How wide are your loft conversion stairs?

[SmellTheGlove]

Just that really! want to save as much space as possible both where the stairs are coming from (taking a chunk out of a bedroom) and up in the loft room. We have a narrow main stairs anyway (765mm), and were thinking of trying to get either a 650mm or 700mm staircase. Our architect has planned the stair to conform to building regs for everything else but there is no minimum width for the loft stairs apparently. So how narrow is bearable??!!

I think 650mm is bearable, but bear in mind you'll have to have a handrail.

Is it for the full length of the stairs or just the flight of a winder layout? Have you considered a winder/quarter turn stairs? You can have different widths for each flight so the first bit could be narrow to save eating into your bedroom and the rest the same width as your existing stairs.

We've got this issue with our design so I'm keen to read your replies!

It will be for a winder. They start straight for about 7 steps then turn back on themselves and come out facing back the opposite way in the loft room. It's not ideal but tried loads of configurations and think that's the best one! Our loft is going to be quite small. It's all so hard to visualise! The builder and architect both reckon it's best to get the room built then play around with the space ie where stud walls will go. As long as everything inside still conforms to building regs it can change from what's on the plans a bit. Mind you this is all assuming we get planning permission

Good luck with the PP! Ours is pretty much permitted development so we've managed to skip that stage.

I think our first flight (only a single step and then the winder) is going to be something like 650mm, maybe even a little less. It's less than ideal but - for me - still better than losing the airing cupboard. One thing I'm annoyed about is that I don't think we'll get our bed frame up the stairs. This after realising we can't fit the wardrobe or dressing table up there!

Have you thought of using SketchUp to create a 3D model? It has really helped us visualise it and figure things out.

That's interesting that you mentioned Sketch up - my DH keeps talking about that and haven't paid much attention as his ideas are not generally terribly helpful! But will look into it, thanks. I'm assuming all our furniture will be assembled in situ! It's going to be our 8year old DS's room actually and his furniture is almost entirely ikea so a couple of Allen keys and a bit of swearing and we should be alright!

Why do you need PP? If you are just putting on roof lights I thought you could just alter it as long as you follow building regs? Are you putting in dormer windows? We are in AONB and green belt and can alter internally without PP.

We are adding a dormer at the back, but actually that would be permitted development anyway. We need PP because we want to raise the ridge height. Fingers crossed!

Ah yes. That does need pp. should be ok if others have done it nearby.

Just wondered, is it necessary to raise ridge height? As i would avoid pp if at all possible! Councils can be extremely unreasonable. Go pd if at all possible. We had to lower the ceiling of the first floor to get enough headroom - but we were lucky that the first floor height was enough to alliw that. Re the stairs- ours are 'normal' width - my impression was that building control/regs determine how wide they must be as a minimum. Good luck with your loft!

Is there any update smell? We're having difficulty with our stairs still, I'm wondering what width you've ended up with.

Sadly no update - delays with planning so got to wait another month before we get a decision on that before we can even think about stairs! But I'm thinking 650 will be okay, I don't want to waste valuable space!

Endless delays here too. Can't wait to be finished with the whole thing. Good luck with your planning permission!

Ours are only 570

But the space was created when the house was built (1892) & it can't be widened easily because there's a bloody great upright holding up the attic floor

The original staircase was horrible, terribly steep with tiny treads & very dark. So we unboxed & rearranged.

There are 4 turning steps at the bottom & 4 at the top. Most furniture has to be assembled up there as you said. Humans manage with the width though. I would have liked wider, & shallower risers, but the main landing is stupidly narrow too so there was nothing to be done.

Photos attached. Stairs need hoovering

HiD frustrating isn't it? lap thank you for the pics! That's really helpful. I'm happy with narrow stairs tbh if it means more floor space. We can all go up them sideways if necessary!

Lapdance your stairs are very similar to what we'll have except ours will be wider on the main flight with a dropped landing at the top. Thank you so much for posting that!

Oh good, glad it's helpful

The staircase was measured, designed & built by the genius who runs our local timber merchants. He was only here a few minutes, I was very impressed!

Don't forget you need to be able to get furniture up the stairs

I kind of feel that the stairs are important to making the loft feel like part of the house rather than an add on. You're talking about a 10cm difference in width surely that's not going to make a massive difference to the loft floor space? Our stairs up to the loft match the existing stairs and feel like they've always been there.

Our attic has always been part of our house (125 years) but our stairs don't match

These are our loft conversion stairs if it helps. It was done before we moved in. (I love ours, it covers the whole house. We use under both the slopes to store things, and in the centre is the spare double bed, 2 desks, and a good few display units. We'd be lost without it)

The hallway and the landing upstairs, before you go in the loft itself

Can I be cheeky and ask how much people have paid for staircases and loft conversions. We have put an offer on a 1960's 2 bed bungalow but we really need 3 bedrooms. We were just going to convert the loft with Velux windows as a playroom to give our teenagers space but have them share a bedroom (which they are not impressed with having never had to share before) but I want to convert into a bedroom. Still just with velux not a dormer.

Thanks for the photos kel . How wide are your stairs?

Hi dotty. Mine is an L-shaped dormer so much more expensive than a Velux conversion but I think a ballpark figure for a Velux conversion is something like £25-30k with a loft conversion specialist.

Erm, no idea I'm afraid. I'll measure them. I take it you mean from the wall to the banister

kel yes thanks for the pic - they look quite wide! Your loft sounds lovely and a great size - ours will be quite small hence the need for smaller stairs! dotty we are also having a dormer, not sure about velux only. Round here a small dormer is about 40-50k. Although we did have a quote of 70k (assume he was going to tile the roof with gold)!