Loft conversion

[Mrspige]

We have had a quote for a loft conversion. We’ve gone with someone who’s been recommended by a family at school and a few of their neighbours. I’ve been and seen the work and it’s of good standard.

as we have a new build home we’re needing the roof trusses replacing. Which is what is costing the most. To do the entire roof and a 2 beds a d a bathroom was £60k but to just to half the E roof for 1 room and a staircase will be £27k

we have some savings to put towards it and the rest will be additional borrowing on the mortgage.

the builders seem really trusty and said will be in touch nearer the time to finalised all details etc. i did ask for a plans/drawing but they said that’s not something they do. They have said they cover everything except carpets and painting so new staircase, bannister, door frames, skirting, lighting, windows et.

has anyone else who’s had a loft conversion had plans? How will we know the best place for the windows? (2 velux) Or the best place for plug sockets (2 x double
sockets) etc

A friend of ours is a builder as said you wouldn’t get CAD plans for a loft conversion and it all sounds above board.

the builder doesn’t want paying until they order the first set of trusses and then it will be 25%

they have agreed November and will be In Touch nearer the time to confirm dates etc

am I over thinking this? Never paid so much for anything before so feeling. Bit nervous!

We're getting a loft conversion (and ground floor internal reconfiguration) done now . We hired an architect to do the drawings so we could decide where the stairs , windows, bathroom etc would go.
We then showed these drawings to builders for pricing before selecting one.

Personally can't see how they can start works without knowing exactly what you want and if it works for your house. I'd be worried they'd do something that wouldn't pass building regs or destroy my house or drip feed price increases because they find something unexpected.

Buyer be ware...

I would not proceed with any works until you have had proper plans draw up and a detailed quote based in those plans, payment agreements at what milestones in the project.

With no plans to go off, the builders could get things wrong, miss communication etc

Get everything down on paper, signed off and contingency ideas if job runs over.

We have just had our loft done by a company that just does lofts. They arranged for a surveyor to draw up the plans just before work started and they did send them to us. We didn't really get much say in the plans, because that was led by the surveyor in terms of where the stairs went etc.

Once the dormer was built, our builders said we could choose our own layout for the rooms as they were stud wall and could be placed where we wanted. We were expecting to have one bedroom and a bathroom in the loft, but our builder showed us how we could have two bedrooms and a bathroom, which is what we went with. But we didn't have to make the decision right away.

In terms of roof windows, our builders asked us if we were planning on having fitted wardrobes on one wall and planned the windows around this, so they are off centre, but don't look wrong. They also gave us a choice of where to fit the plug sockets, but again, we didn't need to decide until the electrician came, which was pretty much near completion, so we had already planned how we would use the space.