Loft play room

[pandadave]

Hi, looking for a bit of info/help on my loft area. The loft is roughly 5.5m x 7m and i was thinking about strengthening the floor to make it into a play area for the children is this possible without plans being drawn up and permission being granted ? access would still be through the hatch from a loft ladder no fixed staircase. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[xr4x4]

you will need to beef up the joists if you want people up there.

they will only be ceiling joists, which are thinner.

 

[pandadave]

Thanks for the reply, the existing joists are 4 x 2 with two 8 x 2 binders running across at 90 deg. so would new joists be attatched to the existing ones inbetween the binders ? thus bringing the new floor up 8".

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I would hope members question the safety aspect of the OP's proposals before commenting!

 

[xr4x4]

i dont know the answer, but you need to know what you are doing.

the new joists will need to be supported correctly and not on top of the existing joists.

 

[pandadave]

Thanks for your reply, thinking about it, the binders would be in the way so there would be no way of supporting the new joists. Can anybody else come up with a cost effective way to floor out a loft, i'm thinking a builder would cost £10,000 and not sure how this would stand if we came to sell the house if planning wasn't applied for. It is a bit excessive for an occasional kids play room, but obviously safety is no. 1.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Your comments regarding safety as being No. 1 and concerns about the floor are absurd given the potential danger from fire you are exposing your offspring to.

 

[pandadave]

Thanks for last comment, very helpful.

 

[DevilDamo]

is this possible without plans being drawn up and permission being granted ?

Yes, but illegal.

How would you feel if you proceeded with this budget conversion, a fire started on the floor below and your children couldn't get out?

 

[pandadave]

Surely this could also happen if a fixed staircase was installed (this is by the way impossible as there is not enough space).

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

No because in a legal conversion there'd be a fire door and a fire resistant ceiling separating the loft from the first floor & probably, additional fire detection & fire doors throughout the rest of the house.

 

[DevilDamo]

Surely this could also happen if a fixed staircase was installed (this is by the way impossible as there is not enough space).

Not even a space saver type stair?

http://www.stairplan.com/spacesaver.htm

Remember there's a lot more to it than just installing a fixed staircase.

A legal loft conversion can be quite expensive, but could you put a price on a persons head?

 

[mointainwalker]

.......

but could you put a price on a persons head?

Bit of thread-drift, but a number of years ago when there was a number of accidents caused by trains "jumping" red signals, it was published that the train company worked on an allowable spend of GBP 500, 000 to save one life.