Old loft 'conversion' - renovation questions..

[bigal43]

You've been offered advice yet you seem to have all the answers so it seems confusing why you bothered posting?

So I guess you wouldn't advocate living in flats or townhouses, or perhaps any building with more than 2 storeys?

You haven't offered advice, advice suggests it would be something of use.

To the OP, you will need to check with your individual council. From the description I cant see why you need to inform the council but councils can be so wildly different you never know.

I would ring their planning dept. and ask the question hypothetically.

Regards

thanks Ozington. that and the other reply from bernardgreen concerning the need for linked smoke alarms I am very grateful for - thank you.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You've been offered advice yet you seem to have all the answers so it seems confusing why you bothered posting?

So I guess you wouldn't advocate living in flats or townhouses, or perhaps any building with more than 2 storeys?

You haven't offered advice, advice suggests it would be something of use.

To the OP, you will need to check with your individual council. From the description I cant see why you need to inform the council but councils can be so wildly different you never know.

I would ring their planning dept. and ask the question hypothetically.

Regards

What a load of rubbish, why you would go to the trouble of joining the forum to post that drivel is a mystery.

To answer the OP's question, no the LA cannot prevent you letting your kids play in the loft, how on earth could they? But usually common sense prevails. It will never be a loft conversion without a flight of stairs and even with the addition of a flight of stairs it would still not be legal conversion.

 

[bigal43]

I have seen other posts on other forums where councils have allegedly ordered 'illegal' conversions to be ripped out... stripping it back to bare bones so that its not comfortable as a 'habital' room. I dont know how true that is...or if it could be enforced even..given all the austerity measures in place with local gov...etc.

all I have done is add better insulation and re paper...etc what has already been there for the last 20 yrs or so. I know it would never pass the regs as the height is only 1.8m from last step to apex and no stairs...etc. so I appreciate the fact that it cannot ever pass inspection as an exra bedroom room. I am just reluctant to get the coucil involved and end up with some over officious clipboard toting jackass from the Council. ..that ends up ordering me to recuce the comfort levels down to an 'uninhabitable' state...

 

[bernardgreen]

To answer the OP's question, no the LA cannot prevent you letting your kids play

If they have reason to believe the attic space is being used for a purpose that could comprise the safety of people in the house or adjacent properties then they can inspect and then enforce compliance with ALL building regulations. This can be very expensive.

But if the attic is being used for storage of children's toys around a large space in the middle AND access to the space is safe for occasional and supervised use by children to fetch their toys then the local authority are likely to "not object" to the use as storage.

That said I am aware of an obsessive collector whose local council did issue an enforcement order on him as they considered the attic floor could not safely carry the weight of the collection in the attic.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I cannot for the life of me understand why you wish to get Building Control involved at all. If you get BC involved then they are duty bound to make you provide a safe place to inhabit, it’s not overly officious. If they failed to act and the worse happened and it was subsequently revealed that they had turned a blind eye do you not suppose they could be considered negligent?

 

[bigal43]

I don't think I need to get BC involved having thought about it and taking some advice from the contributors on this thread. the structure was converted more than 20 years ago as a 'hobby room' by the previous owner. it stored tons of junk as well as a large solid oak bench with sinks and plumbing. even with all this, the enhanced survey we paid for when property was purchased, revealed no structural issues in the property. I removed the sinks, plumbing and work bench. ..etc.

so I have only made some cosmetic changes to this already established structure. After fitting linked fire alarms and co2 alarm...and a roll out fire escape ladder...which we shall roll out and test - under the velux (which replaced an old home made pre existing window) I don't think I should worry about my 16 year old strapping son using it as a quiet place, occasionally for homework and study.