Is 1900mm tall enough for a loft conversion?

[jarthurs]

We live in a 1950's terraced property and it has a nested roof where the beams come down and actually enter the 1st floor rooms. This means the upstairs rooms have a small 45° section at the top of the exterior walls.

The end result is that the highest point of the loft is 1900mm above the existing hardboard flooring. We'd like to divide the loft into two rooms and bring a second set of stairs up above the existing stairs within the brick stairwell.

Do building regulations allow for a roof this low to be converted into a bedroom?

Regards,
Jason.

 

[geraldthehamster]

You'll lose some of that 1900mm height to insulation, plasterboard and skim. It doesn't sound very workable to me, unless you're only planning for children to use it

 

[jarthurs]

You'll lose some of that 1900mm height to insulation, plasterboard and skim. It doesn't sound very workable to me, unless you're only planning for children to use it

It would either end up with the 10yo and 14yo up there or as an office for my Wife who is only 1.5m tall. At this point in time, any of them would much rather have a short room rather than share space!

We had a guy come in to give a quote who wandered around measuring and muttering and suggested that you had to have a minimum height of 2.1m at the top of the stairs, but suggested their might be ways around it. Unfortunately despite promising to run up some rough design ideas he never made contact again and doesn't respond to calls any more. So I guess it wasn't worth his while.

Regards,
Jason.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Regs and occupants asside 1900 is too low, forget it. Unless you're prepared to lower the first floor ceiling's or raise the roof and they are viable options.

 

[geraldthehamster]

You need 2m at the top of the stairs, which can be reduced slightly, if that is impracticable (you can sometimes cheat the height by having a Velux window there). But depending on your rafter depth and the time of roofing felt you have, you could be losing up to 120mm-odd from the 1900mm. How far from the apex is your wife going to have to walk, before she knocks her head?

 

[Ian H]

How high are your first floor ceilings?

 

[jarthurs]

How high are your first floor ceilings?

This is a 1950's terrace house so ceilings are about 2.1m, being a terrace also means raising the roof would have 'issues'

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You're screwed then. Sharing rooms is on the cards then, or extend, or move. Seriously.

 

[Ian H]

I would move too.

We had boys aged 14 and 9 sharing but our ceilings were 2.5 so we dropped them to 2.3 which made for a decent sized loft.

 

[jarthurs]

You need 2m at the top of the stairs, which can be reduced slightly, if that is impracticable (you can sometimes cheat the height by having a Velux window there). But depending on your rafter depth and the time of roofing felt you have, you could be losing up to 120mm-odd from the 1900mm. How far from the apex is your wife going to have to walk, before she knocks her head?

Just found the 2013 Part K documents online and it appears a reduced headroom of 1900mm is acceptable at the midpoint of the top stair, down to 1800mm at the edge of the stair. This is assuming the stairs are parallel to the ridge of the roof. Mine will be 90° to the ridge line, however there is scope to introduce a landing at the top of the stairs which would be within the existing brick stairwell. This would mean the headroom at the top of the stairs could be maintained. There would then be a small step into the bedrooms on the left and right.

 

[jarthurs]

You're screwed then. Sharing rooms is on the cards then, or extend, or move. Seriously.

Regrettably despite the fact this house has virtually no mortgage I cannot get a mortgage on my current self-employed income so moving is utterly out of the question.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Do you have room for a ground floor extension?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Narrowing down the options then, sharing or extending ......

 

[tony1851]

I suspect your stair issue re. the headroom could be solve-able; there is a Code of Practice (BS 5395-4:2011 Stairs for Limited Access -- google it) which is more flexible than Approved Document K, and just as acceptable. There are also ways of arranging landings which side-steps (no pun intended) the guidance.
But your headroom of 1900 is very restrictive in the amount of useable space you could obtain.
Are your first-floor ceilings really only 2.1m? For a 1950s house, that does seem unduly low?