Converting a cellar into living space

[PistonReg]

I'm looking at a house which has a cellar with a good height (about 6ft 2"). I'm pretty competant with DIY and would have no issue with the flooring and plastering of it and extending the GCH to include a new rad and getting a sparkie to fit elecctricity, but it's also going to need tanking. It currently has a 1ft by 2ft horizontal window at teh front.

Is tanking costly and I believe I'll need to get the BCO involved in converting the room too. Is there anything else he'll want to see done or anything else major I've missed?

[Sam_68]

PistonReg said:

Is tanking costly and I believe I'll need to get the BCO involved in converting the room too. Is there anything else he'll want to see done or anything else major I've missed?

Potentially lots of things, so your best advice would be to discuss the possible pitfalls with him first. BCO's are usually a friendly and knowledgeable bunch (quite unlike Planning Officers, who are the Spawn of the Devil), and the building industry is a bit quiet at present, so he may well be happy to drop by and give you informal advice before you make any sort of formal application.

It's aeons since I've done one of these and I don't have the Regs to hand to check, so take the following with a pinch of salt, but if it's going to be a living space (habitable room), he'll be wanting to consider ventilation, daylight, possibly access (ie. does the stair down into the cellar meet the regs), insulation if he's being pedantic (strictly speaking it's an 'extension' of the habitable space, hence may need insulating to modern standards - not just to the same standard as the rest of the house - though if the floor over it is uninsulated he will hopefully take a pragmatic view), additional electrical wiring and - probably most critically - fire safety (can you get out without going through another habitable room or kitchen where a fire may have broken out?).

And yes, tanking can cost a few quid, if you want to do it right, though 'costly' is subjective according to how wealthy you are, of course!

[Si 330]

One of my current projects is having a basement.
Mechanical ventilation.
Access stairs need 2m headroom.
Fire protection
Tanking
Electricity.
Insulation.

The builder has quoted £4500 for a 3m x 3m room.

For this he is laying a concrete slab and insulation rebuilding a 4m length of wall.
Tanking
Stair access
Fire door at the top
Electric point
lights
Plaster finish
Mechanical vent.

[PistonReg]

Si 330 said:

One of my current projects is having a basement.
Mechanical ventilation.
Access stairs need 2m headroom.
Fire protection
Tanking
Electricity.
Insulation.

The builder has quoted £4500 for a 3m x 3m room.

For this he is laying a concrete slab and insulation rebuilding a 4m length of wall.
Tanking
Stair access
Fire door at the top
Electric point
lights
Plaster finish
Mechanical vent.

That sounds like a decent quote, especially if he's dealing with the BCO for you. It sounds very fiancially viable and to get it all signed off with a tanking cert, would be a nice to have when I sell on :-)

Cheers folks!

Thanks folks!

[Josef Fritzl]

I'll submit a full guide on how to do this a bit later.

[Si 330]

PistonReg said:

Si 330 said:

One of my current projects is having a basement.
Mechanical ventilation.
Access stairs need 2m headroom.
Fire protection
Tanking
Electricity.
Insulation.

The builder has quoted £4500 for a 3m x 3m room.

For this he is laying a concrete slab and insulation rebuilding a 4m length of wall.
Tanking
Stair access
Fire door at the top
Electric point
lights
Plaster finish
Mechanical vent.

That sounds like a decent quote, especially if he's dealing with the BCO for you. It sounds very fiancially viable and to get it all signed off with a tanking cert, would be a nice to have when I sell on :-)

Cheers folks!

Thanks folks!

I do the design get it all passed by BCO, then hand to builder.

[MiniMan64]

I'd be interested to know how this goes so keep us updated. We bought a one-bed GFF last year and one of the reasons we bought this particular one was it's got two potential extra bedrooms in the basement. One room is head height and already boarded up and floored and we use it as storeroom and very ocassional bedroom (damm cold down there!) but the second room still has a gigantic pile of earth that needs moving before we took in any further. There are no windows and a fairly step set of DIY ladder/stairs down there and it's damm handy to have but we're not in a position to develop it further at the moment financially.

However when it comes to selling on or more likely renting on we will certainly develop the space into two bedrooms or a bedroom and study space or something, it'll need a lot of work, earth removal and some sort of sunken window at the front at the least but I think the building cost to the increase in value of the flat makes it worth doing. Interestingly I know several flats on the street have already done this.