Lofts can be a common place for storing belongings such as holiday decorations, clothing or memorabilia. However, there are some key points that need to be considered if you are thinking about using your loft:
- Loft boards and loft flooring in the loft or roof space are not designed to hold or store items as they cannot take heavy weight.
- The horizontal rafter, or ceiling joist timbers in your loft are there purely to hold up the ceiling below. Items stored in the loft could cause the ceiling to start to bow resulting in cracking which potentially could then result of your ceiling failing and collapsing.
- If accessing the loft/roof space, there is a risk of falling through the ceiling as it is very easy when moving around to miss the ceiling joists resulting in you standing on the actual ceiling which will not take the weight of a person. The result would be a fall to the lower floor level of some eight feet or more, which could be potentially be fatal.
- An untidy or cluttered loft could promote a pest infestation resulting in damage to your belongings, the fabric of the building, and difficulty to fix this issue.
- Should the worse happen and you have a fire in the property then excessive items stored in your loft, if affected, will act as fuel and potentially allow the fire to spread quicker and cause more damage.
- You will need permission from LiveWest and additional Building Regulation approval to convert your loft into anything other than a storage space.