Bedbug Control Blackfen

What Is Different About an Added Room

A converted loft usually has sloping ceilings, knee walls with storage behind them, dormer windows and a staircase that opens straight into the room. An extension may have a newer floor that meets an old one, and a wall where the original house ends. Each of those junctions leaves gaps.

• Eaves storage behind knee walls, often packed with bags and boxes
• The gap where a sloping ceiling meets the floor or the knee wall
• Joints between old and new skirtings and floor coverings
• Built-in wardrobes and beds fitted under the slope
• The stair treads and carpet edges leading up to the loft

Loft Bedrooms and Heat

Heat rises, which helps and hinders. The top of a loft room comes up quickly, while the floor, the eaves cupboards and anything tucked under the slope lag behind. The fans and the thermal camera are what close that gap: moving air into the low corners, and checking behind the knee walls until they are at temperature too.

Eaves storage is the thing to plan for. Tell us what is in there, because it may need to be opened up or partly emptied so heat can get round it. The London guide to preparing for heat treatment has the full list of what comes out first.

Chemical in an Added Room

A residual treatment goes into the junctions: along skirtings where old meets new, the base of the knee walls, the frame of a fitted bed and the stair edges. For chemical treatment the floor needs to be clear, which in a loft room with no other storage can take some planning.

Because it is usually two or three visits, it helps if the loft room can be left set up in the same way between them rather than being rearranged.

Keeping the Rest of the House Clear

A loft room is often a child's or a teenager's bedroom, with one staircase down to the rest of the house. That staircase is the route to watch. Keep bedding and clothes from the loft bagged on the way down to the wash, and check the bedrooms on the floor below. For stopping it spreading from one bedroom to the next in a semi, see our Bexleyheath page. If you are not sure where it started, an inspection starts at £120.

Added rooms are also where things get stored during building work and forgotten about: a mattress from before the conversion, boxes of bedding, a second-hand bed bought to furnish the new room. If any of that came from outside the house, mention it when you ring about a Blackfen loft or extension, because it helps us work out where they started. The Bexley page has more on the first week in a family home.

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