Advice on Employing Different Trades Directly for Loft Conversion

[helen0207]

Hi, I was hoping to gain any advice/wisdom on how to go about employing trades and buying materials directly for a loft conversion, as oppose to employing a loft conversion company?

In the current climate we are super conscious of costs. Having bought a new house just before lockdown and with a new baby, we are desperate to get into our new home as quickly as possible, but on a budget. I have read a number of articles suggesting you can save a lot by approaching the loft conversion project this way, but just wondered where to start.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't if you're not experienced
Hire a good builder and they will manage it for you

I would be really wary about doing this. Especially if this is your first loft conversion. We have recently finished ours, and knowing it was all centrally run (especially when there were problems) was a lifesaver.

I can recommend Econoloft very highly.

I think if you are an inexperienced project manager your costs could spiral to far greater than if you hire a reputable conversion company.

We have done various extensions in our house, all using builders to manage things. By far the most stressful was the loft conversion as it was so much harder to visualise due to floor heights etc.

Thanks so much for your advice. We just feel we would save so much money and so it’s worth the stress. We have done a loft before and we used a company in Leeds and we are based in SW London!

I would be very wary about buying a house where the owners did the work on something major like that
It’s not quarantined

You really do need some sort of project manager. I would employ an older experienced builder with good recommendations. It will save you, money in the long run . If you dont know who to source, when, you'll get in an mess.

Use a loft conversion company. With a baby and no experience of project managing builds, you'd be mad to try and manage it all yourself.

Try companies based outside London (they might be prepared to travel in, if not too far) and see if you can negotiate, they may be in need of business if they've been struggling during lockdown.

A loft conversion will add value so it will be worth the investment - if you have to remortgage or borrow to cover the cost, provided repayments are affordable, you're unlikely to regret it.

@Needallthesleep

I would be really wary about doing this. Especially if this is your first loft conversion. We have recently finished ours, and knowing it was all centrally run (especially when there were problems) was a lifesaver.

I can recommend Econoloft very highly.

Apologies for jumping in on the thread.
Can you share your experience with Econoloft?
We got 5 quotes and they are 30% cheaper than the next quote. It's terrifying as it is a lot of money... how long ago did you do your loft?

You could get the conversion company to complete all the structural elements and then subcontract electrics, plumbing, plastering and decorating to save a bit of money. In my experience main contractors really mark these up and it will be easier to manage than subcontracting everything. We also saved money and got exactly what we wanted on our extension by sourcing our own windows rather than going with the contractors supplier.

Weepingwillow makes a good suggestion. Can I add that if you do this, don't add in an element of time pressure. It'll take longer for you to manage the trades than you expect. The plumber won't turn up on time and this will affect the electrician. As you don't have existing relationships with them all (like a builder would), it'll be difficult to get the electrician to juggle their other work to accommodate a late change to their timings. You'll go to the back of the queue as the electrician has no skin in the game (unlike with a builder from whom they can expect lots of repeat work). That will impact on the painter, and so on.

It's doable but expect it to take longer than planned.