I have a 1930's 3 bed semi with a hipped roof, and had some plans drawn up 2years ago for a basic loft conversion consisting of a single bedroom, the stairs were open from the 1st floor into the loft and a partition & fire door at the top. I have since decided to amend these plans to put the fire door at the bottom and the loft can then be open plan (making the loft visually larger). The loft floor joists sit on the wall plate at one end, a bearer bolted to the party wall at the other, then on a structural wall in the middle overlapping the joists and bolting them together. This wall is constructed of brick but is offset from the wall below it(ground floor) and is built on a rsj spanning 3/4 of the length of the house front to back as originally built. Do you think this may be a problem and was possibly an oversight of the architects? The original plans did pass building regs but they don’t show the position of the ground floor walls, just the 1st floor. I am renovating the property and currently the 1st floor ceilings are down and think this would be the best time to fit the loft floor, I was considering lowering the new loft joists by a brick height so that the loft space height slightly greater than it would be without. On the party wall I was going to bolt a timber bearer with joist hangers to support the floor joists, but at the other end the bottom of the floor joist would be level with the bottom of the wall plate, I’m not sure if fixing a joist hanger onto the 4" wall plate would be sufficient for a 75mm width joist, any advice?
Loft Conversion
- Thread starter GaryJ
- Start date
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You will have to re-submit your plans to get passed other-wise it will not get passed. Your idea about putting the fire door at the base of the stairs will be ok as long the walls/under stair case is/ has got 1/2 hour fire protection ( 1/2" plaster board ) and door closers on every door + smoke alarms every level.
Regarding the RSJ you will have to get an arky out to work out if the steel can with-stand the added weight of the new floor. What size is the RSJ. ?
Regarding the RSJ you will have to get an arky out to work out if the steel can with-stand the added weight of the new floor. What size is the RSJ. ?
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