Basic loft conversion - office

Dirty_Berty

Hi hoping to get some help and advice.

I currently live in a very small 1 bedroom house with my girlfriend and have started a new job that involves working from home 2/3 days a week.

I wanted to look to creating an office / man cave in the loft in order to give me somewhere to work during the day and perhaps chill out in for the odd evening.

Having researched a lot of websites and apart from getting more confused, it seems that this might be harder and more expensive than I’d thought.

1. Do I need to reinforce or get a new floor fitted that can take the weight?

2. Will a pull down ladder / folding staircase be okay? And does this cause issues with building regulations?

3. What is the legal minimum I need to do in order to call it an office and use it regularly? Permanent stairs? New joists and floor? At least 1 window?

4. My max budget is £10k but the house is small (22sm). Is this possible do you think? I’m good at DIY and refurbished the house a couple of years ago when I bought it. I probably just need professionals to do the new stronger floor, window, stairs etc. All other decorating, plastering, etc I can do myself.

Can you please help me understand my options

TheCyclingProgrammer

The legal minimum to create a proper habitable space that is safe and of any value is to have a correctly designed loft conversion that meets all necessary building regulations and planning rules (included permitted development rules).

Anything else is a glorified loft storage space.

Davesnave

Dirty_Berty wrote: »

Having researched a lot of websites and apart from getting more confused, it seems that this might be harder and more expensive than I’d thought.

1. Do I need to reinforce or get a new floor fitted that can take the weight? Probably. We can't see it!

2. Will a pull down ladder / folding staircase be okay? And does this cause issues with building regulations? It won't meet BR

3. What is the legal minimum I need to do in order to call it an office and use it regularly? Permanent stairs? New joists and floor? At least 1 window? Achieving adequate height comes before any of those. If you can't get that, nothing else matters. Can you get 2m headroom above the entrance point?

4. My max budget is £10k but the house is small (22sm). Is this possible do you think? Anyone can create a cupboard for £10k but have you worked out what usable space you'll get?. Where are the stairs going to go and will they mess up the space you already have below?

As above, if you want to meet building regs, there will be cost implications and the resultant space might be poor value. Anything less than BR compliant will be cheaper, but may not add much, if any, value.

sevenhills

Dirty_Berty wrote: »

I wanted to look to creating an office / man cave in the loft in order to give me somewhere to work during the day and perhaps chill out in for the odd evening.

Being able to 'chill out in for the odd evening' does sound like the full works, requiring heating and insulation, might be expensive.
As the others have said, reinforced floor is needed, as would be a fixed staircase.
I had a quote for a 'habitable space' loft that was £30,000, a 'delux hobby' was £9,000

Doozergirl

sevenhills wrote: »

Being able to 'chill out in for the odd evening' does sound like the full works, requiring heating and insulation, might be expensive.
As the others have said, reinforced floor is needed, as would be a fixed staircase.
I had a quote for a 'habitable space' loft that was £30,000, a 'delux hobby' was £9,000

Deluxe Hobby. I've heard that before on here, I'm sure.

Marketing speak from an easily Google-able loft company for "not habitable".

sevenhills

Doozergirl wrote: »

Deluxe Hobby. I've heard that before on here, I'm sure.

Marketing speak from an easily Google-able loft company for "not habitable".

3. What is the legal minimum I need to do in order to call it an office and use it regularly? Permanent stairs? New joists and floor? At least 1 window?

http://eco-lofts.co.uk/

The OP seems to be doing his research, it does not matter what its called. Its either habitable or non-habitable.
I guess the main thing is to follow building regulation.

http://theloftcentre.co.uk/index.php

Doozergirl

sevenhills wrote: »

http://eco-lofts.co.uk/

The OP seems to be doing his research, it does not matter what its called. Its either habitable or non-habitable.
I guess the main thing is to follow building regulation.

http://theloftcentre.co.uk/index.php

Oh, thank you so much for sharing the companies that deliberately peddle unclear terms in order to confuse people. It's impossible to do correct research using those companies because they deliberately mislead.

You are correct, it is either habitable or it is not. If you go up there to use it as a room for more than a few minutes, whether that be an office, a cinema, a gym, a den, a hobby room, or indeed a bedroom, it *needs to be habitable because habitable means safe*. What you name it does not make a difference as to how safe it should be.

They treat the steels as if it it's something optional. It isn't. If you go up there you:
a) want to make sure you don't come crashing through the ceiling. That means assessment from a structural engineer and appropriate measures taken.
b) want to be able to get out quickly in the event of a fire, or have some level of protection until the fire brigade can rescue you from the loft. That means a window, it means fire doors protecting your escape route to outside and it means a half decent staircase to get you down there.

Pdbaggett

My parents had their loft converted as "storage" essentially it was just boarded,insulated, plastered a couple of windows and electrics. This was about 20 years ago we used it as a play room/hobby room. Still fine to this day cost a few thousand.

Certainly not what someone would describe as habitable ect worked fine for what it was uses for though.

I honestly don't see the issue with having a storage/office room without spending £50k for the privilege but that seems an unpopular opinion.

I do a lot of work/hobbying in my garage should I be spending time in their as its not technically habitable? Not being sarcastic by the way genuine question.

Furts

Pdbaggett wrote: »

My parents had their loft converted as "storage" essentially it was just boarded,insulated, plastered a couple of windows and electrics. This was about 20 years ago we used it as a play room/hobby room. Still fine to this day cost a few thousand.

Certainly not what someone would describe as habitable ect worked fine for what it was uses for though.

I honestly don't see the issue with having a storage/office room without spending £50k for the privilege but that seems an unpopular opinion.

I do a lot of work/hobbying in my garage should I be spending time in their as its not technically habitable? Not being sarcastic by the way genuine question.

You are comparing apples and pears. If a fire occurred in your garage you could easily get out via the up and over doors, the back door or the personnel floor. With a dodgy loft you could be trapped floors up. But your access route will also be easy unlike escaping a fire down a fold up loft ladder that may be burning.


Your garage will be fire proof - block walls do not burn but loft timbers and floors do.


Your garage slab will be concrete so will not be falling through this, unlike a dodgy loft conversion where the floor has not been strengthened.


Even when thinking of mobility, your garage is far more accessible than a loft conversion.


Just a few pointers, so enough said!

Pdbaggett

Fair points. I still don't see a great difference in being stuck in the bedroom on the second floor or being stuck in the loft space if a fire is below me, I don't have an easy escape route in either situation. My parents house was a large Victorian built terrace so not a great deal of it would probally be up to code in general.

I guess I have a different perspective on this type of thing my new built 3 bed semi with garage cost me 107k last year in total so spending 50k+ on an attack conversion seems very alien to me but I am in the north perhaps I would feel different if I lives in an area of higher property values .

Doozergirl

A conversion doesn't cost £50k but it probably would be cheaper to buy a bigger house in the north.

The rule of building regulations is not to make anything worse. People should consider their own safety and make sensible upgrades to their homes. What they shouldn't do is start sitting on chairs where the joists are only made to hold the ceiling boards below and the floor below is also vulnerable in the event of fire.

Somehow I've managed to run a building company from my house without a separate office. Our loft was boarded by the previous occupier and has a half decent ladder but I can't imagine wanting to sit up in my loft for three minutes, let alone a full working day.

If I want a different view on an admin day I go to a coffee shop.