How big a deal is "habitable living space" certificate on converted attic?

B

Baloney

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We are getting our attic converted to master bedroom plus ensuite. We intended that it would be big enought to qualify for habitable living space, thus making our house officially a 3 bed instead of 2 bed.
However there our now some technical building issues arising that mean the floor to ceiling height will be less than expected. The room will still be plenty spacious enough to be used as a proper bedroom but cannot be described officially as a 3 bed house.

Is this a big deal?

Specifically..
1. Would a 2.3m high room with no certificate of compliance be worth much less than a 2.4m high room with a cert. (i.e. at 2.3 you'll never get a cert to call it a bedroom and it'll only be 'storage space' or whatever. At 2.4m we can call it a bedroom)

2. Would a 19ft by 15ft room without habitable status be worth more than a 16 by 15th room with habitable status? i.e. should we shorten the room just so we can legally call it a bedroom. (the rules are that 3/4s of room must be over certain height so if we make the rooom smaller than it might qualify)

would very much appreciate any comments.
 
Baloney

1) You should be still able to get a cert of compliance at 2.3m. Regulations states, suggested height of habital room is 2.4m.

2) Where did you get that formula?

By the way, is your house single/two storey????
 
It may be only a suggested height, but as an architect I won't sign a Certificate of Compliance if the floor to ceiling height was 2300.

Its not a huge deal. You may not have a certicficate of compliance but if you're worried about resale, anyone viewing your house will realise that it can be used as a bedroom.

Simply say in your brochure that its an Attic Room and that would be fine.
 
Thanks for the comments.

My husband gave me those measurements, they may not be totally accurate but the general gist of it is that we would only be very slightly out of the range to get the compliance cert.

It is currently a 1 story house.
 
If its a 2 bed house I doubt very much that you will get a room in the attic space that will comply with the requirements of the Buiding Regulations unless it was specifically designed so that the attic area could be converted at a later date.

In a sale situation you may not be able to advertise it as a 3 bed house but potential buyers will see the room and can decide themselves if its worth buying. In any event I cant see you getting a cert for it but it shouldnt really make any great difference if you were selling
 
http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/DOEIPol.nsf/0/35d32b901ee51d3d80256f0f003bc83e/$FILE/FACC%20%20Memo%20-%20HA1%20-%20APRIL%202004.doc

9.2 Rooms should generally have a ceiling height of at least 2.4 metres ( 2.1 metres beneath a beam or in a bay window). Rooms immediately below the roof should have a ceiling height of not less than 2.4 metres over an area equal to not less than one half of the area of the room measured on a plane 1.5 metres above the finished floor level.
 
Is size/height the only issue here? I would have expected there to be a bunch of other regulations that would need to be satisfied.
 
Yes there are other regulations with regards to fire doors etc, but the architect that drew up the plans for the planning permission would have been aware of all these and included whatever was neccessary as we were very specific that we wanted it to comply and be an official bedroom.

The roof is quite high and the ceilings in the downstairs rooms have been dropped so we (and the architect) were hoping that the new floor in the attic can be lowered down enough to give us the height (Plus a full dormer is being added to the back)

Thanks everyone for your comments. It's great to get a few different opinions.
 
On resale yes it will make a difference, you will be classifed as a two bedroom dwelling with an attic conversion. Doing searchs on Websites you will not come up as a threebed therefore out of the loop. People looking for 3 beds will not consider your house unless it is at a substanial discount to other 3 beds.

You will receive a premium for having the conversion say 15 to 25K above other two beds but not the 50 to 100 K an additional bedroom can give. You will unlikely sell your house to someone looking for a three bed you will more likely sell to someone looking for a 2 bed and sees the conversion as a bonus.

If you choose to stay and live in the house no worries.
 
Baloney, my only other comments are: for fire regs the windows should be at a level that people can actually climb out of them, no more than 1 metre off the ground (I'm open to correction on exact dimension). I have an attic conversion and it is quite noisy and creaky if you are on the floor below - maybe mention to your architect that you want it well sound proofed and a pump that is not too noisy.
 
If you have planning permission for this conversion and it won't comply with building regulations because of the roof height you will have a legal problem on a resale. If you just floored the attic and called it a storage room you could get a certificate of exemption to cover the work, if work is exempt from planning it is exempt from building regulations if it needs planning it needs building regs. If you sell the purchasers solicitor will look for certs for planning and Building regs, if you can't produce a building regs cert your buyer wont be able to get a mortgage on the house,
 

Not quite right there my friend. A lot of work that is exempted from planning must comply with building regs. In this case an attic can be converted to habitable accommodation providing it does not alter the external appearance of the house (with the exception of 3 rooflights to rear of roof). But it still must comply with the regs in relation to fire, structure, ventilation etc etc
 
what are the fire regulations - does the stairs leading up to the attic have to be a specific width etc?
 
sueellen said:
You may find some useful info here:

MyHome.ie - [broken link removed]
Click to expand...


HI Sueellen..I cannot get into that AAM key post on attic conversions..says I dont have access to it? how can I get access to it? Thanks!
 
If it helps, when buying, we were told by our surveyor that the attic room can only be used for storage as there is no way to get out safely in the event of a fire downstairs. The vendors had a bed set up in the room, but didn't include it in the number of bedrooms they advertised. There are also structural issues - i.e. there are BIG steel beams under the floor of the attic room, running parallel to the ridge of the roof.
 
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