Before you start planning to replace your elevator, you pay to find out what will include and how it will affect the design of your home.
This step-by-step loft conversion guide reveals 10 important things to consider when examining whether loft conversion is the right way to add more space to your property. Or not.
Be sure to consider your elevator conversion design ideas as follows:
This article was updated in September 2019 to reflect the latest Mount conversion guidelines.
1. Can your house bear the burden of altitude change?
Obviously, creating a hill transformation will add weight to your home, and while this is a slight increase, you will need to make sure the building structure can handle it.
To do this, you will need to unroll and inspect foundations with beams or lintels that require more weight lifting.
The building inspector also wants to inspect all these items, so drill a small hole to reveal the foundation. If your home turns out to need help to support the excess weight, it may double your budget before you start. So this is the main idea when planning to change your apartment.
2. Is there enough head height for conversion?
Ask your designer to clearly state how tall your height will be after you change your top – people are often disappointed about the amount of space and this is not always clear on the plans.
Remember that there must be stairs to get to the top. Lift new stairs over old to make more room. Not from inside the current bedroom.
If a floor means losing an entire room on the first floor, changing a higher floor will be of little use.
Regardless of the surface area of water tanks and plumbing, heating and hot water systems may need to be replaced with a closed system. It is better to have a non-perforated hot water tube than a perforated kettle, but it will take the size of a room or a cabinet and you will need to find a place to put it.
3. Building Regulations & Party Walls for loft conversions
Under building regulations, upgrading always requires approval (regardless of whether they need planning permission or not), so it’s a good idea to take a complete project implementation approach and prepare a verified draft before calling a builder.
Certification of the design will bring a lot of risk to the business and also mean that the builder has the opportunity to quote a fixed price rather than an uncertain estimate.
If your home is semi-detached or enclosed, be sure to let your neighbor have your suggestions, this normally falls under the Party Wall Act 1996.
Your construction control officer will review the work at various stages and will give you a certificate of completion during the final inspection. Do not close final accounts with contractors unless you have a certificate.
4. Altering the roof structure & floor joists
Most roofs are constructed with internal support beams in the loft, supporting rafters and rafters (horizontal roof beams) in traditional trellised and hollow roofs, and leaving a truss truss in modern truss roofs.
To make room for a new room, all of them must be removed and replaced with new supports that do not exceed the available space in the upper floor area. There are many ways to change the structure of the roof for high-rise conversions, but they all have one thing in common – it may not be as suitable as a loft spear. This means that the roof is raised slightly above the plasterboard to avoid contact, and new floor angels are installed.
These beams will extend over the tops of existing roof beams (200 mm or 225 mm deep) to form the floor structure. Depending on their duration, they will be able to withstand directly against external and internal load-bearing walls on existing wall panels or newly installed beams.
On small hills, floor beams are often used to support strip beams. This is possible by building a 1 m to 1.5 m dwarf wood nail wall between the two. Sutures and stents instead of auxiliary threads can now be safely removed.
5. Loft conversion stairs
Designing stairs in height change plans is always difficult because the space for them is narrow. Tight trips are acceptable, but may not be practical as it is difficult to put furniture on them.
Purposeful stairs cost 10 times more than standard (ready-made) designs, so keep this in mind when planning a loft extension replacement.
If you need a necessary top converting ladder, have it approved by a building control authority before actually installing it. Send a copy of the design to the carpenter or builder in the wall control.
As part of the fire safety upgrade (see below), take your stairs to the hallway and leave the door. If you have an open arrangement where stairs lead up from the room, you will need to change it, install a new partition wall or choose escape routes.
6. Fitting windows & gaining natural light
You don’t need to make any structural adjustments to set up your new high beams or skylights, making installation relatively easy. The beams on either side of the ceiling light are usually doubled and cut above the opening crown.
A common alternative is to install door windows, which are self-built with walls and ceilings as well as windows. Behind many homes, drummer windows may fall under the legal zoning quota and may not require planning permission. But they’ll need permission to plan ahead of the house, so you’ll often see ceiling lights or ski lights instead.
High windows may be required to increase height and provide usable space, but they must be supported at a support point. Before that, place the cantilever inserts on the roofs and ventilate the roof, before that a branch is marked on top.
At this point, when blank windows form, your elevator will be exposed to different elements, so you will need a good temporary compound to protect you from the weather.
7. Upgrading loft fire safety
Loud conversions in huts have little effect on the fire safety of your home, in addition to being large enough to avoid new windows.
However, there are signs in a house with two floors and three floors.
The new floor will need at least 30 minutes of fire protection, which could mean rewriting the ceiling below and separating the upper room from the fire door above or below the new stairs. You will also need an escape window for each room. Some skylights have been specially designed with this in mind.
Homes no longer need self-closing devices for doors. Children have been proven to be at risk because their little fingers can become stuck.
Instead, staircase (ground and first floor) doors should be replaced with fire-rated or raised doors – this should be specified in the attic conversion drawing to check the building.
As part of the electrical installation, electric smoke alarms should be installed on each floor of your home and connected so that they can be heard when turned on. Most of them have a backup rechargeable battery that can increase the supply from the lighting circuit if necessary.
8. Loft conversion insulation
With the increase in energy saving standards, the installation of loft conversion insulation is becoming more difficult than before. If you are replacing roof tiles at the same time, you can seal between the cover and the rafters, which ensures good air tightness.
If you do not change the roof, the sloping roof will need insulation and connection between the rafters as well as the underside of the rafters. You will need to make this insulation as thin as possible, as the drywall will need to be applied to the beams from the lower insulation layer.
For all these areas, you should use some high performance insulation materials (usually foam board). Walls and insulated window structures will also need insulation from similar products before plastic is applied.
9. Sound insulation for your new loft conversion
The new floor also requires soundproofing, and this can easily be achieved by placing a mineral fiber quilt in between jobs. Use heavy, denser soundproof tongues and not lighter thermal insulation materials, this will not help here. The same is true for any interior partition between bedrooms or bathrooms.
To avoid heat and noise damage, insulation of all walls should also be considered. The wood screw-layered frame will allow you to achieve both, and you’ll be able to cover it with sound-grade plasterboard.
10. Loft storage ideas
When you change your superior, of course you lose your storage space. Get the most out of your hand by using the Avas behind the slopes – with easy-access lids and foldable storage boxes designed to fit. And if you save the wooden line from line to line to line, you will make a warm pantry for your belongings.
Built-in wardrobes are also a great feature in left bedrooms where standard units do not fit, and are among the most advanced elevator conversion ideas.
