when does a bedroom become a loft room

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Been in my dormer bungalow for 18 years. The dormer conversion was done we think in 1981.

We have just finished converting the 2 bedrooms landing and walk in cupboard with chimney breast running up through it into 1 bedroom with ensuite shower room and large landing/study area with skylight by rejigging all the walls and removing the chimney completely. The skylight going where the hole in the roof was.

All this was done with inspections from Building Control inspector.

When applying for Building Regs, Building Control said I needed to pay so they could inspect the removal of the chimney and the plumbing work as I was creating a new bathroom and the insulation, all the plasterboard had to come off as the existing insulation was completely inadequate.

We got the Completion certificate this morning. It describes the work as

Reinsulate existing loft room, removal of chimney breast, and alterations.

How do I get Building Control to recognise what I have is a bedroom with an ensuite and not a well insulated loft room with alterations?

If it were me I would phone the building control chap and ask him what stops him being able to sign it off as a bedroom.

I am not a builder / building control person but from memory having done a conversion before the important things are - the beams supporting the room
(sometimes you need additional joists or steel to support the new room - Fire escape access - so have you got the right fire doors to allow a straight escape route through the house. - also for new one I think there was an energy calculation.)

Anyway that's just from memory. I would as I say, speak to the BC inspector again. It may be that he has just looked at the new work and signed it off but that your existing bedrooms were only ever classified as "loft room" so he has just updated that. Or is there something about your alterations which has downgraded it from bedrooms to loft room (e.g. is has your study / landing area removed a door to the stairs, if that makes a difference. ) I would ask him to come and do another inspection and tell you exactly what , if anything, is stopping it being classified as an ensuite bedroom.

Bit of a ramble sorry -just my (uneducated) thoughts. I hope someone more knowledgeable comes along soon for you

Do you have proper stairs that are in the hall? Is there a window suitable to escape from ie no more than 1.1m from the floor and fully openable?

If so, it would be compliant and you could ask building control to amend the description. They tend to copy whatever was on the application form, so maybe the description of works was what you put on the form?

I'm no expert but when SIL marketed her house they couldn't describe the converted basement as a bedroom with ensuite because it didn't have a proper fire escape route.

The joists are overly what is required. The BI had a look at them when my builder was getting a second opinion of where we could put the walls for the ensuite and he commented on how thick they were and that they were thicker than what house builder use nowadays in ground floors of new builds.

The ceiling height is over 8ft high in over 60% of the total space.

There is a proper staircase up to the landing, However it is from what is atm a kitchen.
The kitchen is being moved into the new extension that will be built later this summer and the old kitchen will be a second living room. I will be putting a door at the bottom of the staircase for noise control.

When I said study area I was just going to add a desk on the landing with a computer on it and a chair.

Both the bedroom and ensuite have large fully openable windows at the correct height, like in normal bedrooms as that is what they used to be, 2 bedrooms.
The door into the bedroom will be a fire door but atm it is just the frame as we have not put down the wooden flooring or skirting.

The house is like a building site. Everything is being renovated from the driveway to rewiring, replumbing, extensions and moving rooms around.

Mara these were bedrooms, they were marketed as bedrooms. From what I can see on looking at the building requirements for a loft conversion, (this one was done 34 years ago) all boxes have been ticked apart from the door which will be a proper fire door when we get to live downstairs again and I can concentrate on laying the floor upstairs. We are living on site and have laid out sheets of chipboard and moved our mattresses into the bedroom upstairs whilst the building work continues down stairs. I am losing use of part of the kitchen, the living room and the dining room on Monday.

Is it possible that this is simply a question of in its current state the BCI can't sign off as a bedroom.? Ie he needs to see the door fitted first. Again I would speak to him and check, in which case it is just a matter of time. But if there are any other things you need to take into account then now is the time when you have all this work going on.
I know how stressful it can be, particularly living on-site. Good luck with it.

AFAIK it is to do with fire escapes.

I'm interested to hear if you have had any further luck with this as we are doing much the same thing - changing large bungalow attic bedroom into bedroom with separate bathroom. I'm not sure the fire door/protected escape route is such an issue in a bungalow as it's not like a loft conversion to make a second story as in a house.

I will keep you posted on this as I am going to have a word with the BC inspector later this week or it could be next when he returns to inspect beams we are having put in downstairs when we remove parts of different walls. Our builders are bringing everything down and putting the beams in this week. I doubt I will get anywhere when calling BC as they will not be familiar with the room and I presume they will just refer me on to BCI anyway.

It could just be something simple that at the moment we do not have any door in place. We have the door but I want the floor down first but that is going to take several more weeks before we have a room available downstairs we can move into.

I think its just wording and doesn't mean its not a proper room

Thanks, hopefully as noddyholder suggests, just wording!

It needs to be structurally adequate to be used as a bedroom (which as others have said often requires reinforcing), it needs proper stairs that meet current code, it needs appropriate windows, and appropriate fire escape (including fire proofing your halls / stairs and landings and installing fire doors throughout your house (not just on the new bedroom door) and fire alarms). Doing a loft conversion triggers a lot of upgrades.

No, no, no.

Converting the loft of a bungalow is not the same as adding another floor to a two storey house in terms of the means of escape stuff. You just need an escape window from habitable rooms in the loft.