Loft conversion on 3 storey house

[Tabbytwitchet]

Has anyone attempted a loft conversion on a 3 storey house?!
We moved into our dream family home back in April, and apart from the stress of moving, putting us off never wanting to move again, we love the house so much, and don't want to consider leaving here, but we have a dilemma... it's a 4 bed house (quite small bedrooms) but oh works from home so one room is his office. We have 2 girls already, and thought we were completely done, but we've both said we're keen to think about maybe trying for one more baby. Butttt this would solely rely on us being able to do a loft conversion and move his office up a floor. We 100% don't want to move again, but couldn't squeeze another baby in without adding another room, so just wondered if anyone else has managed to pull off a loft conversion on a 3 storey house?! Seems like there's lots of red tape around fire regulations, etc. Any experiences would be great!

What about a garden office instead? Seems to me like that would be a much cheaper & potentially easier way of adding an office.

Good suggestion sdaisy, but unfortunately the garden is quite small, and wouldn't want to lose any of the precious outdoor space we have! Just seems a shame that the loft space is completely redundant at the moment. (One box of Xmas secs up there!) When it could be such a valuble extra space for us.

You’d have to install a sprinkler system across the entire house if you add a 4th floor.

Does a mezzanine level count as an extra floor? @Squirreltamer?

Peckham Pauline, do you mean like opening up the loft space and having a balcony style thing looking over into the floor below? Thst would definetely be an option for an office space if it made the regulations less tight. And would be in keeping with the current house design as we don't have a true 3 storeys, it's over 3 levels but double heighted ceiling on the list level with a mezanine on the middle floor looking down to the lower level, and then another floor further up. I'll post a floor plan to give you an idea...

There's the floor plans. The back wall of the kitchen diner looks over into the living room, And there's a mezzanine on the stairs looking down into the living area also

Our last house was a a 3 story town house, and we had a loft converted. Yes the council fire inspector said we needed to fit a sprinkler system but an independent fire inspector was of the opinion that a linked smoke detector system with smoke detectors in all bedrooms would provide sufficient warning so we fitted those instead and got it signed off.
We also had no door or wall between the stairs and the lounge which was on the first floor. So the builder put a temporary stud wall in with a door.
Looking at your plan, you will probably have to block up the gap in the wall between the kitchen and the void at the least. ( you can of course decide to remove it later)

Reading LMs post above I'd do the same and get your own independent fire inspector out to have a look. I'm just wondering the implications of the double height ceiling on the fire regs but rather than conjecture you're probably better spending a few quid and getting an experts opinion.

If the loft area is going to be for storage etc rather than a proper bedroom, you don’t need any sort of sign off.