Loft boarding

FreeBear

Mistral001 said: There should not be any gaps where one board meets another.

And the ends of the boards (not the tongue & groove sides) should be staggered. Yes, it means cutting some of the boards in half, but it looks much neater. For £3K, I would be expecting a much higher standard.

Gavin83

NSG666 said:

Ganga said:

Whats the silver on the roof ?

At £3k for the job it must be silver leaf

I assumed that was already installed and wasn't fitted as part of the boarding but I could well be wrong.

In response to the OP that is a pretty shoddy job. I'm an average DIY'er and I could have done a better job than that. Saying that if you're just using it to sling a few boxes on it doesn't really matter all that much but £3k for that is extortionate.

fluffymuffy

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"If you decide to lay flooring boards over the existing joists in the loft space, then this may require a Building Regulations Application to Building Control"

Is building regulations approval needed for a loft conversion? | Loft conversion | Planning Portal

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I'd be asking the Building Inspector to have a look before parting with £3K. 

If you phone your local authority Building Control dept and discuss it they will be able to give their opinion. - In the two local authorities closest to me one would definitely require a Building Regulations application to use a loft as storage (and would refuse it unless there was proper escape in case of fire), and the other wouldn't be as fussy, depending on which officer answered the phone. So the answer varies. 

Gavin83

fluffymuffy said:

In the two local authorities closest to me one would definitely require a Building Regulations application to use a loft as storage (and would refuse it unless there was proper escape in case of fire)

Are you sure? I was always under the impression you only need a fire escape for habitable rooms. If you don't there are a hell of a lot of bathrooms and loft conversions in this country which are breaking the rules.

You also don't need to involve building control to board out your loft. Even your link is pretty clear on this as it states you need this if you're converting the loft to a liveable space. Boarding it out for a bit of storage doesn't count as a liveable space.

fluffymuffy

Yes. Totally sure. We wanted the loft boarded in our new extension but were not allowed to as the Building Inspector didn't want anyone going up there even to just use as storage, in case there was a fire while we were getting the Christmas tree out.

Doozergirl

fluffymuffy said:

Yes. Totally sure. We wanted the loft boarded in our new extension but were not allowed to as the Building Inspector didn't want anyone going up there even to just use as storage, in case there was a fire while we were getting the Christmas tree out.

I think that's your building inspector taking a view on potential future usage.  They do it with attached garages too - expect them to meet the regs in case you have an ulterior future motive. 

Modern trusses aren't designed either for loading with 'stuff' either.  They're very lightweight.  

I'm not a big believer in half doing things that might on face value look like they had been done properly either, especially not for £3,000.  That can't be far off the cost of strengthening the joists for a conversion.  

fluffymuffy

Doozergirl said:

fluffymuffy said:

Yes. Totally sure. We wanted the loft boarded in our new extension but were not allowed to as the Building Inspector didn't want anyone going up there even to just use as storage, in case there was a fire while we were getting the Christmas tree out.

I think that's your building inspector taking a view on potential future usage.  They do it with attached garages too - expect them to meet the regs in case you have an ulterior future motive. 

I'm not a big believer in half doing things that might on face value look like they had been done properly either, especially not for £3,000.  That can't be far off the cost of strengthening the joists for a conversion.  

Yes, £3000 is a huge amount. My mum had her loft converted properly with a window and a staircase for £4K.

Doozergirl

fluffymuffy said:

Doozergirl said:

fluffymuffy said:

Yes. Totally sure. We wanted the loft boarded in our new extension but were not allowed to as the Building Inspector didn't want anyone going up there even to just use as storage, in case there was a fire while we were getting the Christmas tree out.

I think that's your building inspector taking a view on potential future usage.  They do it with attached garages too - expect them to meet the regs in case you have an ulterior future motive. 

I'm not a big believer in half doing things that might on face value look like they had been done properly either, especially not for £3,000.  That can't be far off the cost of strengthening the joists for a conversion.  

Yes, £3000 is a huge amount. My mum had her loft converted properly with a window and a staircase for £4K.

In this century?  The professional fees would easily take up over half of that! 

£4k isn't a proper loft conversion, not even doing it yourself.  

Mistral001

FreeBear said:

Mistral001 said: There should not be any gaps where one board meets another.

And the ends of the boards (not the tongue & groove sides) should be staggered. Yes, it means cutting some of the boards in half, but it looks much neater. For £3K, I would be expecting a much higher standard.

If you google these systems they show unstaggered boards as standard.  It does not look  good practice but there is no technical reason why they should not do it. I floored my roofspace without using raised flooring many years ago.  I staggered the boards and it looks the business.  But this is a "system" and that usually means it has to be speedy to install!  Looks perhaps are secondary.