Anyone done loft conversion jointly with neighbour?

[SmellTheGlove]

Just that really. 2 bed Victorian semi, want to go into loft with dormer to make extra bedroom and shower room. Neighbour planning much bigger project Inc downstairs 2 storey side return which we can't afford. But joining him makes sense as then we could potentially save some money and also raise the roof line slightly as loft height not quite high enough I don't think (2m ish currently). He is going ahead with his anyway, already had planning approval. So anyone done this? I'm going to get in touch with his builder to see if we can afford it. We only have about 35-40k which isn't a lot in London suburbs, but could maybe get us at least shell conversation to first fix and we can save up for flooring/bathroom suite as we don't need the space urgently, it just makes sense to try and join up with neighbour for reasons listed above and he doesn't want to wait. Thoughts? Experiences?

[NotCitrus]

We did this - two similar Victorian loft conversions. Probably saved us about £10k compared to doing it later. Our builder went bust though, so we had to project manage it ourselves. We did get to know our lovely neighbours very well through it all!

[user1471549018]

Definitely do this if you can! It will save you time, money and hassle

[MoveOnTheCards]

We did something similar, 2 Victorian terraces doing mansard lofts. TBH the only saving we made was on scaffolding and skips as we used different building companies in the end, although the work was done at the same time.

Unless you're using the same building co, suppliers, project manager etc. There's unlikely to be much of a saving.

Having t done at the same time was a massive bonus though as our teams worked well together and when one lost power the other could help out (we oddly had a couple of power/water issues between the two houses!). It also helped with neighbourly relations as it meant keeping the noise to a shorter timeframe across the two houses (3 months instead of the potential 6 had we gone separately one after the other).

[SmellTheGlove]

Thanks not and user - hmm, its the getting to know the neighbours well bit which alarms me! They are a bit odd. harmless enough I think, just odd! i'll pluck up courage to pop round and talk to them about it today. Am I being completely unrealistic with prices though? I guess we'll see what the builder says...

[SmellTheGlove]

Thanks move - interesting that you used a different builder. I was wondering how that might work as I have a friend who's husband has done smaller jobs for us but who does a lot of lofts too and he was the one who mentioned doing it to first fix to save money initially. So might get him round too. I guess even if that meant the savings were less it would still solve the roof height issue..

[user1471549018]

Budget would be do able round here, but I'm guessing not in London?? I think if you do nothing else now do the roof and scaffolding bits at least.

[SmellTheGlove]

Now I'm itching to get some quotes in! Went round to neighbour earlier but he wasn't in. Curses! Will try again tomorrow. .

[Rothna]

Hi
My loft conversion almost finishing. My and my neighbours loft ,we joint to together to create space, but now the problem is my loft is sticking out little more than theirs and builders have done a poor job of joining them together. They overlapped our tiles over theirs. Any ideas or suggestions to fix while builders are still here .please help