I've got a Victorian terrace with an original attic room with poor headroom and very steep stairs. I want to separate the house into 2 flats as there is already a large extension on the ground floor. There's a wall across the property just before halfway from front to back, and the joists for the loft run from from and back to this wall. The wall is supported by a beam as it's been removed on the ground floor. Party walls are, I believe, only a single brick wide, so I don't want to be messing with them too much.
Stairs, both to the first floor and up to the attic room, are a real issue with any design that I come up with, as I'd really rather leave the existing beam and the wall above it alone. The house has had a lot done to it over the years, as at one point it was joined at ground floor level with the house next door so there are beams in one of the party walls as well (obviously bricked up underneath now).
One possible solution would involve a staircase with 3 double winders, one towards the bottom to get going up in the right direction, then 2 next to each other to achieve a 180 degree turn to allow them to first head up over the ground floor stairs then double back on themselves when headroom from the roof becomes an issue.
However, that, to me, creates an issue with framing the stairs, and, more particularly, supporting the landing at the top of the stairs.
I've attached a sketch that hopefully explains what I mean better than I've managed to do here. Bearing in mind that the landing can't be supported at point A from below, is there a solution? Would it have to be a beam replacing the double joist and then an L shaped beam bolted onto it and into the internal wall to support the outside edges of the landing? Is there a timber solution or is it not viable without support at corner A? Is it not even viable with steelwork?
I hope I've provided all relevant details, many thanks is advance.
Edit: Thought I could just attach a picture, hopefully I've added it to an album and the link below works, hope this is the correct way to do things.
//www.diynot.com/network/buffster/albums/
Stairs, both to the first floor and up to the attic room, are a real issue with any design that I come up with, as I'd really rather leave the existing beam and the wall above it alone. The house has had a lot done to it over the years, as at one point it was joined at ground floor level with the house next door so there are beams in one of the party walls as well (obviously bricked up underneath now).
One possible solution would involve a staircase with 3 double winders, one towards the bottom to get going up in the right direction, then 2 next to each other to achieve a 180 degree turn to allow them to first head up over the ground floor stairs then double back on themselves when headroom from the roof becomes an issue.
However, that, to me, creates an issue with framing the stairs, and, more particularly, supporting the landing at the top of the stairs.
I've attached a sketch that hopefully explains what I mean better than I've managed to do here. Bearing in mind that the landing can't be supported at point A from below, is there a solution? Would it have to be a beam replacing the double joist and then an L shaped beam bolted onto it and into the internal wall to support the outside edges of the landing? Is there a timber solution or is it not viable without support at corner A? Is it not even viable with steelwork?
I hope I've provided all relevant details, many thanks is advance.
Edit: Thought I could just attach a picture, hopefully I've added it to an album and the link below works, hope this is the correct way to do things.
//www.diynot.com/network/buffster/albums/
