how to create extra head room at the top of stairs?

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

Hello there :)

I'm looking for advice on how to create head space at the top of a flight of stairs in a dormer conversion. I'm only at the personal sketches stage and still need to find an architect but I'm trying to work out if my plan won't work simply because my loft space is currently only 198 cm high but needs to be 200 cm to get through building control (UK).

Depending on how much room is in the roof I guess that 2 cm could possibly be found, but of course there will need to be some sort of slope to the edge and the stairs would be at the end of that slope.

I'm wondering if I can create a small landing between the last steps at the top of the stairs? So the staircase would stop, then there would be a landing to the front of the stairs that would run the rest of the length of the room (about 3 m), but to the side another one - two steps would be added. Therefore the staircase would end with potentially about 218 cm of headspace, but ultimately there would be another step to get in to the remainder of the room. Or would the all the steps ascending into the main part of the dormer room be classed as the staircase?

Hopefully that all made some sort of sense! I appreciate this is a bit of a niche problem, but I'm finding it very difficult to find any information about this design dilemma and don't want to get too carried away with my plan if this won't work!

Comments (3)

kwg kwg
3 years ago
Hello!

Probably not much help and apologies I got lost after the 'slope to the edge and the stairs..'....You could call up few loft companies, ask them to come round, get some quotes and discuss your concerns. Some of them go up and look at the loft space, some don't if it's a standard build and they have done similar projects before. A lot of them work with an architect and they can advise you how to get your extra 2cm to pass the building regs ( it could be raising the roof height or doing some reconfiguration ).
32seashells
Original Author
3 years ago
Sorry that should have read

'there will need to be some sort of slope to the edge [of the roof], and the stairs would be [positioned] at the end of that slope.'

Thanks for your reply! I appreciate it's quite a specific technical problem and I hoped someone with building control experience might hang around on here.
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Jonathan
3 years ago
As far as the stairs go it might be that you can add a turn to come up at a very slightly higher bit.

But you should also seek the advice of the professionals because when the floor is strengthened and insulation added you will have less space than originally appears and you need to satisfy yourself that it will be enough
32seashells thanked Jonathan

how to create extra head room at the top of stairs?

Comments (3)

kwg kwg

32seashells
Original Author

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how to create extra head room at the top of stairs?

Comments (3)

kwg kwg

32seashellsOriginal Author

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Jonathan

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32seashells
Original Author