Victorian Loft

[stuartleech]

Hello,

I've recently moved into a Victorian terrace which has two loft rooms in the attic.

The attic has original Victorian dormers and after starting to strip out I can see there are original Victorian floorboards up there. However the floor is deflecting in both rooms and is built on joists which are 100×50mm. The house was built in 1877 so as far as I can tell it's been like this since it was built?

I had a structural engineer take a look and their recommendation was to sister joists that are 175 x 50mm in size to the existing joists. The attic has a proper staircase and there's plenty of ceiling height

However given the age of the building and the fact that it's survived 150 years in its current form I'm wondering whether I might be able to simply replace any joists that might have twisted or have issues and add noggins throughout to strengthen which would be a lot less invasive than trying to add brand new joists in throughout.

I thought perhaps the conversion had happened in the last 30 years and they just cut corners by not upgrading the joists but it does look like this was how it was done originally.

I've attached a couple of photos from the Estate Agent to show the rooms just for reference (not our decor and furniture!)

thanks!

 

[blup]

You would normally double up joists either side of the affected joist to take the additional load. Noggins won’t help if all the joists are potentially affected. Did the SE consider a steel/timber beam supporting the joists at mid point, installed in room below? That might involve less disruption.

Blup

 

[stuartleech]

Hi Blup,

Thanks for your response, the SE didn't suggest supporting from below, that would definitely be more disruptive but I guess I need calculations as to whether that would suffice?