Hello all. I need help, but before I ask for your help, let me try and captivate you by explaining what you'll receive in return.
Firstly, you'll receive a warm fuzzy feeling inside your soul knowing you've helped out a DIY novice - do you need more of a reward than that?! I think not
But I shall give you more - I will document my attempts throughout and post a nice completion story at the end of it all, documenting the many mistakes and injuries I probably (definitely) will make in the hope you can have a good-hearted laugh at my expense.
So, what is my aim? Well, my gf is pregnant, which means my ‘office’ (games room) is the first of many freedoms I stand to lose. But I shall fight this, and by fight this, I mean spend my own money and hard work on converting my loft to my new ‘office’ (games room).
So, take a look at the pics (linked at bottom), but that’s my loft. Where do I want to get? Well – a full functioning room for which I can work (game) in.
I intend to do as much of it myself as I can, apart from the plastering. My dad will help me with the electrics. I will do the rest on my own. I will not be putting a staircase in (not at this point anyway)
Now, let me tell you a little about my DIY experience. I’ve got very little.
Ok, moving on. What help do I need with? :
1) Insulation – dam this is more complicated than I thought it would be. Ok so I’ve read that to put insulation straight onto my roof membrane (in between ‘joists’? Apologies for my terminology, I don’t know what anything is called) it has to be a breathable membrane (I don’t know if it is) and if not, to leave 50mm between the membrane and the insulation… Well the depth of my beams on the roof are only 75mm (please see pic). Then insulation is supposed to be 250mm to 270mm thick, right? Well that’s 27cm taken out on each side of the roof space, on top on the beams – that’s a lot of room!! I don’t want the conversion to be up to building regs, as I’m not doing it officially and I’m not changing the structure of the house, so it doesn’t need to be, but I do want it to be insulated properly. So – how do I do a ‘warm’ roof insulation without taking too much space out of the room?
2) Please see pics of the spot lights – I think they’ve not put insulation over the top due to heat, right? Well should I just board over this, or can I buy something that covers the spot light which I can then put insulation over?
3) Wires in insulation – can they overheat? Or can I just leave wires in the insulation?
4) What else am I not considering that I should be?
I know I’m jumping into a big project here, probably one I shouldn’t, but hey, I have the spare time and I have the determination. For those who may warn against starting this project – my partners dad is a builder, so if all else fails I can consider an SOS call to him – however, I’m determined to do it without his help. Theres a running joke in the family that my DIY skills are terrible (I have an office based job) but I actually think I’m pretty good once I understand what I’m doing. So if I nail this project, he’ll be well impressed and the jokes may stop!
Thank you for any help, I will truly appreciate it.
https://imgur.com/a/DhWbU