Loft conversion ridge height
Discussion
princeperch said:
Exactly how bad is it when the ceilings come down? Will we have to move out and have the whole house redecorated ?
Depends on the house but in my experience of older properties, taking the ground floor ceilings down is less messy than the upstairs ones. The last place I took first floor ceilings down in had 150 years of soot and filth in the loft. Aside from electrification in the early twentieth century I don't think the loft had been touched since the house was built. Having said that, ground floor ceilings are still messy, particularly if they're still lath & plaster. I've only ever done it in places where the decoration was yet to be done but I would imagine damage to your decoration might be minimised if care is taken.
Perfectly possible to continue living there though, although you'd probably want to do each room in turn - remove everything you can & cover anything you can't, put dustsheets down, bring down the ceiling, remove the mess, move your stuff back in and move on to the next one.
You can't really do one room at a time as the new ceiling will also be the loft floor. Ceilings will come down and new much bigger timbers installed for the floor/ceiling, the new timbers and probably steel beams will have to be built into the walls or into joist hangers, its quite a major undertaking, walls also need to be dropped so it would be very difficult and time consuming to do one room at a time. I've pulled down hundreds of Victorian ceilings and I wouldn't want to live a place where that was being done. When I done lofts we used to hoover out the area that was being removed for the new stairs, this does minimise the dust/soot, but an area that size will cause considerable mess as your removing the plaster, laths, joists, insulation and 100+ years of soot and dust. For your health and sanity I'd recommend you move out for at least a couple of weeeks.
One of the easiest lofts I done was for a captain of a ship, he buggered off to sea for 2 months and when he came back it was completely finished, easier for me and he was over the moon that he'd missed all the mess and disruption.
One of the easiest lofts I done was for a captain of a ship, he buggered off to sea for 2 months and when he came back it was completely finished, easier for me and he was over the moon that he'd missed all the mess and disruption.
Had another couple of chaps over today.. They said my loft wasn't ideal but they explained a similar technique to someone eilse who contributed to their thread, I.e steel and joists are kept to a minimum height and they can 'steal' a bit of height from the resisting ridge 'without causing s problem to building control or the planning chaps'. He said all in all, he could do it so as that I have just over 2m of head height from floor to ceiling without the ridge being noticeably increased .
Still sounds very tight to me. But I'm going to go and see a couple of recent lofts he's done in Walthamstow in similar houses to see if 2m or so is acceptable or not. I really would rather not take the ceilings down unless totally required but whether that's avoidable or not is another thing..
Still sounds very tight to me. But I'm going to go and see a couple of recent lofts he's done in Walthamstow in similar houses to see if 2m or so is acceptable or not. I really would rather not take the ceilings down unless totally required but whether that's avoidable or not is another thing..
Edited by princeperch on Friday 21st October 20:47
princeperch said:
Had another couple of chaps over today.. They said my loft wasn't ideal but they explained a similar technique to someone eilse who contributed to their thread, I.e steel and joists are kept to a minimum height and they can 'steal' a bit of height from the resisting ridge 'without causing s problem to building control or the planning chaps'. He said all in all, he could do it so as that I have just over 2m of head height from floor to ceiling without the ridge being noticeably increased .
Still sounds very tight to me. But I'm going to go and see a couple of recent lofts he's done in Walthamstow in similar houses to see if 2m or so is acceptable or not. I really would rather not take the ceilings down unless totally required but whether that's avoidable or not is another thing..
Sounds very tight indeed - its a lot of cash to spend to end up with a room with a 2m ceiling. FWIW mine came out at 2.15 from surface of carpet to ceiling & I really wouldn't want it any lower. 2m would be half way up the architrave over the top of the doors.Still sounds very tight to me. But I'm going to go and see a couple of recent lofts he's done in Walthamstow in similar houses to see if 2m or so is acceptable or not. I really would rather not take the ceilings down unless totally required but whether that's avoidable or not is another thing..
Edited by princeperch on Friday 21st October 20:47
Just measured mine and the ceiling height is about 2.3m. I'm 'only' 5'7" but I think if the ceiling was a foot lower, it'd feel cramped to me - be worse for someone taller. Might be ok for a kid's bedroom I suppose.
If you're already spending 50k on it, then another 3 doesn't seem so bad if it makes the space feel more usable. Guess it depends how much the loft is going to add to the property. I don't know how tall you are, but the next buyer of your house could be 6'.
Although I think you're saying it's two beds and a bathroom going up there? In that case I'd definitely go through the pain of dropping the floor level. If you don't do it now and you're unhappy with the result, it's not like something you could fix easily later on.
If you're already spending 50k on it, then another 3 doesn't seem so bad if it makes the space feel more usable. Guess it depends how much the loft is going to add to the property. I don't know how tall you are, but the next buyer of your house could be 6'.
Although I think you're saying it's two beds and a bathroom going up there? In that case I'd definitely go through the pain of dropping the floor level. If you don't do it now and you're unhappy with the result, it's not like something you could fix easily later on.
well I have now heard from my neighbours. they made a restrospective application for consent to raise the ridge of their loft conversion and although its taken a few months, they have now been granted that permission. I am not sure, as long as I don't apply for permission to go higher than their ridge line, how the council can refuse me planning to increase my ridge line now they have granted permission ?
if so, whilst it will cost a few hundred quid to do the paperwork, that will buy me another foot of head height, without the mess of lowering the ceilings, which will bring me in at about 2.2m headheight which should be just fine I think..
if so, whilst it will cost a few hundred quid to do the paperwork, that will buy me another foot of head height, without the mess of lowering the ceilings, which will bring me in at about 2.2m headheight which should be just fine I think..
Mousem40 said:
I've done many loft conversions.
I gain 4 inches of head height by using the existing 4 inch floor joists (instead of new 8 inch joists as is the normal specification) and doubling up each joist with C24 4x2s and adding a flitch in the middle as a sandwich. This gives you the strength required but gains you 100mm in head height. No need to lower the floors. All building control and engineer approved.
Get an engineer to draw you up a plan. The flitches tend to be 8-10mmx100mm with staggered bolt holes using single sided TP connectors.
Of course the flitches cost money and so does the extra labour, but head height is everything.
This is an old thread, but hoping this gets seen!! I’m hoping to be able to do this - can you recommend a structural engineer that you have used for this? Thank you.I gain 4 inches of head height by using the existing 4 inch floor joists (instead of new 8 inch joists as is the normal specification) and doubling up each joist with C24 4x2s and adding a flitch in the middle as a sandwich. This gives you the strength required but gains you 100mm in head height. No need to lower the floors. All building control and engineer approved.
Get an engineer to draw you up a plan. The flitches tend to be 8-10mmx100mm with staggered bolt holes using single sided TP connectors.
Of course the flitches cost money and so does the extra labour, but head height is everything.
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