Structural essentials: Loft floors & insulation
Get the key construction details right, and you’ll be on the straight and narrow road to a successful attic conversion
Batt insulation has been fitted between the rafters as part of this project. To meet Building Regulations, a further layer will usually need to be added below
Whether your project needs full planning permission or not, if you’re creating habitable space then you’ll need to gain building control approval for the works. This will include areas such as structural safety, thermal performance, sound insulation and fire protection and emergency egress. Here’s what you need to know.
Strengthening floors
In most existing attics, the timbers you see at floor level are actually ceiling joists. They’re designed to take the ‘dead loads’ of the ceiling and any related fittings (lights, extract fans etc) below, and perhaps a little storage. Do not be fooled by the presence of a few loft boards installed by previous owners: unless the house was built with a future room-in-roof conversion in mind, the joists almost certainly won’t have been engineered to support the live loads imposed by habitable use.