loft question

[alim1]

hi guys. just a question from a novice.
when doing a loft conversion i always read about people having to use
steel beams for support from the gable end to the other.

is it possible to use floor joists going from the front wall to the back wall
with the joists resting on top of the walls and then laying the floor?

cheers
al

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Only if you happen to have adequate loadbearing walls that just so happen to be in the right place.

 

[alim1]

cheers for that.
both the walls in question have windows and doors within them, i.e back has 4 sets of windows and front wall has 2 set of windows
on first floor and window and main door on the ground floor.

generaly speaking would this make the walls too weak to put another loading
on them? it is a semi, built in the fifties.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

The external walls are unlikely to be an issue, as mentioned you will need internal conveniently located loadbearing walls though to avoid RSJs.

 

[alim1]

cheers mate.
just investigating the possibility of doing the conversion
as a project for me and my son, although i like to think i am a keen
diy er the thought of installing a rsj etc may well be beyond me?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Er the likelyhood of being able to do a conversion without steels is more unlikely. The steels can be inserted as continuous legths in one piece if you are a semi or end of terrace and the roof permits. Normally though the steel beams are chopped into 3 or 4 manageable sections to get them up into the loft, they are then bolted together once in place. Such 'spliced' beams can be seen in this thread although this loft has big spans hence the big steels! //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=137740 A loft can be DIYed though.

 

[marsaday]

i am doing the same at the mo, but have had a SE do some plans.

to go from front to back of the house in my case would be a clear span of 8.5m. Huge and the the timbers would have to be very deep indeed.

going from gable to party wall is 7m, but there is a truss in the middle of the area. we are using this as support for the new floor at the mid point. however we have to reinforce it with steel each side.

There are supporting walls below, but this was the best method to make the floor.

 

[alim1]

thanks for that link freddy, those steel sections seem to be much more
managable!.

marsaday. how much are you paying for the steel rsj if you don't mind me asking?