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Hi All I'm at the early stage of planning a loft conversion and have a question regarding the ridge board. Is there any way to have a shed (pitched roof) dormer going to the existing ridge board rather than having to install a ridge beam. I recall reading somewhere that it could be done if the pitch was a minimum of X. Many thanks in advance Mike

I recently moved into a house that has a roof with raised tie trusses and no internal supporting walls. I wanted to use the loft as storage but the small dimensions of the roof ties are concerning for anything other than what nature intended. I have recently also had a survey done on the property to fit a heat pump, but would need the water cylinder to be located in the loft BUT I'm unsure as to what method can be applied to strengthen the roof ties as the wall plate is much lower and not accessible to bear weight and with no internal LB walls this is a 20ft span with nothing to bear against. How are raised tie roof trusses strengthened for a loft conversion? One carpenter mentioned about sistering larger joists and bolting them against the existing rafters with additional struts from rafter to joists along the edges, and another said about lowering all ceilings to implement a wall plate to wall plate span and using RSJs but that is a lot of work for a storage room. Any ideas?

Hello everyone, my first post here. The height of my loft isn’t that high so can’t ever use it as an actual room, but I hoped to make it easier to move about and use it for storage, maybe even a space to play Lego for the kids. So I wondered how easy it would be to change the triangulation of the trusses, I have a couple of photos and drew a line over the ones I was thinking of changing and then showed a photos of an example of how the truss would be vertical instead of at an angle. ( I wouldn’t move the smaller truss just the longer one that eats into the space. what do you guys think? ideally don’t want to spend a lot of money on it. can send more photos and videos if that helps, appreciate your opinion.

I'm planning a loft conversion and a builder has advised me to replace the existing roofing felt with a breathable type to comply with building regs. My original intention was to insulate the roof between & over rafters with a 50mm ventilated cavity under the existing felt. I know a breathable felt is required for new-builds but I've not heard of a need to replace the felt during renovation before. The loft is ventilated and house built 2006. I'd welcome some other opinions. TIA

Hi all, So plan is to creat a new liviing space in the loft. Already have about 3.3m to the apex. We would like more head height at the front and back though (means we can have 2 extra rooms due to improved access). So the plan: 1 Remove existing roof, 2 Raise the walls (2 options here) Option 1 - raise front and back and reduce the roof angle Option 2 - raise all walls and chimney and keep current roof angle. 3 Install three dormer windows at the front and three skylights at the back (north facing) 4 New trusses either scissors or raised tie across 5m span of the house. That's it in brief - I'm looking for thoughts and experiences on trusses, type, angles, and any other considerations anyone had to make. Just to note, everything removed will be used in a future part of this project. There is some really nice wood coming out of the roof.

Hi - looking at PD rules for loft conversion... The Govt doc - "Permitted development rights for householders - Technical Guidance" (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/830643/190910_Tech_Guide_for_publishing.pdf ) - says you can convert your loft under PD unless "the cubic content of the resulting roof space would exceed the cubic content of the original roof space by more than - (i) 40 cubic metres in the case of a terrace house, or (ii) 50 cubic metres in any other case" My question is: when calculating the volume of the possible roof space (to check if it falls under PD), should you include the measurements for the ENTIRE space, or would the Council really only be concerned with the USEABLE space i.e. any space that has a reasonable height? Ultimately, what counts? (I think the minimum height for useable space is 150cm? According to Govt doc called Technical Housing Standards: Nationally Described Space Standard - "any area with a headroom of less than 1.5m is not counted within the Gross Internal Area unless used solely for storage") Also, if you have a quick and easy way of doing this calculation, that would be great too! Thanks all - your assistance and wisdom, as always, is much appreciated.

Hi there, I’m after a bit of advice re. Loft conversions. We bought our house about five years ago (it was built in around 1900), the loft has been converted into an office and has a full staircase accessed through a door off the master bedroom. The seller had out an indemnity policy in place presumably because the loft didn’t have a building regs certificate. Although I am told the conversion was done over twenty years ago (but I have no evidence of the actual date). We were happy with this at the time as only intended to use the loft for storage/ as an office. However, we now have two children and love our home and the area we live - it is impossible to find a three bedroom house for sale in our village so we now want to convert the attic into a proper room for my toddler daughter. I want to meet the regs for a bedroom with new insulation, new windows, ensuring the floor is up to the right standard to support the weight etc, moving the entry point from our bedroom to create separate access. BUT the headroom is an issue, I have read there needs to be 2.3m but we have nowhere near that, it’s actually about 1.6 from existing floor to top of the arch. Lowering the ceiling/raising the roof is not an option financially at the moment so I guess my questions are: If I got everything else up to the correct standard so I know it is safe etc for my daughter, can I use this is a bedroom but just call it a “loft room” or whatever when we come to sell Would reputable builders / loft conversion companies carry out this work without building regs being met How are building regs assessed for refurbs of old conversions - do I even need to go down this route? Any thoughts on the situation welcome, please be kind and understand I have little knowledge on this, nor am i trying to cut corners - I’m trying to make the room safe, habitable and meet the regulations, I just need to understand the restrictions on head height. Thanks you so much for your time

Hi all, I am about to begin the process of doing some major works to my house and I wanted some opinions on what you guys think of the design and if you think it is possible. I am looking to both extend my property and convert the loft. I currently live in a detached bungalow on a street with a mish mash of houses. Next door is a two storey house, the other side is a bungalow with a huge extension and then mine sits very small in the middle. My idea is below: A double hip to gable conversion, this will open the loft space up massively. Currently I have 2.6m joist to underside of the ridge beam, so I don't have too many concerns there. The space planned to use for the stairs follows the roof line up, the height restrictions would not be a problem for the 2m headroom requirement. The area that I am unsure on is the extension. although I could add a nice extension under PD, I want to take it a step further and I don't mind applying for planning if I can achieve the result. I would like to extend out roughly 6-8m and then make use of the upstairs space as a master bedroom. effectively one big loft conversion when you include the current house. The master bedroom would have a glass gable end window with a nice little balcony (the beauty of south facing garden). My garden extends out massively, I have no problems with taking up space by extending. I have attached a basic idea below (both options of roof pitch), which leads me on to the next area of uncertainty - can you build the wall height of the extension higher and decrease the pitch of the roof to allow more standing head room across the width of the new master bedroom or do it have to run from the current height of the existing brickwork? My knowledge is very small on restrictions, so I could be well out with my ideas but I value anyone's opinion highly. Don't worry about budget too much but I'm interested to hear what you would estimate. If I have missed anything, feel free to ask me any questions. I tried my best while using Sketchup to create my first 3D house model, so the details aren't quite correct lol. Thanks for taking a look! E

Hi - so new home fab views and really really great price Issues no paperwork new roof - no paperwork - would't you think that after spending £4k+ one would have some kind of warranty?? not according to local builder Down shower floods because outlet pipe drops into another pipe that is too small which then instead of dropping into what one assumes from another down pipe is a main drain running down the drive, instead winds back around the corner apparently up a gradient or two back into the wall where one assumes it meets the same downpipe used for the WC I had many plans for this bathroom including to downsize the WC and swap in a cistern that actually works and does not take at least a half hour to fill And put a cover on the fan outside Upstairs a WC & sink have been installed into a cupboard and the plan was to cut a door through to the next door cupboard and then install a shower using part of the next door room and also downsize and move the WC to give more space and for more realistic use of the space Simples says the first guy who quoted me £4k for that and to reduce height of trees outside, refelt shed roof, plaster coal hole walls, paint said coalhole plus kitchen hall and two bedroom walls and ceilings and add double sockets to the single sockets and move the existing BT socket to someplace smarter I asked him to start on the bathrooms and had prepared the upstairs so that we would have continued use of the downstairs shower wc but he knew best - yes he did- and began to plaster the coal hole - i had felt that some jobs i could do myself unwillingly perhaps and there were some jobs i could leave for next year because there were jobs which required immediate attention But he knew best He said he would start at 8am and finish at 5 pm on the dot, but did not turn up before 1020 except for once and was usually gone by 4 He brought in another and we felted the shed together in a high wind In all he and his helper felted the shed, plastered most of the coalhole, painted the kitchen walls, the hall and stairs and hall walls and ceilings, and one bedroom wall He also went into the attic and fixed a leaking window which i reckon had caused a lot of damp issues down below although the home report stated there was no damp present - well it had been a long hot summer After I think fixing the leaking attic window, I believe- because I have not actually been up to see it yet - he then tripped on a nail and fell through the ceiling into the bedroom below He did pin the plaster board up promising that all would be fixed, before smashing down the cupboard wall and then the second cupboard wall both which seem to be made of plaster and a skinny breeze block from i suppose 1949 Then he watched as he made a few calls to wife and possibly future customers as I and his helper carted buckets of wall into the shed - since i did not want to upset the neighbours, and over the weekend I took some of this debris to the dump We had a problem when he finally showed me the WC replacement and sink cabinet set he had bought I did not like and he agreed to send them back while i ordered from Amazon replacement plus flooring - he did not want wet flooring he wanted waterproof laminate I also ordered sound proof and moisture proof boards - he had already provided the wood for the stud work He was unable to come then appeared later the next week to cut down much of the tree line - did i mention this was one of the jobs could have been left until another year/ i could have saved up to cover the following year. having been quoted £650 by professional who would also wood chip the lot But apparently there was a van parked in the way so a couple, well several of the leylandii are still 5 to 6 meters tall, but i spent the best part of the day fetching cable for a chipper that refused to work When I got back the branches were piled high, and because i had no chipper this took time to rearrange Then he asked if I could help him out by paying him for what he had already worked on /paid for - i asked for a receipt which stated for work done No itemised listing £1700 But he had kids and his wife had fallen off a ladder and his van needed fixing and then apparently he had root canal problems because I did not see him for a while Well actually even again because then he cut his tendon working on another job so.. He still has my house keys The thing is apart from the house keys I have a massive hole in a bedroom wall through to the existing WC& sink And a hole in the ceiling pinned up admittedly And it is lockdown and i am dangerously thinking about doing some of the stud work myself - i have a workmate and drill and saw I am really really bad at sawing a straight line - I do have a black & decker what is that thing - a wee electric saw and tape measured and have spent hours pouring over plans i thought would work for the WC rearrangement but cannot really tell because the original furniture prevents a test run to see if it all fits in A structural engineer told me that the 20" x 2" hole in the interior support wall at the gable end of this semi detached 3 bed council house was not any threat although the lady in the building control office disagreed She was most anxious and warned that they might sue me if the building collapsed A builder came by the other day and told me: That the header tank upstairs which the Czech said was empty and non functional was vital That I would need to take up floorboards and strip out walls to put in the cable from the mains to the shower because the cable for the now non existent storage heater would not work for the 10.5 kw shower i had bought That my designs would not work That the flow from the shower waste would be not high enough to meet the WC waste pipe outside although I would have thought that the a pipe through the wall might have met the down pipe outside Did i mention that I had already got a quote from this and another for also a loft conversion which was supposed to start next month I had applied to planning and discovered that i did not need planning consent Yes but I would need a building warrant which they failed to point out - perhaps it is a wee joke So finally thanks to a few sources after spinning madly around looking for advice I was pointed back in the direction of the Building Control - for those who wish to know where to speak to someone with regard to a Building Warrant Apparently you submit drawings they tell you where to apply regs / structural support and then check it out at the end ... result paper work But the lady in the planning office told me every door would have to be a firedoor - can you imagine a home with every room a firedoor How are wee kids supposed to get around? And there is something in the regs which says somewhere i cannot find now that if you have a great fire exit window you may dispense with the fire doors Cant find it now Perhaps i dreamed it Because while I cannot imagine standing by a window waiting for the fire truck to get to this rural spot ... and from what I understand fire trucks with cherry pickers have failed on several occasions to get there in time sadly. and the idea of hanging a rope ladder outside a window really you would need to fix a ladder to the roof and let it have hooks that hung well over the guttering wouldn't you, i then found what seems to be an awesome option for those with a gable end to spare and the presance of mind to cut a window big enough to climb out and onto a ladder fixed to the wall outside Except burglars no cheer, the ladder is actually an aluminium tin box that folds out into a ladder in an emergency, down which it seems fairly safe to climb Definitely safer than standing under a window hoping the fire brigade have remembered their cherry picker at the least I dont know if you are allowed to paste links here but for anyone interested in a possible solution to a problem I may never now be able to afford to have unless i pluck up the guts to do some of the work myself, without totally wasting the materials i have already bought and paid for.....here it is https://www.safelincs.co.uk/saffold-fold-out-fixed-fire-escape-ladder/?sku=SAF18&fGB=truefirst floor 90 degree no fire door.bmp

I'm blessed with a 70s bungalow with a low pitched roof. Around 20m x 8m. I'd like to create an upside down house, leaving the current layout pretty much as is and create a large open plan space upstairs. The idea is to replace the roof trusses with 45 degree attic trusses or equivalent ridge beam and SIPS panel roof. If the foundations can take it, what are the gotchas over adding a roof to a new build? One issue I thought may be upsetting the current ceilings, but Moduloft seem to be able able to keep these intact. Thoughts greatly appreciated!

A lot of people think we shouldn't convert our loft. Their reasons: the head height is 2.35m in the pitch you'd lose a bedroom on the 1st floor to create the staircase the house is a 1918 build where the loft sits on the roof rafters, not the walls below However I take a different view because: I'm in the south-east where sq m is clearly astonishingly expensive The views of open countryside that would be unlocked by the loft would be amazing the space, while not vertically large, would deliver c. 55m2 of extra floor space Supporting the roof should be fine, the floor up there is trickier. Due to the 2.35m existing pitch, going up on top of existing floor is tough. The structural engineer just told me that to take all the bedroom ceilings down, and reinforce the whole thing is a 4 week minimum job. With the bill to match. The bill is less of a factor than the 4 weeks of absolute carnage as ceilings come down, mid COVID. I'm assuming there are just no other options here, but if there are, would absolutely love to hear them....any kind of technological innovation which massively reduces the referred impact of movement? (ps. stating the obvious that this is not a weight thing - there's a 400kg water tank up there now, it's a movement issue which will result in ceilings cracking below...)

I am hoping someone has done this, I am currently looking at doing a loft conversion in a rented property. One aspect is that I am likely to need an EPC grade of C by 2030 to be able to let it legally at that point. I have done most of the low hanging fruit already .. 50mm celotex IWI where needed, 250mm loft ins., 2G and so on. there is a boiler swap to condensing and HR to be done at some stage, but the EPC is currently D58, which is quite poor given that energy bills only run at -60 per month, and I do not think that a boiler alone will give me 12 more points. So I need to take some care. If I do a well insulated loft conversion .. say to add 25sqm to the loft area in addition to the existing 85sqm area, does the per area algorithm for an EPC mean that in practise I get a nice boost for the extra area with only a marginal increase in energy use? (I am in a position to do a cost-effective conversion for various reasons.) Cheers Fedinand

Does anyone have suggestion as to pros or cons for the Building Regs route to follow on a fairly straightforward loft conversion. I plan to keep the property, and it is a rental. I think I could go either route, but am thinking the full plans route as the prices are the same in this LPA, and I get lower risks of getting it wrong inadvertently. Cheers Ferdinand

As I just realised my loft has 0 insulation. I am wondering what do you think, which way (or any alternative) would the insulation would work the best: Green - Insulate the floor where there is no room and the sides of the room Red - insulate the roof The ceiling of the room will need to be insulated in both versions Loft photos: