lowering joists on attic conversion

Are you serious ?

 

This sound perfectly reasonable. A very sensible idea. you dont really need joists at all. they are only decorative a bit like a bit dado rail. just cut them out. you'll be ok. Seriously mate if you really think that taking the joists out of your attic is a good idea you should be living in at least a detached house. your ceilings will collapse if you take them out

 

< least a detached house.

Mid terrace bungalow

 

maybe an igloo. hang on a second my neighbour was frantically tapping away on his keyboard a minute ago and hes now gone up in to the attic. i think i can hear a chainsaw starting up.......................

 

Cheaper to have your legs removed below the knee.

 

Better to have his legs amputated just below his head lol

 

ha ha ! This is a wind up! Have you tried spelling his name backwards................

lol :^O

 

Is this post a wind up?

Seriously, if you are having a loft conversion and need to lower the joists, then you should get professionals in. You really can't be planning to do this yourself with so little knowledge.

If you DO lower the joists, one solution might be to fit tie rods front to back within the new floor void to stop the walls spreading BEFORE you cut the old joists.

Make sure in lowering the joists, you don't leave the existing first floor short on headroom. I can only think this solution of lowering the joists will work if you only need a tiny amount of extra headroom for the loft to work, and can tolerate loosing that amount of headroom from the floor below.

It will make the loft conversion a lot more expensive.

 

I too live in a mid-terrace and want to get a urban living feel to it can somebody give me a price for removing all the internal walls and floors and the external walls and roof. I have done a DIY course on saturdays at my local college and used to work in Wilkos putting paint out so I feel confident in my own abilities and just want to know how much i will be saving by tackling this minor work myself. I reckon two evenings and a weekend and itll be done

 

goldenboy,

You're not allowing anytime for decoration.

 

I like the sound of that goldenboy - in case I decide to do the same thing with my place could you tell me how you're planning to mount your radiators (I expect you're going to use microbore so the pipes will be less conspicuous).

 

er..... won't you be rather 'on show' when on the toilet

 

Have recently done this - engineer that did rsj calcs also specced plans with lateral restraint straps fixed to both rafters and wall plate, and welded to rsj. Also structural studs under existing purlins.

Its possible, just not as easy as it sounds. Just be sure you know what your doing before you start removing joists.

As a side note loft converison feels much bigger in comparison to a neighbours who placed new joists above existing ceiling joists.

 

Most of us thought you might be a bit of a YOBWOK....................KOWBOY.

 

Hi yobwok, do you have pics/drawings of what you did as I want to lower my ceiling for a loft conversation and want to work out how it's done, obviously I'll get structural engineers plans before doing anything.

Thanks

Matt.