Installing stairs/steps to cellar

seante

Hello everyone, I'm hoping someone with building know-how can help.

We've just bought a late 1800s/early 1900s terraced 2 bed house in Salford (just off Langworthy road of anyone knows the area) - proper Coronation Street style old terraces round here!

We never had a full survey so when we were making repairs to floorboards we were surprised to discover we have a cellar! Having only bought the house for around £80k, we don't want to spend huge sums of money but as we've discovered, we need a bit more space, especially for storage as our kitchen is puny.

I've taken some photos with my arm down the hole and as far as I can see, there aren't any steps to the cellar. I can't attach them as I'm a new user. I have seen lots of similar houses in the area, it looks as though none of them are currently utilising this space so I suspect there has never been access down there. I could be wrong however as there are separate chambers to the cellar without doorways between, just holes knocked/cut through.

I'd like to know if people have experience of installing stairs or steps to cellars as there is a lot of space down there potentially for a washing machine or fridges, freezers, storage etc. Am I being unrealistic? I had stairs in mind going below the existing staircase to the upstairs if that makes sense. Could it be possible that there are steps at the back of the house outside? How much money could I be looking at, and are there lots of building regs to meet? For info, it seems (smells) dry down there, with ventilation from air bricks front and back of the house. I've measured and it's around 220cm clearance from floor to bottom of joists above. Obviously, I'm only talking about access, not a full conversion of the space to living space.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Sean

pmartin86

Not got a clue about the access, but felt I had to comment to call you a lucky so and so! The only thing I found under the floorboards when i bought my house was rot! :P

SailorSam

There must have been steps there originally, i think if you're going to fit new ones you'll have to find the place the old ones where

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pDoPfM54n4

wellused

Can you see if the cellar has a solid floor which might confirm that it was intended to be used as a cellar, it may just be that the houses were built on ground that wasn't suitable and the builders had to dig down to solid ground for the supporting walls to sit on.

PasturesNew

If you paste the pictures' urls and remove the starting http and www parts we can work it out to see.

phil24_7

It may also be worth waiting and keeping an eye in there to make sure the ground doesn't get damp if and when the water table rises.

seante

Thanks guys!
Photos found here:
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And
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And gallery
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If I were looking for a proper floor, would it be brick or concrete or lime or something?

phil24_7

There looks to be no floor in there and possible damp on the floor. Is the wall with the hole supporting walls above or floor joists? If so a lintel needs to be put in above any holes.

seante

The floor is above, yes. Above that, there is a wall which has been knocked through, connecting lounge and dining room. Doesn't sound good for stability, whatever we put stairs down or not. Should I be concerned? No idea when holes were made. Floor is covered in bits, bricks, old planks. I grew up with a damp cellar and have to say, doesn't smell mouldy and damp.

J_B

seante wrote: »

, and are there lots of building regs to meet?

May I discreetly suggest that you don't mention it to anyone to do with 'building regs'
I'm sure they would need all sorts of boxes ticking that would make the whole job un-viable.

phil24_7

For the floor I would level the floor or maybe dig down another 100-200mm if your up for it, as you wont be able to dig it out at a later date without considerable effort/expense. Put a layer of sand down (2 or 3 inches) then put 50-100mm foil back PIR insulation board down. Follow this with a DPM lapped up the walls to above where any base would finish. Then pour a concrete floor in 100mm-200mm depending on what your planning to do down there.