Loft conversion

[MrsSnow]

Hi all,
We have reached the point whereby we definitely need a loft conversion/roof extention. I have called up a few people and have arranged to have a few quotes made up.

I have no ideas of what to ask so please share your experiences with me.

Many thanks

We already had a loft conversion when we bought our house but only the back has dormer windows, so now we are adding dormers to the front.

I would say from ours you need to think about where your stairs are going to be, try not to have them in a existing room as it makes that room smaller and limits its use. Think about how many rooms you want it the loft, remember that if your having roof windows the walls will all be sloping and this limits where you can out furniture etc

Hope this helps

Don't believe any companies that tell you you can have "space saving" or "paddle" stairs - yes, you can, but you will hate them and no-one will want to buy your house if you decide to sell. Don't put the bathroom in the dormer area, it's a waste. Tuck it behind the top of the stairs if you can. Also our builder came up with a top way of adding storage and making the bathroom feel bigger - as long as you still have 2m head height over each tread of the stairs you can build alcoves out over the stairs at waist height (ours was in the bathroom) and put recessed shelving in it - you don't get any extra floor space but it will increase the feeling of space and help with storage so you can use the floor space for something else. If it's an old house it will have a chimney in the roof space, think about not boxing it in totally because again you could put shelving in between.

We have one my husband did it as he is a builder. The important thing to remember is you need a party wall agreement with your neighbours and it needs to be signed 1 month before any work can start. You might also be better off getting an architect to do some plans for you and then finding a builder. Also re stairs we ordered ours off www.stairbox.com they make them up from the plans and deliver it was over £1000 cheaper than getting a carpenter to make them. They look great too.

KarenG storage ideas sound great as well.

Thanks for that.

No doubt I will be back to ask more questions when I can actually think of stuff!

Get quotes from at least 3 different companies. Ask to visit finished jobs they've done and use this opportunity to get useful info from their customers.