this video i'm going to take a look again at the question of
loft or attic conversions i've made a video before and i'll link up here someplace
at the towards the end of this video to that video but in this particular video i want to
look at attic conversions loft conversions the problems that arise in a little bit more detail
and there is loft conversion guidelines issued by or published by
the department of housing local government and heritage and the most recent edition of
those loft conversion guidelines can be found on the relevant website of gov.i.e i'm going to take
a look at these loft conversion guidelines and i'm going to just flag up some of the more important
points that you need to consider if you're thinking about carrying out a lot of conversion
or if you're thinking about buying a property that has a lot of conversion
carried out already the first thing you need to understand is that if the loft or attic in
a residential property is converted to living space then you will need planning permission
but the further issue of building regulations and particularly fire safety regulations
is going to be very very important this document from the department to say a lot
of conversion guidelines refers to the legal requirement placed on an owner or a builder
or designer to ensure that the finish works in a law of conversion must comply with the
billing regulations that's the building control act 1990 to 2020 the regulations
include fire safety and converting an attic or a loft in in an existing dwelling house does have
significant fire safety implications obviously you need before you carry out any work at all
to get professional advice from an architect or an engineer you will need some sort of a
building professional to design the attic or loft conversion and to ensure a competent contractor
and that the supervision of the conversion work and the certification of the completed conversion
as being in compliance with applicable planning and building regulations so you're going to have a
difficulty great difficulty selling your property if this is not the case the more or most important
uh building regulations in relation to aloft or attic conversion are probably
the requirements around the fire safety so the whole fire safety regulations the thrust of them
is to ensure that there are escape provisions built into any roof space of a dwelling house
that's converted into living accommodation so additional story height increases the
difficulty of escape it should a fire core and her provisions required under the building regulations
are increased accordingly so fire safety regulations are absolutely essential all
habit of habitable rooms in the news story should be provided with a window or roof light that is
suitable for escape or rescue and guidance then is given on the dimensions for the size and position
position of such a roof escape where the attic is converted in an existing two-story dwelling
the provisions relating to a three-story dwelling should be adhered to so the existing stairs then
and the new stairs should be enclosed in 30 minute fire existing wall construction the
doors to habitable rooms should be fire resisting doors of not less than 20 minutes information on
the fire doors in dwelling houses can be found in the regulations existing stood partitions
will uh must ensure that they satisfy the 30 minute i want to give a shout out in this video to
a chap who contacted me there he's a subscriber on my youtube channel but he contacted me on linkedin
his name is alan lawler he is a building control inspector at south dublin county council
he suggested that i cover this issue under a number of other issues as well which he has
suggested i cover which i will be covering to do with building control building regulations and so
on and i think you'll find those videos useful as well but just want to give him a shout out
because i do get suggestions from time to time about videos to make for the channel etc etc
many times the videos or the videos that are being requested to make are so specific
and so particular that they're clearly just um of limited interest to a wider audience but
these topics this topic building control building regulations attic conversions loft conversions is
clearly of uh wider sort of import or importance and as i said there's a couple of other things
i'll be dealing with as well including building regulations and implications of the new building
control management system but anyway i want to just give a shout out to allen he's a building
control inspector at south dublin county council and he made the suggestions to me on linkedin
as i was saying there before i got cut off my battery went there so i'm finishing this video
the following day and those eagle-eyed viewers amongst my youtube subscribers will notice
i have a different tie today so i was just saying though existing stud partitions
will uh which 12 and a half mil the standard plasterboard will satisfy the 30 fire existing
construction requirement uh in other words fire being stopped etc etc and anti-glazing should
be fixed should be fire resisting bottom line is the fire regulations when you come to an attic or
loft conversion cannot be ignored and will cause you problems in selling your house if you don't
have the certificate of compliance with building regulations in respect of the work and what i've
seen is i've seen people rushing ahead doing the loft conversion rally conversion without any great
thought about building regulations and so on they simply had such a need and requirement for extra
space growing family and so on but you wouldn't want to make that mistake also in this document
to do a lot of conversions published as i say by the government by the department of environment
heritage or and whatever they're called there is protection to structural elements guidance
so the building regulations impose requirements for fire resisting floor construction to restrict
the spread of fire between stories and to protect against premature collapse in the event of a fire
and special provisions will apply to loft erratic conversions where not more than two
additional habitable rooms are provided and the additional floor area is less than 50 meter
squared to ensure that a new floor achieves the required fire resistance the flooring on top of
the existing joists should extend to the external walls irrespective of the extent of the habitable
area and this is obviously to prevent a fire spread in the event of a fire where a dwelling
house is semi-detached or as part of a terrace of houses it's essential to ensure that the party
wall between adjoining houses continues to the roof level and the roof junction is adequately
fire stopped in other words that fire cannot spread from one roof area into an adjoining roof
of an adjoining property so converting existing roof space of two-story house into habitable
there is guidance there if your conversion doesn't involve raising the roof lying above the existing
ridge is 50 square meters or less and has no more than two habitable rooms then you may use the
following fire safety provisions and it goes on to give you the provisions in this document it's
very very useful and i'll flag up again at the end of this video where you can get it you can
get it on the gov ie website the department of i think environment heritage and something else
so uh the question of glazing the question of doors the question of the escape
provisions from a roof in the attic and the floor area the stairs then going to the attic etcetera
these are all vital components of any conversion and in order to comply with
the building regulations they must adhere to certain specifications and so on and it is a fact
that some properties will have a roof uh construction that is suitable for conversion
but some won't some won't and another question you need to be concerned about is the question
of the structural integrity of the roof in other words you may cut out certain joists or
certain timbers in order to accommodate your attic conversion but you may well be if you don't do it
with the guidance of an engineer or architect you may well be impinging upon the structural
integrity of the roof so that's something that you need to be careful about when the roof space
then there's further regulations in relation to fire detection and alarm systems and then
fire detection and alarm system must be provided when the roof space of an existing dwelling house
is converted to create an additional story and there is a legal requirement then also in relation
to the electrical work that must be carried out obviously carried out by a registered electrician
the document on the department website and i'll make reference to it again
deals with the importance of properly dealing with fire safety issues in attic or loft conversions or
the building regulations remember deal with a number of things for example structure
materials and workmanship sound ventilation conservation of fuel and energy and so on
so there's further guidance in relation to houses of architectural uh historic importance now just
to be absolutely clear about this and it's got document is called loft conversion guidelines
it's produced by the department of housing local government and heritage and if you go to that
website you'll be able to access it yourself for the takeaway is love conversions eye conversions
are not something that should be taken lightly they will need the professional
advice of an architect or an engineer and the work that's carried out will need to be certified
you need a certificate of compliance with building regulations from an architect or an engineer
as to the work that was carried out and you will almost certainly need planning permission as well
if you're looking at habitable space habitable rooms and a bathroom perhaps
in the attic conversion as opposed to just mirror storage space i hope you find this
video useful i'm going to put another video up here about uh attic conversions love conversions
i made one before i'll stick it up here you can have a look at that as well i'd recommend it
and i will actually put a link hopefully i'll remember i'll put a link in the description
box on my youtube channel link directly to this document have a look at it it is useful