loft bed

[Sturdee]

Peter,

We get to agree on something at last. Have to love that name. Maybe they will start to fly the 'jolly roger' on the car aerial.
I do suspect though that there may be one who is a member of this board. He's one of the good guys though.


Ken

I am glad we finally agree on something Ken If there is one who is a member of this board he will be the exception that proves the rule.


Peter.

[Marc]

Our smallish spare room is next to our bathroom. Our ceilings are 3.25 metres, so the idea is that we'd lower the ceiling in the bathroom to a "normal" height (whatever that is, haven't investigated that yet). In the spare room we'd take out the top part of the wall between the bathroom and the spare room (don't know if I'm explaining this very well!) and the ceiling in the bathroom would become the floor in this space to create an area for a double bed. The bathroom is small - maybe 2.3 x 1.5metres, so we might have to have some sturdy shelves in the spare room against the wall under the loft bed to create a little additional floor space for the bed area. We'd also have to go into the roof space quite significantly to create enough space above the bed (otherwise there'd only be about 2 feet of height!). The biggest issues I can see are
1. that the beams are sturdy enough to support the new floor in the bed area, and
2. that the roof is supported.
Would appreciate your comments, Jane

Hi there!
You want to build a little mezzanine on top of your bathroom, accessible from the spare room.
Can be done, but check the hights. You need to keep 2.4 inside your bathroom and need 2.4 in the mezzanine if you want to keep it legal (check correct hight with your council). That is 4.8, plus the thickness of the floor/cieling. Your ceiling joists are probably only 4". If they run across the toilet and span only 1.5m you may be OKm if not you will need to repalce them for 6" to feel the floor solid and not springy, so we are already up to 4.95m. Add particleboard and carpet and you are very close to 5 meters. You say your celings are 3.25 - 5 = 1.75. Let's hope you have such space in your roof cavity, free of any roof structure. Of course you can call your loft bedroom a storing space, and so keep it much lower, say 1.9 meters ;-)

You can make the new 6" floor joists go over your lowered inside wall in cantilever to extending the mezzanine floor. The problem left is the stairs. Fixed stairs will probably take half your spare room or all of it, so you can choose a realy minimal spiral stair case if your room is big enough or a loft stair, of the retractable sort. There are a few on the market, of different quality (reflected in the price).
http://www.homesolutions.com.au/SubC...21&subCatID=79
Nice little project. Would go nice if combined with a proper good quality timber roof window the one that you can see through and open, they are not cheap but come with special double glass for heat/cold insulation.
http://www.velux.com/international/

[jane99]

Thanks for all your suggestions they're very helpful. Marc, the span is 1.6m, so we probably would have to have 6" floor joists, and would extend them to minimally extend the mezzanine floor - maybe put shelves or a cupboard underneath. Also, while the space in the roof cavity is huge, there is roof structure to deal with. Re. stairs our friends just have a "friendly" ladder, ie nice timber on a reasonable angle. Any ideas on the roof structure?

[seriph1]

Hi Jane -if you can, take a pic of the roof structure - that will give us plenty to go by regarding advice/opinion on what to do next .....

Also, considering the span is only 1.6 and theoretically for sleeping so will not have people walking, jumping on it or the like, there may not really be much need for 6inch joists.

All you may need to do is marry in the jack walls (the short walls you build between the "ceiling" and roof timbers) into the roof bearers and ceiling joists with secure fixings like bolts or joists hangers - this should firm everything up enough - there are other methods for removing flex too (like steel strapping) but what I mentioned should be ok as it effectively reduces your overall span, depending on where the fixings are along the whole thing (apologies for the lack of clarity here – bit hard to describe)

Re: ladders ..... made a nice one from Merbau decking for a similar application. Just rebated each “step” into the sides and screwed and glued them in place – filled the pre-drilled screw-holes with Victorian ash dowels as a feature.

Cheers

ps. stand by for what may be the worst drawing ever done

[Marc]

Impossible to comment on what can be removed/replaced and how and what needs to stay, re roof structure from err... no information at all. If I had to answer I would say don't tuch anything.
Better consult an expert 'in situ', and remeber that tile roofs are VERY heavy like many thousands of kilos heavy and that any change to the structure must be done in a conservative way.

Have fun
Marc

[seriph1]

as promised - a very shabby idea of what you can do - hope it gives at least a little bit of an idea .... as I drew this I thought to myself - how big is the bed to be? You will need at least 1600 wide for a queen sized bed - less for a double and so on ...... better to grab as much space as you can up in the roof when doing it I reckon.

[Marc]

Steve, I like your "small print" ... made me laugh a while.

Not knowing which wall is the external and which way the roof goes, it is a wild guess, yet I agree with you that some of the new structure could be used to replace the structure that needs to be removed.
Also if need be, in the centre of the opening that looks into the room from the loft, there could be a post, supporting the roof and transmitting the load unto the wall below. Could be a 5"x5" of rustic appearance if that is the motif of the room. Nail a spike to it and hang a saddle from it, some hay stacked in a corner could have a good effect too . . . .well I live that to Jane ... )