BigB@dJ@y
Standard Member
I moved house a couple of weeks ago and began converting the loft at the new house into a HC. Following Gary Lightfoots website pretty closely. The room was already cleared and was being used for storage. The Floor joists however had not been strengthened (4" x 2"). I am lucky in that my Dad owns a small civil engineering firm and I was able to borrow a couple of joiners for a few days. They thought the easiest option to strengthen then Floor joist was to screw lengths of 2" x 2" onto the existing joist and then hang these from the purlins for extra support...this worked a treat as did removing the old short loft floor boards and replacing with bigger boards.
In this pic you can see the new flooring and the 2 x 2 hangers:-
Whilst in the loft we noticed a major structural problem where the second chimney breast had been removed. It had been cut off in the loft and simply propped up on 2 pieces of 4" x 4" sticking out from the wall...which were in turn resting on the ceiling joists!!!
Here's a pic :-
We cannot put a steel support beam across as the rear outer wall is much lower than the central party wall (if that makes sense). We have decided to make a metal support shelf which will be bolted to the wall underneath the chimney breast, also as an extra support the 9" x 3" purlin directly above the stack will help to take some of the weight.
Anyway, back to the HC. I have now insulated the roof using 8' x 4' sheets of 25mm Kingspan insulation and then 12.5mm plaster board over the top (no pics of that yet).
I bought 2 Slider Glider chairs for £99 each and have set one up in the loft. An absolute bargian IMHO...very comfy indeed
I'll post more pics as work progresses (sp?)
In this pic you can see the new flooring and the 2 x 2 hangers:-
Whilst in the loft we noticed a major structural problem where the second chimney breast had been removed. It had been cut off in the loft and simply propped up on 2 pieces of 4" x 4" sticking out from the wall...which were in turn resting on the ceiling joists!!!
Here's a pic :-
We cannot put a steel support beam across as the rear outer wall is much lower than the central party wall (if that makes sense). We have decided to make a metal support shelf which will be bolted to the wall underneath the chimney breast, also as an extra support the 9" x 3" purlin directly above the stack will help to take some of the weight.
Anyway, back to the HC. I have now insulated the roof using 8' x 4' sheets of 25mm Kingspan insulation and then 12.5mm plaster board over the top (no pics of that yet).
I bought 2 Slider Glider chairs for £99 each and have set one up in the loft. An absolute bargian IMHO...very comfy indeed
I'll post more pics as work progresses (sp?)