Loft Conversion stairs and staircases – Albion Lofts

Loft/Attic Staircase - Traditional or Spacesaver?
Unless we recommend the use of a Spacesaver, we will always recommend a traditional style staircase - it's not that we don't like Spacesavers it's just that a traditional style staircase will make the loft conversion feel more a part of the house and give you the impression you really do have a new floor to your house.

All our staircases are made to order and will be specifically tailor made to your loft - after all, every loft conversion is different to another. The way we do this is relatively simple. Once the main steel beams, floorjoist and stair trimmers are in place we will take what's commonly known as a floor-to-floor measurement. This is from floor level in the loft to floor level on that first floor landing. This information is then passed on to our specialist staircase maker who will make and deliver you new staircase in around one week.

Spacesaver staircases are great if you just need simple access to your loft space, but if your requirements for your new room are more than just access, which we suspect are, then going up and down a very steep Spacesaver may just become a little too
inconvenient.

How do we fit a traditional staircase?
Fitting the staircase is one of the last major jobs for the first fix carpenter and this is a day where, if you work from home, we recommend you give yourself a day off.

The reason for this is it's noisy, dusty and just inconvenient. However, we will do our upmost to make sure this experience does not affect you too much.

The first thing we do is cut the hole in your ceiling. This requires skill and a multitude of dust provension devices to illiminate as much dust as we can. We cannot guaruntee that there will be no dust that escapes, but we will do our best.

Once this is done we are then ready to fit the stairs. Most of the staircase is fitted together in the loft with only the bottom winder left off so that we can drop it into the hole from above. Once the top winder and main string are in position we then fit the bottom winder and secure the main string by screwing it securely to the party wall. For this we use brown wall
plugs and large 100mm screws. Once we are happy that it is secure we then fit the remaining risers in place and glue on the wood blocks behind the treads. These stop squeeks. The stairs are now ready to be used.

Before the underneath of the stairs are plastered we fit expanded metal larth (EML) to the winding parts of the stairs and a long stip of plasterboard to the main string. It can then be plastered and once the plaster has gone off, our second fixer will then fit the ballustrading and nule posts.

Once finished our staircase always look like they've been part of the house for years. To see what we mean, check out our gallery for plenty of examples.