I have lived in my three storey 100 year old terraced house for the past decade. It has two bedrooms on the middle floor and originally had one (front) bedroom on the top floor, with a staircase between middle and top floors in the centre of the house and a dead space under the attic at the back of the house, walled off by the original lath and plaster wall.
About fifteen years ago the previous occupants opened up the void, fitted a dormer window with flat roof and thereby created a second room on the top floor facing the back of the house. Apparently they got all the necesary planning permission and involved the building inspector throughout but never had it signed off, as they intended it to be a bathroom and so didn't need it to be "habitable". When I bought the house it wasn't picked up by the surveyor that it hadn't been signed off, and I stripped out the bathroom fittings and used the room as a study until now.
Incidentally, having just looked at the regulations from 15 years ago, I am not sure whether it would have been totally compliant as the opening window fitted was quite small and would have been difficult to climb out - but since modern regulations don't require you to climb out of a window in event of a fire the size of the window is now a moot point.
As there recently developed a small leak in the flat roof I need to have it repaired, and thought it would be a good opportunity to reclad the outside timber weatherboard with more weatherproofable material. My roofer advised me to speak to the building regulations inspector. Having recently discovered the oversight of not having been signing off, I thought this would also be a good opportunity to have the room signed off as habitable, since if I ever come to sell the house it would be good to call it a 4 bedroomed house rather than a 3 bedroomed house.
His advice however was that the room doesn't meet current fire standards regardless of whether it ever did 15 years ago. For the room to be considered habitable, and to be able to sell the house as a 4 bedroom property, he said I would need to reclad the outside and inside of the room in fireproofing materials (if the existing materials aren't fireproofed), then add additional insulation (which could be tacked to the inside of the existing ceiling if necessary). But wait for it - in order to have a safe escape route down the stairs from top floor to middle and then ground floor, remember these stairs have been in the house for the past 100 years - he said I have to either have hard-wired smoke alarms in every room of the house, or hard-wired smoke alarms on each floor in the hall or landing areas, and replace every internal door to be fire-resistant. Now replacing the nice original Victorian doors isn't going to be easy, the frames are all warped and current thickness doors are too thick for the doorframes, so it sounds like I need smoke alarms in every room of the house. All for the sake of protecting a 100-year old staircase that was put in when the house was built, which services the top floor's existing 100 year old bedroom and the 15-year old attic room. And he would have to return several times during the building works to check on progress. Something to do with "material alterations" to the house apparently.
I'm at a bit of a loss how to proceed from here. At one level all I need to do is to fix a small leak in the roof, but I figured that it would be a chance to put additional weatherproofing on the dormer structure since it's only accessible by scaffolding and is due for at least a new coat of paint. But if by doing that I have to also fit a false ceiling, replace all my doors and rewire the entire house with wired smoke alarms (despite having recently redecorated) to upgrade this one room to "habitable", as opposed to having been perfectly useable for the past 15 years, it's going to be a total nightmare as well as potentially taking months and costing a small fortune to bring up to present regulations regardless of how complient it might have been 15 years ago. And if he says the room doesn't meet current regulations, would I have to reverse the conversion? In fact, the entire house doesn't meet safety regulations in so far as the internal non-load-bearing walls are 100 years old and made of lath and plaster which doesn't meet modern standards and the current smoke alarn system I have fitted consists of battery alarms in all key areas. Surely I can't be expected to replace all my internal walls too? Any suggestions on how to take this forward senibly and pragmatically?
About fifteen years ago the previous occupants opened up the void, fitted a dormer window with flat roof and thereby created a second room on the top floor facing the back of the house. Apparently they got all the necesary planning permission and involved the building inspector throughout but never had it signed off, as they intended it to be a bathroom and so didn't need it to be "habitable". When I bought the house it wasn't picked up by the surveyor that it hadn't been signed off, and I stripped out the bathroom fittings and used the room as a study until now.
Incidentally, having just looked at the regulations from 15 years ago, I am not sure whether it would have been totally compliant as the opening window fitted was quite small and would have been difficult to climb out - but since modern regulations don't require you to climb out of a window in event of a fire the size of the window is now a moot point.
As there recently developed a small leak in the flat roof I need to have it repaired, and thought it would be a good opportunity to reclad the outside timber weatherboard with more weatherproofable material. My roofer advised me to speak to the building regulations inspector. Having recently discovered the oversight of not having been signing off, I thought this would also be a good opportunity to have the room signed off as habitable, since if I ever come to sell the house it would be good to call it a 4 bedroomed house rather than a 3 bedroomed house.
His advice however was that the room doesn't meet current fire standards regardless of whether it ever did 15 years ago. For the room to be considered habitable, and to be able to sell the house as a 4 bedroom property, he said I would need to reclad the outside and inside of the room in fireproofing materials (if the existing materials aren't fireproofed), then add additional insulation (which could be tacked to the inside of the existing ceiling if necessary). But wait for it - in order to have a safe escape route down the stairs from top floor to middle and then ground floor, remember these stairs have been in the house for the past 100 years - he said I have to either have hard-wired smoke alarms in every room of the house, or hard-wired smoke alarms on each floor in the hall or landing areas, and replace every internal door to be fire-resistant. Now replacing the nice original Victorian doors isn't going to be easy, the frames are all warped and current thickness doors are too thick for the doorframes, so it sounds like I need smoke alarms in every room of the house. All for the sake of protecting a 100-year old staircase that was put in when the house was built, which services the top floor's existing 100 year old bedroom and the 15-year old attic room. And he would have to return several times during the building works to check on progress. Something to do with "material alterations" to the house apparently.
I'm at a bit of a loss how to proceed from here. At one level all I need to do is to fix a small leak in the roof, but I figured that it would be a chance to put additional weatherproofing on the dormer structure since it's only accessible by scaffolding and is due for at least a new coat of paint. But if by doing that I have to also fit a false ceiling, replace all my doors and rewire the entire house with wired smoke alarms (despite having recently redecorated) to upgrade this one room to "habitable", as opposed to having been perfectly useable for the past 15 years, it's going to be a total nightmare as well as potentially taking months and costing a small fortune to bring up to present regulations regardless of how complient it might have been 15 years ago. And if he says the room doesn't meet current regulations, would I have to reverse the conversion? In fact, the entire house doesn't meet safety regulations in so far as the internal non-load-bearing walls are 100 years old and made of lath and plaster which doesn't meet modern standards and the current smoke alarn system I have fitted consists of battery alarms in all key areas. Surely I can't be expected to replace all my internal walls too? Any suggestions on how to take this forward senibly and pragmatically?
