Have you had a loft conversion?

[cardy]

We are just about to embark on a loft conversersion - bedroom and en suite. Have you had one?

Do you think it was worth it? Were you pleased with the result?
What are the potential pitfalls?
Did it end up costing more than the orginal quote?
Did you use a builder who took care of all the work - building, plumbing, electrics or did you project manage and get in trades-people seperately?
Any advice welcome

Yes.
It was worth it, the result is brilliant.

I'm not sure about potential pitfalls because I had a brilliant builder.

Yes it cost more than the original, but only because I asked for extras. Each step of hte way, we agreed the extra prices and he gave me the option of having extra or not.
Used one buildre for the whole thing - much better that way, because they can't start passing the buck.

Any good builder should give you at least a couple of references - people whose job he's just done, and perhaps one he's in the middle of, who you can go and see and talk to. If they don't want you to make contact with the people, beware.

Pitfalls - establish exactly when the money would be paid - most want something up front, something half way through the job, and something at the end of the job. Establish what exactly the end of the job will be (eg every single bit of rubble removed from your garden etc.)

We're in the middle of our second loft conversion (we did one in our last house)
I would only move to a house that could have a conversion but thats just us. DH has a studio and the best place to soundproof is the attic. We have always done them ourselves - fairly easy, even put the velux in ourselves. Planning & Building Warrants a pain in the wazooo though.

Sorry for butting in...what were the Planning & Building Warrants that you needed out of interest LieselVonTrapp? DH often talks of converting the loft himself!

We need it with current house cause we're raising the beams - also remember I am in Scotland so things are different up here.
We also needed it in previous house cause we put a staircase in but we got refused planning so we just put it in anyway and got a letter of comfort when we were selling the house.

DH asks what is a letter of comfort?

Maybe just a Scottish thing. When selling our house (post work) we applied to the Council for a letter of comfort as the work had been done without building/planning warrants. They granted us a letter of comfort which makes it legit but they could have refused. We did have to make alterations though to get the letter - i.e put in a bannister, vent and minor things like that

I have. Had a fab builder who did most of the work himself and sub=contraced stuff like plastering/gas central heating etc.

Didn't cost more than original quote.

Had to comply to building regulations and had an inspector round, now hav a certificate (proudly framed)

Just means that when I sell the house, the Cert will prove it is safe etc - if I didn't have on, I'd have to say it was 2 bedroomed not 3 or something...

I Love mine and like someone else has said, would not move toa house where the loft couldn't be done!

Thanks for the advice. It sounds like the builder we had round last night knows what he is talking about - mentioned building regs, width of the staircase and exits (in case of fire) in order to comply with regulations and able to call it a 4th bedroom not a loft conversion....for selling purposes. He also mentioned showing us some photos of ones that he has done and possibly visiting one.

I surpose what made me worry was that is was cheaper than we expected.

Is the room as warm as other bedrooms - worry about not having a loft/insulation iyswim.

cardy as long as your boiler has the capacity to support the extra radiators and piping to go up to the loft, then there shouldn't be a problem.

I had a crap boiler so it was, it was horribly cold in the loft room. Last year I changed the boiler (because it was old and crap anyway) and now the loft room is toasty and comfy.

They use this new modern stuff for insulation btw. Don't worry about that.