Hello all.
I am hoping for a little advice. We are looking to buy an Edwardian house in berkshire. Today we had the homebuyers survey carried out. The house is laid out over 3 floors with the top floor being a loft conversion and nicely done. It was actually converted in 1987. The surveyor called me to say that he thinks they have boarded over the existing roof joists when this was done and so it might not be very safe by todays building regulations. He mentioned that the joists were 10cm deep with boarding over them, really this should be 20cm deep if it were done today. Anyway the work was carried out before the current owners who have been there the past 20 years and raised their 3 kids there. But apparently they do have some kind of building regs approval. There was no evidence of the floor sinking and indeed it has been there 25 years. He also wasn't sure as he couldn't get access to the floor very easily other than through the eves, but he measured what he could. He suggested i talk to council and find out about what if any building control was used and recorded. Secondly get a builder to check it over. Any advice on a situation like this? What is the worst case here can the floor be taken up and reinforced somehow?
Many thanks
Brian
I am hoping for a little advice. We are looking to buy an Edwardian house in berkshire. Today we had the homebuyers survey carried out. The house is laid out over 3 floors with the top floor being a loft conversion and nicely done. It was actually converted in 1987. The surveyor called me to say that he thinks they have boarded over the existing roof joists when this was done and so it might not be very safe by todays building regulations. He mentioned that the joists were 10cm deep with boarding over them, really this should be 20cm deep if it were done today. Anyway the work was carried out before the current owners who have been there the past 20 years and raised their 3 kids there. But apparently they do have some kind of building regs approval. There was no evidence of the floor sinking and indeed it has been there 25 years. He also wasn't sure as he couldn't get access to the floor very easily other than through the eves, but he measured what he could. He suggested i talk to council and find out about what if any building control was used and recorded. Secondly get a builder to check it over. Any advice on a situation like this? What is the worst case here can the floor be taken up and reinforced somehow?
Many thanks
Brian