Problem with height beneath beams.

[trickeytalker]

A little design problem.
A friend has an unfinished cottage with no kitchen or bathroom yet and no staircase.
At the moment its just one big room. Someone has fitted a mezzanine floor at about 7ft high all around a central opening.
If you climb up there you find a large area that is not easy to do anything with because of two huge timber frames supporting the roof about a third and two thirds of the way down the length. They are in 300mm square timber.
The underside of the beams is only 13ft (4 metres) above the ground floor.
This means that unless we cut out the existing timber frames and replace with fabricated steel we cant build a conventional upper floor.
You would have to crawl beneath or climb over the beams to use the space.
Our friend doesn't want to get rid of the beams.
If he is willing to crawl or climb is that acceptable by the Building Control Dept?
What minimum height doors can we fit?
We are trying to think laterally and have wondered about a separate stair at each end - but then what about the central section.
If we could manouevre a doorway over the top of the beam maybe we could step down into the central section. Anyway it sounds difficult.

I would just like someone elses opinions.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

There is no minimum ceiling height stipulated within the building regulations apart from above a staircase which is 2m or 1.9m in the centre of the treads for loft conversions although I suspect if you went ridiculously low they may try to intervein . Really it comes down to what is practical/sensible. Is he really prepared to duck down under each beam, is any future purchaser? Its not overly clear what the layout is from your post tbh a photo or clearer description may help. You can get doors made as small as you like but again there ought to be common sense applied.