see what happens!

aileth

Hope you don't find too many skeletons

moneyistooshorttomention

elsien wrote: »

Or if they've had a new ceiling it could have been plaster boarded over - I've seen that happen with access to roof spaces when the old ceiling has been brought down and replaced and the builder has just whacked up the new ceiling and forgotten about the access.

I've just had new ceilings done all round in the house I've bought (ie by putting up plasterboard ceilings just beneath the existing ones). One of the things that came up was retaining access to the loft hatch and it had to have quite a bit of adjustment to retain that access. Much the easiest thing would have been to take the new plasterboard right across it and forget about it, but I wanted to retain my access, hence all the fiddling round to make sure I did.

londonlydia

MattinLondon wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure about the age of the house - it's 'Victorian Style' but newer than that...

If possible I'd recommend clarifying when your house was built if you can. Our vendors didnt know, they guessed Victorian... so I ended up checking the deeds/records where it was noted (1903...so Edwardian). You can also see if your address existed in the 1911 census for free (if yes it would be edwardian or victorian). It's actually quite useful to know because you can buy house guide books for the era of your house, Ive got an excellent one from Haynes that covers Victorian/ Edwardian. These are invaluable if you want to do stuff to the house, because they explain what to expect and why. By the way, if it's the same age as my house, it notes in the book that Victorian/ Edwardian properties often didnt have access.

...oh and if your house is Victorian you may well find horsehair, bones and blood in the plasterwork as you cut through..they used it to matt the plaster together! :eek:

moromir

A rental property my parents owned didn't have any loft access, they paid to have a hatch put in so the surveyor could inspect it before proceeding... they figured £250 now... better than £3k for a new roof later.

MattinLondon

londonlydia wrote: »

If possible I'd recommend clarifying when your house was built if you can. Our vendors didnt know, they guessed Victorian... so I ended up checking the deeds/records where it was noted (1903...so Edwardian). You can also see if your address existed in the 1911 census for free (if yes it would be edwardian or victorian).

Great idea: Just checked but it's only listing the odd numbers of houses on the street - ours is an even number. Strange!

Anyway, after talking to the agent it seems as though we are in a race against someone else - he's sold the house twice. Decisions, Decisions!

Alfrescodave

Can we have an answer to how you gain access to the cold water tank ? or is the tank located elsewhere?


If there definitely isn't access to the loft then the assumption must be that there is little or no loft insulation and therefore probably a cold house in the winter

totallybored

I lived in a Victorian terrace in leyton and the loft access was hidden in a cupboard right at the back next to the external wall. I'd never have even know it was there but my dad showed me. In my current victorian terrace I have 2 loft holes. One near the back bedroom that would only fit someone who was a size 0 through and one that is obviously newer outside the main bedroom that is a proper hatch with ladder.