Slight change of layout to top floor of three storey house

RainbowLaura

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone could give me a little bit of advice please...

This is the top floor of my three storey house, built in 2001:



I am hoping to block up the doorway between the dressing room and the bedroom and add a new door into the dressing room from the landing (along the small wall - it would be pretty much the whole width of the existing wall). This would be to make it into a bedroom and a study. Could this be a problem with fire regs etc? I know the new door would need to be a fire door but I am not sure if there is anything else that could pose a problem. The other thing is that the "door" between the dressing room and bedroom is in fact a large open archway, if that makes any difference.

Even better would be to actually bring the dressing room a bit further out into the bedroom (next to the fitted wardrobes if you see what I mean), if that would be possible...

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Many thanks for reading,

Laura

PasturesNew

You'll need a certain amount of floorspace at the top of the stairs - and there might be restrictions (building regs) on door location etc as it's at the top of the stairs (they're scared people might open the door, come out and fall straight down if there's too little space).

Is there a window in there? None on the plan.

muckybutt

Does the dressing room have a window as it would need one, first thing I would do is ask building control to pop around and ask them if it's feasible

RainbowLaura

Hi, thank you for your replies. It does have a Velux window currently. Would additional floor space be needed at the top of the stairs than what is there currently? We would not be taking any away.

muckybutt

Is the Velux a fire escape window ? it believe it will need to be if it isn't.

RainbowLaura

I'm not sure, what would make it a fire escape window? It is about 55cm wide and about twice that height.

Not sure if these pics help explain the staircase and landing:

phill99

Only building control could tell you the answer to this.

RainbowLaura

Okay will get in touch with them in the new year. I am guessing they charge to come and have a look, roughly how much should I expect to pay?

Doozergirl

About £150, but you'll have to make a full application to get them to come out.

Is there a difference in the size of Velux/Windows in your main bedroom and the dressing room? Where you want to put the door looks fine but route of escape will be key.

Your window:
Must have an openable area of not less than 0.33m²
Neither the length or width of the window can be less the 450mm
The opening must be within 1,100mm of the floor
With a sloping roof, the distance between cill and eaves should be no more than 1,700mm
- See more at: http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/project-tips/building-regulations/fire-safety#sthash.dWVMXZRL.dpuf

If they want a bigger or lower window opening, then keeping a connecting door between the two rooms might be the cheapest option.

RainbowLaura

Thank you Doozergirl, that sounds promising. The window is a different style (the other is a dormer) but about the same size. That's a shame about the application though as we wouldn't be having the work done for quite some time, so I don't suppose we'll officially find out if it's possible until we're ready to have it done (probably a couple of years). The annoying thing is, we'd probably be looking to move house if we can't have it done... which I desperately don't want to do

adhara

I know it would make things (far, far) more complicated, but I wonder if it would be possible to relocate the radiator along the small wall, and put the new door in its place?

The pipes would be definitely not be fun to relocate, but the new door wouldn't immediately open onto the stairs and you could relocate the cupboards into the old door area and increase the general space.