You're having a laugh!
Hardly anyone is going to not buy a house just because there's a half converted loft in it. This is as long as there's no deception, by claiming that it is fully converted or such like.
Christian.
They have no choice. They are to do as instructed, within what is allowed by the law. They can advise about difficulties, but they have no right to obstruct you.
My solicitor wasn't happy with one aspect of a transaction (my mortgage offer had expired) and advised delay until a new mortgage offer could be produced. I overruled him and insisted that he exchange contracts without the mortgage offer, which he did, as I believe he was required to do. There was absolutely no way that I was going to allow exchange to be delayed. Due to chain delays in a rapidly rising market, the house was already worth
30,000 more than I was paying for it. I was not going to be responsible for the chain's collapse.Christian.
I've heard of BCOs just allowing two thicknesses of 12.5mm plasterboard below with staggered joins. This could be an advantageous solution if you have any Artex to be covered up, but less so if you have original lath ceilings with gorgeous original cornicing.
Christian.
original lath ceilings - without gorgeous cornicing. All the ceilings have had 2" by .5" battens applied in a pattern of squares. Was this fashionable once upon a time? I have heard it was applied during the war as a safety measue to stop ceilings collapsing onto sleeping householders during bomb blasts. Anyway - no chance of replacing ceilings - all the bedromms have been recently decorated. I'm looking forward to doing up a house i'm NOT living in one day!
Philip
How do you gain access without stairs? Can access be obtained by an existing upstairs passage?
Yes to photographs. The most useful gadget I've bought is a digital camera. On average I take 100 photographs per month. I've recently done the same job as you and have detailed it all with photos. Any plumbing, wiring changes are recorded this way.
x-- 100 Proof News -
But they can refuse to continue acting for you.
Regards from Peter Crosland
access via a loft ladder in existing landing space - ladder can be folded up ;-) and it's not too annoying to squeeze round it on the landing when it is down.
most useful gadget I own is a tivo! the chop saw for =A326-00 was also good bang for the buck!
philip
John,
Did you have to do the whole loft space with the chiken wire - or just the area that will form the floor of the room. I have quite substantial areas that are to be boarded in behind stud partitions, fitted with
100mm fire proof iso wool of course.How much was the chicken wire? i'm getting 25m sq for =A330 inc vat.
did you use 100mm or 150mm iso wool?
cheers
philip
Bit of moot point really, since I was converting the entire loft space (near enough) to make three new rooms.
Erm, just dug out the invoice, "wire netting galvanised 50mm x 19 Guage x 900mm Height x 50m Long 25 quid (+VAT)". So cut in half that give me
100m of about "joist spacing width" wire which I used most of.(from Jewson BTW)
Four (wide) rolls of 100mm.
On 17 Jul 2005 00:28:07 -0700, a particular chimpanzee named "Philip" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
The insulation between the joists is required for two reasons;
For a regularisation the BCO will still want the joists and any other beams exposed; they'll want to see the insulation and ventilation between the rafters, etc. If the stairs aren't in, have you still trimmed out for them, and would you have the headroom, or are you leaving all those details to any future purchaser? That's assuming you get a purchaser. I've known a few sales fall through on the day contracts are due to be exchanged when it 'emerges' that the loft conversion didn't have a Building Regulations application.
On 17 Jul 2005 15:43:06 -0700, a particular chimpanzee named "Philip" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
It's not _your_ solicitor (or conveyancer, or someone who's read a book on the subject) that you have to worry about, it's your buyers.
On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 02:25:13 +0100, a particular chimpanzee named John Rumm randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
But you wouldn't have needed the chicken wire.
Which would be nice, since installing that was a right PITA!
Having just OPENED the chicken wire - BEFORE reading Hugo's post...Umph!
One question remaining - is it right that i will be covering over the first floor lighting circuit? The chicken wirse will make it jolly difficult to repair or remodel in the future...
Philip
Regarding the stairs...
I have drawn up plans to make use of a kit staircase supplied by RHS (Albini & Fontanot) The headroom and the rise, going etc all work as per regs. and the stairs comply with all BS.
It is precisely the cutting out for the stairs that the other half objects to. Its a) the mess b) the change in character for the upstairs landing and c) the cost.
I am putting in the steels that will support the new joists over the stairwell as if the stairs are to be placed. I hope that when the room is ready - accessed by loft ladder - the argument will be more in my favour.
Question for Hugo - I put in a building notice for the positionig of the roof windows and the ventilation in the roof. Could I put another building notice in for the floor structure? sort of get the approval in a modular fashion?
Philip
;-)
Given that you will probably be putting in rockwool under your new floor anyway (either because you need it for fire protection, or because you need it for accustic insulation), the chicken wire might actually make it simpler - by holding the insulation away from the existing electrics.
Remember that it will be fixed roughly mid way up the new joists such that it is about level with the tops of the original ceiling joists. So the cables etc would then run in the gap under it.
If you end up using modern T&G chipboard flooring panels then any rewiring of the 1st floor lights is going to be a pain if done from the top floor room(s) whichever way you look at it - the wire won't make it that much worse!
a) Arrange for someone to take her out for the day! If you have the stairs ready, and they can just be slotted in and assembled, then you could cut through, fit them, and be cleaned up again in the space of a day.
b) Change it certainly will. However there is nothing to stop it looking quite nice when done. Especially if you take a bit of care with the ballustrading to make it all look nice.
This was the result of my efforts (prior to decorating / carpeting etc):
c) If you fancy a bit of woodwork then you could make your own. This is what I did.
Cost for the stairs worked out at about 150 to 200 quid for materials (3 of 3.3m 9"x1.5" PAR softwood (strings), 2 of 8'x4' 3/4" MDF sheet (treads), 1 of 8'x4' 1/2" MDF sheet (risers), and 4m of 4"x4" PAR softwood (newel bases). Plus half a dozen bits of scotia moulding for under the nosings). Allow yourself two to three days to make them.
Tools required are a saw (hand, circular, jig, (and table also handy for cutting wedges), a router, and a biscuit jointer (if you need to patch bits of string together!)
The ballustrading added about another 180 - 200. (quotes I got to have the stairs made (not including the ballustrading) were coming in at about 700 to 900!)
very nice result John!
Philip
Tape sheet polythene over *everything* in the hall and existing stairs to seal off the rest of the house completely, then sweep and heavy-duty vac the polythene before lifting and taking outside.
Also vacuum the top side of the ceiling will reduce the amount of crud that comes down.
Owain
Yes good point! I forgot to mention that.
(in fact the mess made when I cur through was not actually that bad - it only took 10 mins of vacuuming to sort out. I made *far* more mess when plastering the underside of the new stairs recently ;-)
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