Loft Conversions

We will be more than happy to make a site visit to view your own conversion suitability.
Planning permission,building regulations and architectural drawings can all be taken care of for you by us.

Loft conversions - Making the most of your loft space.

There are certain advantages with a loft conversion. It can be done without losing any garden space and it can usually be undertaken with less disruption to the existing house than an extension causes.

Crucially, it also tends to be a cheaper way of getting more floorspace because you are working within the existing footprint of the house rather than adding to it. The quality of the space is also rather different. When you create a third storey on top of a two storey house (the most common arrangement) you tend to find you have a little oasis of peace, high above the ground floor commotion. Bear in mind that going up two flights of stairs is enough of a physical barrier to make lofts unsuitable for use as kitchen space — but equally makes it attractive for quiet office or studio space, or for use as bedrooms. For many people it is this aspect which sells the idea of a loft conversion. The larger the loft space you have available the greater the range of uses you can put it to. Even in a confined loft space the addition of a couple of rooflights can create a surprisingly light and airy room that may be ideal as an extra bedroom or a hobby room.

Loft conversion suitability assessment

The first thing to look out for is the headroom. You need to be able to stand up in the middle and, ideally, you should be struggling to touch the ridge plate running along the top of the roof.
The aspects which determine the space you have in a loft are the span between the eaves and the pitch or slope of the roof (which in turn determines the height). Most detached and semi -detached homes have a wide enough span and, if the slope or pitch is more than 35°, you should have enough volume to make a decent sized room. It is something you can tell easily enough just by getting up into the loft space. Some smaller terraced style homes may be high enough but not wide enough to accommodate a good conversion and here it may be possible to change the shape of the roof to give more space. In some cases you can raise the height of the roof but this is difficult, more expensive and needs planning permission.

Heating, Plumbing and Electrics

Providing the boiler has sufficient output new radiators for the attic rooms can usually be added to the existing central heating system. Any water storage tanks in the existing loft will have to be moved or replaced to make room for the conversion.

Where there is no space to move the tanks elsewhere in the loft (gravity-fed systems have to be higher than the highest outlet or radiator in order to work) an alternative is to upgrade to a modern pressurised (unvented) plumbing system that does not require header tanks.

The choice is between a combination boiler, which will fire the central heating plus provide hot water on demand, or a system boiler to fire the central heating plus a pressurised hot water storage cylinder which can be located anywhere in the house.

Loft Conversions & Planning Issues
Having established that a loft conversion is technically and economically feasible you then have to consider whether or not it will require planning permission. Generally most simple loft conversions do not require permission. The exceptional areas tend to concern lofts where you change the roof shape or where your house is listed or in a conservation area where the planning rules are much stricter. Planning permission will be required:

• if you wish to raise the ridge of the roof
• if you change the shape of the roof at the front of the house or at the side if you have a corner plot. This includes adding dormer windows.
• if your house has already been extended. You may have used up your permitted development rights in which case all changes to roof shape (whether to front, back or side) will need planning permission.
• if your house is listed or if it happens to be in a conservation area. You will need permission even to put rooflights in - indeed the planners may well insist on dormers instead of rooflights.

Building Regulations

There are several areas to consider. If you are altering the timbers in a roof space you need to be satisfied that the new design will be strong enough to bear the new loads. Usually your existing ceiling joists will not be strong enough to act as floor joists for the loft conversion and there are various ways of beefing them up. The roof carpentry will also have to be carefully designed to ensure that it stays in place whilst the structural alterations are undertaken and is then adequate for the open roof space you need. This may require the insertion of steel beams to support the new loadings. Another area which causes considerable headaches for loft builders is rearranging the insulation so that it follows the roofline rather than just being laid along the ceiling joists. This is further complicated by a requirement to maintain a 50mm ventilation gap on the immediate underside of the roof; sometimes this can be achieved by switching to a high performance insulation such as polyurethane boards made by Celotex or Kingspan or a reflective foil insulation. In other cases it may be better to deepen the rafters by glueing and screwing battens underneath them.

Fire Safety
The building regulations require there to be a safe means of escape in the event of fire from any storey with a floor level more than 4.5m above ground level. This is usually achieved by creating an enclosed staircase that will resist fire for at least 30 minutes. This usually means upgrading the walls, floor and ceiling of the hallway housing the stairs and changing or upgrading doors to give 20 minutes of fire protection and adding automatic door closers.

An alternative and more common solution is to protect the staircase enclosure to a reduced performance and to add an egress window, escape window, into each habitable attic room, bedrooms but not bathrooms. This allows you to keep existing doors providing they are fitted with automatic closers. Escape windows must have a clear opening span of at least 450mm x 450mm and be in a position where there is an acceptable escape route.

Either way the attic conversion must be separated from the rest of the house by a fire door with an automatic closer and the structure must have 30 minutes fire resistance (a stud wall with 15mm plasterboard on both faces is sufficient) and a hard-wired (connected to the mains) smoke detector.

S & K Builders Ltd