UKC

We are thinking of building a bouldering cave in the attic. I know there are regulations and recommendations on the strength of floor/ceiling joists required for turning an attic into a proper room and wondered if anyone could give me either the details or a good link where i can find this out, as google has drawn a blank.
Cheers!
ceri

In reply to ceri:

Sorry I can't help you with the regs but you should be able to find info on your local council's planning website.

We considered doing it but in the end have decided to go for the back garden instead. Several reasons: one is that the resulting room would end up with a very steep overhang, so it would be a pretty difficult cave. Another is that we'd probably have to convert the entire loft, which would be pretty expensive, and would have to find alternative storage elsewhere. Plus all the regs involved. Another is that the loft gets absolutely boiling in summer and is freezing in winter, so not ideal for bouldering, and there are no windows at the moment so we'd have to put one in (or more, at quite some expense).

Re: building it in the garden instead. We're getting a log cabin and providing it is under a certain size (I think it's percentage of the total house size) then you don't need planning permission. It will probably cost in total a few thousand (we're replacing the garage and resurfacing some of the drive as well so that adds on a bit). A lot less than a loft conversion, and leaves us free to do that at a later date in case we wanted an extra bedroom/bathroom etc.

I think if you want to build a wall and are not fussed about having a proper room/bedroom, you are subject to fewer planning regs, but don't quote me on that. I think if it's classed as an 'occasional' room then you don't have to put stairs in - which is a major expense if you don't have them already.

In reply to ceri:

Lofts get very hot in summer and very cold in winter!

There are lots of reg's.
If you want it to be classed as a room it has to have a full staircase with a self closing door at the top. It has to have an escape window. The insulation needed is ridiculous and it has to be fire retardent under the floor.. I dont know how strong it has to be but quite often steel is needed.

Id go for the garage instead!

In reply to ceri: i'd love to put a wall in the garage/garden but we dont have a garage, or room for a shed, so the loft is the only option! Dont mind it being cold in the winter and will climb outdoors in the summer, so thats not too bad.
We were planning to go for the "occasional room" option, to avoid putting in proper stairs etc. We have only just moved into the house, so it would be a good time to strengthen the joists beofre we fill the attic with crap. This would also help if we ever did decide to use it as a proper room, of course, and also reassure me as to climbers falling through the ceiling!

In reply to ceri:

Ceiling joists aren't really designed for it. Take a fall onto a mat and your ceiling boards will start to crack.

In reply to ceri: I built a climbing wall in my attic. No special precautions. Was fine.

In reply to ceri:

I would definitely pop round to your local planning office - if you're going to be making any obvious changes then it's worth getting approval and finding out what you can and can't do, otherwise it can be tricky when you later come to sell the house. If you are not sure about the regs then go to the planning office and/or get a builder in to give you a quote.

Occasional room means you don't have to put in stairs but you might still want to put a window in - in which case you need planning permission. You can get boards to lay the floor and apparently it's not too difficult a job, but you'd have to check that the insulation, fire retardent stuff and whatnot. In ours we have the water tank so that would have to be boxed in, and there's the electrics to consider too. If you are not sure what you're doing then I'd get the professionals in.

In reply to Marc C:
Hey Marc, how did it go? Thought you were doing the back garden option?

In reply to Nao: Well I've moved house! So now have a huge tall garage to construct a monster wall in!

In reply to Nao: The attic one was one I built several years ago at another house. I simply screwed into the roof joists, mounted the boards to the frame, and put a couple of mattresses on floor. Never had any problem (unless you count falling onto the edge of a step on the staircase, when climbing in flipflops in an inebriated state!)

In reply to ceri: Be careful.

I've just put a loft floor down on existing ceiling joists, but it will be 'posh storage', so not a living area.

I wouldn't want to land on them from any helight as they may not break but will bounce a bit, leading to cracks appearing in the bedroom ceilings.

To make a loft an offical bedroom nowadays is a big deal, requiring a lot of regs to be met. We backed away from that as we didn't have the height, we'd have had to drop the ceiling by a foot to accomodate the loft bedroom.

In reply to Marc C:
Cool! You'll have to let me know how you get on. Our cabin's on order so hopefully will have it all done in the next couple of months.

In reply to ceri:

http://www.salford.gov.uk/timber-floors.pdf

In reply to Nao: Where from?

Do you have a web link?

We are considering knocking down some stone outhouses that have fallen into a state of disrepair and replacing with a wood cabin type thing.

In reply to ceri:I don't know anything about lofts,but could you put holds on the outside of the house,away from any windows for burglars to climb up to?
Tim

In reply to Timmd: I put some holds on the outside of my house, but the difficulty set was F9a. When we were burgled and our prize Abyssinian cat Rapunzel was stolen, the Police wasted no time arresting and fingerprinting a known cat burglar called Christopher Sharma.

In reply to IainRUK:
We're replacing our garage as well. So there will be 2 log cabin thingies (would have quite liked one large one with garage built in but it was cheaper to get two, as a larger one would have to be custom-made).

I think it's from here: http://www.wessexlogcabins.co.uk/ but not entirely sure - the bloke has organised it all, being the manly man that he is! I just demanded the climbing wall!

Oh and I think there's a sale on till end of Jan - that'd be today!

In reply to Nao: Cheers, its more of a longer term plan than immediate, as we still have no roof on the house and a concrete living room floor.

But just want to start getting ideas of how much for what type thing.

Cheers

In reply to trevor simpson: Cool, that was the kind of thing i was looking for!