Will this head height cause me a problem?

[Ian H]

The red line there is a fraction short of 1.9mtrs.

I put the double trimmer there so it matches the opening on the existing ground floor stairs. I never gave the head height a second thought until now.

Should I move the double trimmer back to give the 1.9 or will 1.87 be ok?

 

[John D v2.0]

By the time you add plasterboard and flooring it'll lose another 30mm, depends if building control get out the tape measure ie if it's obvious.
If it's not hard to move it id do it now rather then waiting until completion.

 

[Ian H]

Cheers John, for the sake of moving 2 hangers and shortening 3 noggins I think I'll have to move it.

Shame though, the nice even double staircase was looking good from the ground floor

I'll talk to the BCO first, see what he says. 1.87 is with a 12mm board (but no flooring) and that's more than the existing house stairs that have managed 70 years.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

1.87? Its supposed to be 2m! You better hope your BCO is a midget.

 

[RichA]

You only have to move it back 50mm by the looks of it to get >200mm (but more would be better).

Will be worth it as it will make descending the stairs more pleasant (less beam in your face). My current stairs is similar and I wouldn't repeat it.

 

[Mottie]

Nowt wrong with a bit 'o beam in yer face.

 

[Ian H]

If I bang my head on it, it might wake me up a bit

I'll go have a measure, see how far back it needs to go to get at least 2mtrs

 

[tony1851]

As per FMT, minimum headroom above the pitch line is 2m. But if your existing stairs have a similarly low headroom, you might be able to persuade the inspector to be more flexible (this is where private inspectors are more amenable than the council - the latter usually enjoy seeing you squirm). You could also have reduced the going of the lower treads to push them further away - you can go down to 180 treads for a single-room loft conversion.

 

[Ian H]

I've managed to get 2mtrs by moving it 150mm back. I will need a couple of fresh trimmers but apart from that it was pretty easy to do.

 

[Ian H]

Could I put a Veluxor other such opening for natural light above the loft stairs? It would be on the front of the house.

 

[tony1851]

If you're not in a conservation area, a Velux on the front slope is permitted development.

 

[Ian H]

Cheers Tony.

I measured the existing stairs and there is only 1.7m under those so I'm thinking of opening that up to.

I've put a plaster board on which is where the old wall was but I'm going to take it off. The last joist is about 300mm back from the edge and at the edge the floorboards are supported from above by a couple of length of 4x2 on edge as you can see under the kids here:

So if I cut that back to the first joist (or until I had 2mtrs height) and removed the 4x2's how would I best finish the underside of the stairs?

The board I put on looks like this but I think it could be improved:

 

[John D v2.0]

You only need that height above the step itself, you needn't take a line between the noses of each tread, but glad you've sorted it!

 

[catlad]

The bottom of my stairs in a 1962 build is 164cm and its not a problem
for me and I am 6 foot tall.

 

[Ian H]

I'm 5' 10" and seemed ok for me but I could imagine getting a whack if I ran down.

I've cut it back this much:

So it's given me 1.9mtrs, I'm nowhere near it going up or down and it seems bigger and brighter on the stairs.

I've started to board it but not sure how to board under the 2 angled steps. Could anyone give me a tip? Thanks