useable loft space

[mummag]

we have three dc, and we have a three bedroom house. We rather insanely gave them each there own room recently but we are thinking of changing this soon (we are on a flippin sofa bad). So my question is how much would you reckon it would cost to get a staircase fitted to the loft to use as a playroom and then we can move back to the bedroom upstairs and have plenty of space for kids toys etc. Ds1 8 and ds2 3 were not successfully sharing a room and dd1 was in a tiny 5ft by 7ft room on her own. So we would need space so ds1 who would be in the small room, could have his things still. Sorry its long and rambling, any thoughts advice welcome. (we dont think we can afford a loft conversion as it would take all the remaining equity we have in the house and dp dreams of moving someday)

[spiralqueen]

Questions:

1. Have you got space to put a proper staircase in without affecting other rooms?
2. Doing this might mean you need building regulations approval and then probably would have to change all your doors on the 1st floor to fire doors. Have you spoken to the local council's building control department for advice?
3. Is the loft already fully boarded out or will you have to do this as well?
4. Will you need to install lighting and power sockets up there to make it useable?
5. Will you need to put carpet/lino etc down?
6. Our loft is always really warm - what would you do about ventilation?

A house we recently thought about buying needed a new staircase and the surveyor estimated £1500 but that was without making good/decorating/carpeting after installation.

Don't envy you your situation but I suspect by the time you've made the room suitable as a playroom it's not going to come cheap.

[mummag]

thanks spiralqueen we have got space to put a proper staircase in, tho we havent got as far as even thinking about building regs etc and electricity and all that stuff. I think we should move them around again and move in a couple of years, but the idea seemed a good one. The bedroom thing should be ok really, when i was growing up i shared rooms with various family members right up till i was about 15 and i dont think i ever minded. Have to save up the money to get all the new beds we are going to need, tsk tsk kids are expensive arent they.