My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Property/DIY

Loft conversion as part of extension?

3 replies

NakedMum33and3rd · 25/04/2016 20:53

We are in the process of buying a three bed 1950's semi. We have plans to do a large ground floor extension before we move in. We were hoping that in a few years down the line we would remortgage and do a loft conversion with dormer to create a master suite.
I am wondering if I should be thinking about making the preliminary work part of our initial project. Is this possible and how much would just a dormer loft 'shell' cost in comparison to a full loft conversion?
We could then take out a home improvement loan in a few years to 'finish' it off once the kids are both in school?
So essentially we would have the bones of the loft there and the pipework etc but it wouldn't be a functioning room. Is this a long term money saving thing or is it a waste?

Thanks in advance.

OP posts:
Report
ladypie21 · 25/04/2016 22:16

The "bones" of it can be the most expensive part. We were quoted a 70% cost for shell only, including stairs with the remaing 30% for plaster boarding, plastering, floor fitting doors, skirtings , bathroom fitting etc. I think it's just not worth it as you would still need building regs for structural alterations and there's always the chance that regs will change between now and when you finish it meaning the insulation/venting or whatever will not be enough. You may also end up paying for scaffolding twice as well as paying for professional services including building regs twice. You should also consider if a new builder is willing to take on someone else's started work, the need for having to retrofit windows and retrofitting stairs and supports etc.

If you did want to get anything done now, I would just make sure the ground floor extension allows for additional loading from a future dormer and get the loft done in one go as it is likely to be much more efficient.

Report
NakedMum33and3rd · 25/04/2016 22:38

Thanks ladypie. That is really helpful advice. I will make sure our engineer knows we plan to convert the loft so we put in enough support the bear the load.
It is a relief to hear that too as the cost would really stretch us and it does make sense for us to wait until both kids are in school.

Thanks!

OP posts:
Report
namechangedtoday15 · 26/04/2016 09:36

I agree with Ladypie. We're just having an extension now and plan to convert the loft at some point in the future (can't afford it at the moment) and our builder says there is no benefit of starting now - either do it now and finish it, or leave it completely.

The only caveat to that is about height - do you know you have the required head height in the loft to make it work / comply with building regs? We may need to drop the floor by a few centimetres in one of the bedrooms to get the necessary head height. The walls in that bedroom are likely to be disturbed as part of our extension (there is a steel joist going in the floor) so we may have the builder lower the ceiling as part of this current work.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.