Possible to put in stairs?

[Username24680]

Floor plan of a small bungalow we have just bought. We are toying with the idea of converting the loft to add another usable space. We will have this home for the rest of our lives and will retire here so I’m not concerned about adding value etc.

It has quite a shallow roof. Others nearby have converted and there’s not enough height for it to be classed as a bedroom etc. I’ve included pics from a local sale of what they’ve put upstairs.

What we’re really wondering, is if it would be possible to add a “proper” staircase based on this floor plan? All the others that we’ve seen just have a pull down ladder (including this one with the bedroom/en-suite upstairs! She informed us that when she has guests she “closes them in after they go to bed and opens the hatch again in the morning” 😳🙈 because the pull down stairs are right outside her bedroom 🙈)

I have absolutely zero experience of this kind of thing so hoping for some advice before I get some tradesmen in to look 😬😅 I was wondering about taking the hall cupboards and built in wardrobes away and putting an access there?

It looks like you don't have enough floorspace to put real stairs in unless you want to have them in an existing room, which hugely cuts room size down. Also, you need to have enough head height going up the stairs, so presuming you have a sloping roof, the stairs will have to start in the centre of the house.

It wouldn't work putting stairs in where your cupboards are because you won't have any head height at the top of the stairs. Your head would hit the slope of the roof near the guttering. You could put stairs in that turned back on themselves but again, this would eat into one of the rooms.

To meet building regs, you need 2m of height all the way up fixed stairs.

If you had the first tread where the leftmost 'W' is, then the stairs would be more workable but you'd have to access them through the bedroom all the time.

That sounds like a frightening fire hazard to close your guests in the loft overnight...😬

If you're going to bodge it, how about the kind of ladder you get on a bunk bed, fixed to the wall between the kitchen and the dining room corridor area?

Thinking, even that has it's issues because you want maximum useable floorspace upstairs and not to have a ladder access point just where the best spot for a bed is. I don't think there's a simple answer to this. I look forward to reading other's thoughts on it.

@Advancedpie Doesn’t it?! 😳😳😳

Ive completely missed the fact that it’s a Semi-detached bungalow out of my post 🙄🤣 does that change things with the slope of the roof? So the wardrobes/cupboard etc are in the middle of the property and underneath the peak of the roof.

@Advancedpie We’re not against just sticking in some velux and properly insulating/lining upstairs etc and just having a pull down for occasional use. It would likely be used as a kids den/office etc rather than a bedroom. But if we could have some form of proper stairs then I’d prefer that!

Or through the living room.

Like you say later, it will depend where that comes out in the loft room though.

i can't believe the current owner thinks it's OK to shut guests in the loft!

I think you could do it, but contact an architect or RICS surveyor. Possibly have open plan stairs in living room. Also the height doesn't look that bad. We had a loft conversion and you could only walk down the centre of the room! But it passed all the Building Regs. and it was classed as a bedroom. (We also had a dormer fitted) This was 20 years ago so things might be tighter now.

There’s a bungalow near us that has stairs in the dining room, is that an option? Another one has stairs in the smaller bedroom as that is only a guest room anyway, but I’d feel funny having to go up and down to my room through someone else’s bedroom.
Spiral staircase maybe?

i'm sure you could put in fixed stairs somewhere, but you would have to sacrifice part of another room for it. so that could be the hall (option Red) or the Lounge (option Blue) or the cupboards (option Green) or probably something else.

you should also think about how you will split up the space upstairs. option blue has the stairs come up right in the middle of the room, which could work for having a bathroom one side and bedroom the other, but might not work well for one big room.

one more version

if you have the budget for a new kitchen, i'd do this

Hall has red stairs up to large attic room with a shower room directly over the existing shower room + a big bedroom

U = new utility room including under stairs storage and washing machines etc

K = new kitchen dining room

Love the last idea but suspect there won't be enough headroom for the stairs there, if it's a hipped roof.

This doesn't apply to existing works, right? Only to new ones. Our only staircase doesn't have 2m of height!

@Blurpy Neither does our staircase! We bought a couple of years ago and roof conversion had been done some years back and it’s not 2m. Had all building sign off and surveyor was happy though so we didn’t worry!

@Locsup183 Phew! We have one very low point where the room above cuts into the staircase - you have to duck to avoid hitting your head. House was built that way almost a hundred years ago, so presumably it's fine. 😅

OP, you probably can just have a carpenter build you some stairs. Yes. They won't be to regulation but by your own admission the room is unsuitable to ever be converted properly so it doesn't really matter.

If you personally would get the value in your life from having this as an accessible/usable room, then I'd crack on on that basis. Lots of people have similar (posh lofts with stair access etc)

@SoupDragon I know 😳 i can’t say that I’d be comfortable with it! We didn’t purchase that one but bought a similar one further along the road 😅

Thanks for all your input everyone! Sorry, that’s me just getting back to the thread.

I think I’ll get a couple of local tradesmen round to see what they think and give a rough price. It’s just really a room for occasional use but if I could have the ease of proper stairs (not necessarily to code if they won’t fit!) rather than a pull down ladder then I’d prefer that 🤞🏼

Google space saver or paddle stairs. They only need half the space that normal stairs need.

A loft used infrequently still requires Building Regs if it’s converted to an office or guest bedroom. It’s all about access and safety as well as load bearing. If you never sell, it won’t matter to you. Just having a loft ladder is surely not acceptable when you are older. I’d get a garden room rather than your idea of safety!

You need a lot of room for stairs. For good reason.