Cost for putting a staircase from first floor to loft conversion?

[SWFARMER]

Pretty much that really.

Online it says between £700-£1000.

Our loft is already converted but we have a drop down ladder. Would really like stairs put in to make it a fourth bedroom?

Also how long does it take? A lot of mess I'm presuming?

Okay but if the fire starts anywhere else in the house either way it would reach the loft room as there's a large hole in the upstairs ceiling with a ladder hanging over?..

Ok, but a drop down ladder accessible loft does not usually have the hatchway down permanently. You however are making the link permanent and so increasing the risk if you do not have adequate fire prevention etc installed. Building Control is there for a reason.

Interesting that mortgage companies and insurers now take the word of unqualified builders about the structural safety of a house! I can't believe posters are so blasé about fire regulations! The houses will not be saleable if these conversions and staircases are not done properly and meet regulations. Any decent surveyor will suss out the issues immediately when you come to sell. Either you will not be able to sell or you will have to reduce the price. Makes no sense at all. Only on Mumsnet.....

Okay from experience when my parents sold their home it was done by a qualified builder but could not be classed as a bedroom for whatever reasons.. So they had to call it a loft room not a bedroom. The house sold within about 2 weeks of being on the market and for 220,000.. The buyer didn't even have a survey done.

As I have stated, obviously if I'm getting a builder to put stairs in I'm sure he will check that it's structurally safe to do so.

SW I'm not entirely sure why you're asking for advice if you're the expert. Good luck with it all but I'm inclined to agree with Milly. Who needs professional qualifications eh?

The advice I wanted if you look at my original question was how much roughly to put stairs in? I didn't do the conversion, the previous owners did.

As per usual MN ers go on a quest to point out things or give 'advice' on things not particularly relevant to the posters question.

Well! Excuse ME all over the place

SW actually, given that you said it was just a boarded loft before with drop down stairs (regardless of what it was used for) posters were trying - helpfully - to point out things you perhaps should consider (insurance, saleability) of doing what you had planned. Yes thats not something requested in your OP but people were trying to help. Lots of questions on this subject in particular throw up additional issues because people aren't aware of all the regs / advice that applies.

I never said it was boarded. It's completely converted with Windows and carpets with a drop down ladder

Ok terminology, but that's not the point. The point was that people were trying to help.

You might find you have problems, it all depends on what the builders find. You may of course find someone who will just happily put stairs in regardless but a good builder won't and will insist that it be building regs compliant, after all they have their own reputation to uphold. My parents have wanted to do similar recently, the loft was fully converted but at the time they couldn't afford to do the stairs so although it was all building regs compliant they just has a ladder and figured they'd put stairs in when they could afford them, the room was jsut used as my mum's sewing room.

Fast forward many years and finally they thought about the stairs as it was getting more difficult for them to go up and down the ladder and with grandchildren to consider they wanted better spare bedroom space to be able to have us all over. But building regs have moved on and what was complaint then no longer is and if they put the stairs in they would have to have all the joists re-done (though they were reinforced at the time of the original conversion) and that turns it into a major job.

If you want to use it as a bedroom you really should listen and make sure it is compliant, there will be things to think about such as fire doors which is very, very important and in case of fire can be the difference between life and death. You say that it won't matter for sale as you just won't call it a bedroom but what about whoever is going to sleep up there? Besides which is can make a difference when it comes to selling, we backed out of a house when we found the loft room didn't have building regs.

Of course if the conversion is fairly recent then everything may already be up to scratch, I'd get a couple of quotes and go from there.

I wouldn't put stairs in if a builder said no. For one I wouldn't be able to as I don't know how to do it myself.

It looks fairly recent it's the newest part of the house so hopefully it is fine.