DIY Loft Conversion Mission

[DIYDisasterRightHere]

Hello all. I need help, but before I ask for your help, let me try and captivate you by explaining what you'll receive in return. Firstly, you'll receive a warm fuzzy feeling inside your soul knowing you've helped out a DIY novice - do you need more of a reward than that?! I think not

But I shall give you more - I will document my attempts throughout and post a nice completion story at the end of it all, documenting the many mistakes and injuries I probably (definitely) will make in the hope you can have a good-hearted laugh at my expense.

So, what is my aim? Well, my gf is pregnant, which means my ‘office’ (games room) is the first of many freedoms I stand to lose. But I shall fight this, and by fight this, I mean spend my own money and hard work on converting my loft to my new ‘office’ (games room).

So, take a look at the pics (linked at bottom), but that’s my loft. Where do I want to get? Well – a full functioning room for which I can work (game) in.

I intend to do as much of it myself as I can, apart from the plastering. My dad will help me with the electrics. I will do the rest on my own. I will not be putting a staircase in (not at this point anyway)

Now, let me tell you a little about my DIY experience. I’ve got very little.

Ok, moving on. What help do I need with? :

1) Insulation – dam this is more complicated than I thought it would be. Ok so I’ve read that to put insulation straight onto my roof membrane (in between ‘joists’? Apologies for my terminology, I don’t know what anything is called) it has to be a breathable membrane (I don’t know if it is) and if not, to leave 50mm between the membrane and the insulation… Well the depth of my beams on the roof are only 75mm (please see pic). Then insulation is supposed to be 250mm to 270mm thick, right? Well that’s 27cm taken out on each side of the roof space, on top on the beams – that’s a lot of room!! I don’t want the conversion to be up to building regs, as I’m not doing it officially and I’m not changing the structure of the house, so it doesn’t need to be, but I do want it to be insulated properly. So – how do I do a ‘warm’ roof insulation without taking too much space out of the room?

2) Please see pics of the spot lights – I think they’ve not put insulation over the top due to heat, right? Well should I just board over this, or can I buy something that covers the spot light which I can then put insulation over?

3) Wires in insulation – can they overheat? Or can I just leave wires in the insulation?

4) What else am I not considering that I should be?

I know I’m jumping into a big project here, probably one I shouldn’t, but hey, I have the spare time and I have the determination. For those who may warn against starting this project – my partners dad is a builder, so if all else fails I can consider an SOS call to him – however, I’m determined to do it without his help. Theres a running joke in the family that my DIY skills are terrible (I have an office based job) but I actually think I’m pretty good once I understand what I’m doing. So if I nail this project, he’ll be well impressed and the jokes may stop!

Thank you for any help, I will truly appreciate it.

https://imgur.com/a/DhWbU

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

FYI what you’ll actually create is an illegal lift conversion by virtue of making it a habitable space and not fitting a staircase (all other regulations aside). It doesn’t matter that you will call it an office, non-habitable, a gaming room or DIYDisasterRightHere’s Spanking Room and don’t alter the structure. In the eyes of the law it will be classed as an illegal loft conversion.

Anyway you can’t do a warm roof with traditional felt. You need to fit a continuous ridge vent system to allow vapour to escape at the top of the pitch. Your figure of 250mm to 270mm for pitched roof insulation is way off. Typically they should actually be more like 125mm in total with 100mm between the rafters and 25mm beneath. Or I suppose you could fit 25mm between and 100mm beneath, assuming your rafters can cope with the loads of course ……

In a loft conversion you wouldn’t normally require insulation between in the floor but you could just stick some clay pots over the lights if you want.

I suspect that the jokes regarding this ‘conversion’ shall haunt you forever more.

 

[DIYDisasterRightHere]

FYI what you’ll actually create is an illegal lift conversion by virtue of making it a habitable space and not fitting a staircase (all other regulations aside). It doesn’t matter that you will call it an office, non-habitable, a gaming room or DIYDisasterRightHere’s Spanking Room and don’t alter the structure. In the eyes of the law it will be classed as an illegal loft conversion.

Anyway you can’t do a warm roof with traditional felt. You need to fit a continuous ridge vent system to allow vapour to escape at the top of the pitch. Your figure of 250mm to 270mm for pitched roof insulation is way off. Typically they should actually be more like 125mm in total with 100mm between the rafters and 25mm beneath. Or I suppose you could fit 25mm between and 100mm beneath, assuming your rafters can cope with the loads of course ……

In a loft conversion you wouldn’t normally require insulation between in the floor but you could just stick some clay pots over the lights if you want.

I suspect that the jokes regarding this ‘conversion’ shall haunt you forever more.

I think not! seeing as I have told no-one! muwahahahaha

p.s. thanks for the response.

 

[Doggit]

Now, let me tell you a little about my DIY experience. I’ve got very little

This is a pretty big undertaking for someone with good DIY skills, and you've at least mentioned that you have very few, so I've got to say that you may be taking on more than you can handle. The main issue as I see it, is that the ceiling joists aren't strong strong enough for a DIY conversion, and need to be deeper, but are you up to putting in new ones. The last thing you want, is for the ceiling to come down on the GF and little one in the room below, (I know, unlikely but possible) because you've added more weight than then can handle.

You use put cellotex between the rafters, not rockwool insulation, and you need to get the airflow up and over the new "room" you're creating or you'll get moisture on the underside of the felt causing problems. But before you put in the cellotex, you need to batten out the rafters because they're not deep enough, (need to get them to 150mm) and then put insulated plasterboard over the rafters, and then put a VCL over everything to stop the moisture getting through, but then you need to put a couple of Velux windows in to get the moisture out. Oh, and you need to build the dwarf walls, ideally with cellotex in them as well; then you can plasterboard and skim the walls. Plus you'd also want to add some celotex to the party walls as it'll be pretty cold on the other side of them. Oh, and it's more than possible that in making the rafters deeper to accomodate the insulation, you're reduce the ceiling height, and it would never pass for a legitimate loft conversion in the future.

As to the electrics, you'd change the down lighters to LEDs so there's no heat generation, and you'd reduce the insulation to 100mm, but the existing wiring should be fine and not subject to any heat build up.

As to calling on the partners dad when things go wrong (as they pretty much will), this could reduce your street cred even more, and do you really want to risk that; but talking to him now, and getting some guidance from him now, may be the best course of action for you.

 

[jagillham]

Just so you know, speaking from exact personal experience, your time for DIY and indeed gaming will be ~0 at arrival of little one.

My almost finished loft now stores all the hobby equipment I’ve not had a chance to touch in 3 years...

 

[Ian H]

DIYDisasterRightHere’s Spanking Room

First thing I thought too!!!

You could stick up some Celotex between or under the rafters and board the floor. But I'd say either do it properly or just move your x-box into the lounge or your bedroom. What else do you have in your games room other than your console and porn stash?

Looking at your pictures I'd say it would make a good room so do it properly ready for your next kid.