talkmagic.co.uk

My wife and I were just discussing various decorating ideas, a favourite Sunday afternoon topic of her's I endure.. I mean enjoy most weekends, when she "reminded" me that the holiday cases need to go in to the loft. I explained (used the excuse) that I did not want the loft to become a dumping ground for stuff, she of course wanted to know what else it could be used for and in a moment of pure epiphany I said I could convert it in to a library.

She is always complaining about me hoarding books and now I have decided to start gathering more magic books I can see those complaints increasing to the point of divorce...

Has anyone else converted their loft/attic in to a semi-proper room. The thought of flooring the loft and lining it with bookcases, with a dark mysterious corner for "Majickal Arts" and a couple of beanbags makes me sigh with contentment (I'm easily pleased), I think I may need to reinforce the current rafters a little to support the weight but would really appreciate any guidance.

I boarded out my loft last month.
Well actually my Dad did most of it the first time but it turned out he drilled through a wire so I had to take the whole lot up to find it, fix it and then put all the boards back.
I got a couple of quotes for having it done, anywhere between £200 and £400. I bought everything I needed from B&Q for under £50 and, if it wern't for the "dad drilling through a wire incident", would've been done in a morning.

So, tips - Get a couple of professionals in to give you quotes; tell them what you want doing, ask them how much it is going to cost and then what, specifically, you are going to get for your money. Then go down B&Q and do it yourself!
When they start talking about insulation regs, ignore them

Advantages of doing it yourself:
Cheap - you can buy the boards from Wickes and as said, do it in a day
You don't need planning permission
Minimal fuss
You end up with a pseudo room that adds marginal value to your home
You don't need to worry about silly little details like ensuring the roofing joists are strong enough

Advantages of doing it properly:
You get a window
You can sell your home with an additional room
Cheaper than moving house
Your stuff won't fall through the ceiling
You'll have a fire escape

aporia wrote:Your stuff won't fall through the ceiling

This did make me chuckle as this is my main concern. Loft rafters are not designed to be load bearing, so although laying the flooring is relatively straightforward, a bookcase full of heavy books might be a bit much for the underlying struts to support.

I know if I get a builder in they will do their best to convince me I need to rip the entire roof off and start from scratch but if it becomes too complicated or too expensive then I will lose planning permission from my other half!

Yes rafters arent suitable to lay a load bearing useable floor on, the people who advertise in papers, will come and board your loft but it wont useable as a room though, ok for storage.

To make it into a proper room it will need building regs approval and a proper staircase too.

midge25 wrote:To make it into a proper room it will need building regs approval and a proper staircase too.

Pretending I ignored that a little bit though... Coul I get away with running a lattice work of batons between the central support beam and the outside walls to carry the load and then flooring panels on top of this.

As I said it's not for anything too fancy, purely a place to hide and read.

A bit like those people with train sets in the loft but with books and my wife instead of trains and a divorce.

=)

Disadvantages of DIY:
If you're anything like me, the house will become a death trap and you will do yourself an injury while you're at it. It once took me six hours to put up a basic shelf. Nothing fancy. Just a plank of wood screwed on the wall with a couple of brackets. Six hours. I took half the plaster off the wall, broke a drill bit and nearly drilled through my thumb.

And the bloody thing still isn't level. Or flush with the wall.

Replicant wrote: still isn't level. Or flush with the wall.

It must be the walls and the floors of your house. Mine is the same.

Can't be me ...

Having moved into a house full of the previous owners' attempts at DIY, I would heartily recommend getting the work done for real by a properly qualified person. If you can't afford it now, it's worth saving up. Cutting corners never works, and ends up more expensive in the long run.

The downside is that, if you share my propensity of filling all available space with books'n'stuff, the loft extension will soon become just another space filled with books'n'stuff. One possible upside is, if you can make that floor your own territory, at least you might not be nagged quite so much about it. Or at least about whatever quantity of books'n'stuff you've managed to lug up there.

Replicant wrote:Disadvantages of DIY:
If you're anything like me, the house will become a death trap and you will do yourself an injury while you're at it. It once took me six hours to put up a basic shelf. Nothing fancy. Just a plank of wood screwed on the wall with a couple of brackets. Six hours. I took half the plaster off the wall, broke a drill bit and nearly drilled through my thumb.

And the bloody thing still isn't level. Or flush with the wall.

Hahahahaahahahahaha is that somehting that will happen to me as i get older...I can putup a shelf jsut fine.... does it sort of happen like puberty...one minute I can put one up the next I can with several hours of hard labour....

Robbie wrote:Having moved into a house full of the previous owners' attempts at DIY, I would heartily recommend getting the work done for real by a properly qualified person. If you can't afford it now, it's worth saving up. Cutting corners never works, and ends up more expensive in the long run.

Fortunately I have some experience with renovation work just not enough to know exactly what's needed but enough to know that I cannot just go in and hope for the best. My father in-law is good with this stuff so looks like I may have to arrange a barbecue...

The downside is that, if you share my propensity of filling all available space with books'n'stuff, the loft extension will soon become just another space filled with books'n'stuff. One possible upside is, if you can make that floor your own territory, at least you might not be nagged quite so much about it. Or at least about whatever quantity of books'n'stuff you've managed to lug up there.

I want to try and avoid the n' stuff bit by having bookcases. Not be nagged quite so much sounds like the exact thing I am looking for, is there a method to this?

A_n_t wrote:

Robbie wrote:The downside is that, if you share my propensity of filling all available space with books'n'stuff, the loft extension will soon become just another space filled with books'n'stuff. One possible upside is, if you can make that floor your own territory, at least you might not be nagged quite so much about it. Or at least about whatever quantity of books'n'stuff you've managed to lug up there.

I want to try and avoid the n' stuff bit by having bookcases. Not be nagged quite so much sounds like the exact thing I am looking for, is there a method to this?

Not that I've found...

I got round to the idea of bookshelves a bit too late. I'd have to empty out the room first to make enough space to put up the shelves/haul in the bookcases. Probably too many books to fit anyway.

Must get round to sorting through some of this stuff one day.