Hi all - hoping to get some steer on something I'm thinking of DIY-ing.
Our place originally had ~4m ceilings, however the hallway, 2nd bed and bathroom ones were dropped to c 2.5m. We've just opened them up to find voids and currently in the process of restoring full ceiling height.
However, our bathrooms are relatively small (2.25m x 1.5m), and don't think we need 4m ceilings there. I've had the idea of instead converting this into a 'storage attic' - we're talking about a total area of 2.25m x 3m above both bathrooms.
Having removed the current wall coverings we discovered metal studwork was used to put these up - there's a stud separating both bathrooms from the master, one separating the main bathroom and hallway, and one between the two bathrooms (attached floorplan hopefully helps to explain)
My question is relatively broad - I'm trying to understand what I'd need to do (and how) to make this structure one that can support an attic above the ceilings.
Some of the metal studs have rusted away & I'm thinking to replace it all with timber as I feel that would be stronger - the attic is a storage area but one we can hopefully crawl around in if needed to maximise the space. Some builders opined to say I can just add to the metalwork, but I don't really see how this works as there are metal tracks at the top and bottom and I feel it's better to strip these out and replace with single pieces of timber attached to the floor and ceiling (as opposed to cutting timber to fit between the existing metal work). Then I was thinking to build up studs with another "horizontal" section where the bathroom ceiling will be, before continuing up to the attic ceiling.
Great to get people's thoughts on anything I might be missing / any better ways to do this!
Our place originally had ~4m ceilings, however the hallway, 2nd bed and bathroom ones were dropped to c 2.5m. We've just opened them up to find voids and currently in the process of restoring full ceiling height.
However, our bathrooms are relatively small (2.25m x 1.5m), and don't think we need 4m ceilings there. I've had the idea of instead converting this into a 'storage attic' - we're talking about a total area of 2.25m x 3m above both bathrooms.
Having removed the current wall coverings we discovered metal studwork was used to put these up - there's a stud separating both bathrooms from the master, one separating the main bathroom and hallway, and one between the two bathrooms (attached floorplan hopefully helps to explain)
My question is relatively broad - I'm trying to understand what I'd need to do (and how) to make this structure one that can support an attic above the ceilings.
Some of the metal studs have rusted away & I'm thinking to replace it all with timber as I feel that would be stronger - the attic is a storage area but one we can hopefully crawl around in if needed to maximise the space. Some builders opined to say I can just add to the metalwork, but I don't really see how this works as there are metal tracks at the top and bottom and I feel it's better to strip these out and replace with single pieces of timber attached to the floor and ceiling (as opposed to cutting timber to fit between the existing metal work). Then I was thinking to build up studs with another "horizontal" section where the bathroom ceiling will be, before continuing up to the attic ceiling.
Great to get people's thoughts on anything I might be missing / any better ways to do this!
