Loft access building regulations

[Adrian]

Hi

We've just bought a new house and have discovered that the loft spaces above the garage and above one of the bedrooms are not accessible. The only way to make them accessible would be for hatches to be put in the ceilings (however the main loft area in the house does have a hatch).

Is there some building regulation to state that all roof space must be accessible? If the roof above the garage or this bedroom develops a problem, the only way to get to it would be to break through the ceiling!

Thanks for any advice.

Adrian

[Mike Taylor]

No regulation at all that says you must get into it. If the roof above the garage develops a problem?? leak, water penetration etc? what do you hope to acheive from the inside except possibly see the problem better. Almost all of the problems will have to be cured from the outside. Of course if the roof space is large enough it seems common sense to give it access if only for storage.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I would _guess_ that any loft hatch in a garage, if garage is intergal with the house, would have to be fireproof, and must not be able to be left open (like doors between garage and house have to have self-closers). Given normal methods of access through loft hatches, that all sounds difficult to arrange.

[Christian McArdle]

There's no need. However, it may be worth putting one in so that you can inspect, renew or increase the loft insulation, which is likely to be defecient. If the space is big enough, you could use it for storage, too.

Christian.

[Hugo Nebula]

On 4 May 2004 06:42:18 -0700, a particular chimpanzee named [e-mail] (Adrian) randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

There should be 30 minutes fire resistance between an integral garage and the habitable part of the house. Either the separating wall extends to the underside of the roof, or the ceiling is two layers of

12.5mm plasterboard (or a Fireline-type board) with no perforations in it (such as loft hatches).

[P.R.Brady]

But don't cut out all the roof supports to improve the loft space like that prat in the news last week!!

Phil

[Adrian]

Thanks a lot for your help guys - that's cleared up the confusion.

Cheers Adrian