Questions about loft in new house?

blackstar

Hi all
We just bought a new house with a loft conversion. They have just emptied the loft and carpeted it and out a window in it. Just a huge empty room really. It has metal ladders there. Would they have needed planning permission for it? 

We wanted to put stairs there as its far safer when the children go up and down. Just a room for them to play in. A novelty for them.
Would planning permission be needed to add stairs for safety reason? Any complications we may come across? We are in Scotland.
Please see pics.

FreeBear

Joists are probably not up to spec for the floor in a proper loft conversion. Certainly, you would need a staircase, possibly with fireproof doors. Insulation would need to be checked to see if it is up to recommended levels.

Personally, I would treat it as a boarded out loft for storage only.

blackstar

Thanks
You mean the flooring may need to have work done too?

Bigphil1474

You will need Building Control sign off if you install a staircase and make the loft into a room. That's not necessarily a difficult thing. They'll be looking to see if there is sufficient structural support in place, and the stairs are suitable. If the loft has been converted with that in mind, then it might be fairly straight forward. You don't usually need planning permission for a loft conversion, but might depend on what other works have been done.

You could do the conversion anyway and not get BC sign off, but it will make life difficult when you come to sell.

Doozergirl

A loft conversion needs to be fully compliant with building regulations.  It is a major structural building project - I very much doubt that anything in your loft is compliant given that it's accessed via a ladder.  

Putting down carpet and adding a window is largely cosmetic, not structural.  

You need someone in to check what is there - a structural engineer be able to tell you if the structure is safe and compliant, then you go from there.  

Niv

From what you describe, it sounds more like the previous owner made themself a workspace for working from home. Not sure I would class it as a conversion, especially when looking at the access.

Albermarle

blackstar said:

Thanks
You mean the flooring may need to have work done too?

When you have a proper loft conversion done, then there is a lot of structural steel and timber used, plus a proper staircase. It has to be inspected during the construction by Building control for structural integrity, and suitable fire resistance.
Only then with a Building Control sign off, should it be used as a bedroom, and can be described as a bedroom when the house is sold. 

If it is not done to these standards, then it really should only be used for storage, although I guess people do maybe work from home and use them for other things. I would be especially wary about letting kids up there,  The main worry is them getting trapped in a fire.

stuart45

blackstar said:

Thanks
You mean the flooring may need to have work done too?

Regs in Scotland might be slightly different to England and Wales, but usually the ceiling joists between the ground and upper floors are at least 8x2, although it depends on the span.
Between the upper floor and loft the joists are normally much smaller than that, as they are usually only designed to tie the rafters together, give something to fix the ceiling boards to, and possibly take the weight of the water tanks set on bearers.

Section62

blackstar said:

We just bought a new house with a loft conversion.

That wasn't a loft conversion, it is a deathtrap.  If something happened to someone up in the loft (heart attack/stroke/broken leg) they'd be hoping people from the emergecy services would be willing to squeeze through that narrow opening on a rickety ladder to rescue them.  The emergency services would find a way, but they shouldn't have to.

If the loft space is large enough to make it properly convertable then proper stairs would be a 'must'.  The problem with that is you may then lose a bedroom on the first floor in order to make space for the stairs.

Often it is easiest to provide stairs to a loft where they would be above an existing staircase.  So stairs starting from the room in the background of your photo might be an option.  However, there is a fairly unusual protrusion from the ceiling (more or less above the camera position) which may be some kind of beam or joist supporting the roof structure above the landing/stairs void (it is covered in artex, so has probably been there a long time, if not original) and this (if it is supporting structure) would make it difficult (or impossible) to route the stairs in that position.

You probably need to start with a structural engineer to get the roof structure checked over (in case parts have been removed in the conversion) and to give you an idea what work would need to be done to do a safe conversion plus fitting stairs in somehow.

dimbo61

Please Never ever use the words " Loft conversion " to describe what you have shown in that photo.
You have a ladder to access the loft space.
Velux  window ? to allow natural light into the loft space.
A loft conversion IF possible would cost £30/50,000 🤔 

Noneforit999

You 'may' live in a house which has a central supporting wall which goes down to foundations and although the floor in the loft is the original joists, it can take more weight than a newer truss loft due to the joist span being less and sitting on the central wall. This is may, don't take this as advice but ours is similar and although we only use it for storage, it was boarded out 30 years ago and had a staircase installed by the previous owner but its not a loft conversion, you couldn't have the weight of a full bedroom up there.

You don't have a loft conversion, the space in there is not habitable for two reasons.

1. You don't have building regs, therefore its not habitable and cannot be used or advertised as such.
2. Its unlikely to have the structural supports for the weight of a bedroom etc.

What you likely have is enhanced storage which can possible take more weight than a newer truss loft. We have loads stored in our loft.