Converting attic

scrub

I've had the loft floor professionally boarded but it's like to improve the rest myself. Can anyone recommend what I could cover the eaves with that's not too expensive? I've read you have to be careful with damp. 

ashe

Not really something I would want to DIY personally. why are you wanting to do this? Even boarding your loft out adds a lot of weight to the ceilings that they weren't designed to support

lesalanos

As above... What is your aim here?  Habitable room? Storage?  

It's not just a case of boarding and covering the eaves

scrub

lesalanos said:

As above... What is your aim here?  Habitable room? Storage?  

It's not just a case of boarding and covering the eaves

Mainly storage. It can't be used as a proper room as it's only 4' 5" high but I might do DIY jobs and model making there. 

Doozergirl

scrub said:

lesalanos said:

As above... What is your aim here?  Habitable room? Storage?  

It's not just a case of boarding and covering the eaves

Mainly storage. It can't be used as a proper room as it's only 4' 5" high but I might do DIY jobs and model making there. 

Why?  It's tiny and a serious risk if there's a firs.  

ElephantBoy57

Have you bought the wooden beams already? Those beams look quite thick, surely you have had it boarded and that is what you can walk on.

scrub

Good grief. I didn't think this would be such a difficult question to answer. People convert their roofs all the time.
No, I've not bought any beams. Any wood in the picture is just some I have left over. It's not tiny. There's plenty of room to move about. 

rob7475

scrub said:

Good grief. I didn't think this would be such a difficult question to answer. People convert their roofs all the time.
No, I've not bought any beams. Any wood in the picture is just some I have left over. It's not tiny. There's plenty of room to move about. 

They do, but they don't always think about doing it safely. The "joists" in my loft space are 3" x 1.5" with around 14" spacing. As the house is old, those joists are holding the weight of lath and plaster ceilings. If I were to then board the loft out, I think I'd be beyond the safe limits of what weight those joists could support. I'd have to look at doubling up the joists before boarding out.

Back to your original question though. Is there any lining between your roof slates/tiles and the rafters? If not, I'd probably leave it as it is covering the rafters may lead to moisture issues. If it's OK to cover them, I'd put some insulation between the rafters and plasterboard over them. Your issue will be getting plasterboards up to the loft space. Depending on the size of your opening, you'd either have to cut them down or cut a slot in one of your ceilings to get them up before making good

lesalanos

scrub said:

Good grief. I didn't think this would be such a difficult question to answer. People convert their roofs all the time.
No, I've not bought any beams. Any wood in the picture is just some I have left over. It's not tiny. There's plenty of room to move about. 

I don't think anyone on here is going to advise you to do something that's potentially dangerous.

4'5" isn't tall enough to stand up, there is no safe access or egress in case if a fire, nobody knows if the ceiling beams are strong enough to support what you have already added, nevermind your weight and anything else you put up there.

There are proper processes in place to ensure that these things are done safely and you are bypassing all of them 

Doozergirl

scrub said:

Good grief. I didn't think this would be such a difficult question to answer. People convert their roofs all the time.
No, I've not bought any beams. Any wood in the picture is just some I have left over. It's not tiny. There's plenty of room to move about. 

If we're going to be frank...

Boarding a loft 'professionally' is not an 'attic conversion', neither is sticking an unknown eaves covering over it. 

The head height to meet building regulations for a loft conversion is 2m when the room is finished.  To meet building regulations, you need 120/5mm of solid insulation above with a breather gap between the insulation and felt. Plus plasterboard and skim - that's going to bring your headheight down.  

As for the joists, as said above, they were designed to hold fairly evenly loaded plaster ceilings, not the dynamic weight of people or concentrated weight of furniture legs.  New joists or steels are needed.  That will reduce your headheight even further.    Making it tiny.  

It would also be sensible to replace the ancient felt with a breather membrane whilst you're up there spending something upwards of £20k on a genuine loft conversion, which means recovering the roof. 

You also need a window that you could potentially be rescued from, fire doors throughout your house, hardwired smoke alarms and a set of stairs that are safe to Part K.  

You are not close to achieving an 'attic conversion' by asking what to cover your rafters with and yes, people do it all the time but most of them do it with a bit of proper research whilst achieving the something at least close to the building regulations that keep them safe.  Building Regulations are a *minimum* standard, not the gold standard.   

The other thing they do is board for storage, insulate and  leave it.  

What you're presently trying to do is devalue your house.  Use your boarding for a nice bit of lightweight storage, ensure that you're well insulated for the purposes of saving on your bills and then leave it alone. 

scrub

The floor in the attic was professionally boarded last year by a loft flooring company. I'm just looking to cover the eaves with something to make it a bit more pleasant to use. I'm not talking about this being a full on loft conversion.