Loft conversion-3 bed semi-any advice and ball park figures for cost

[Sleepglorioussleep]

Have fallen in love with a large 3 bed semi. For it to be a prospect for us we'd want to add a fourth bedroom in the loft. Would love any tips from anyone who knows about these things and if poss an idea of cost. It's a semi with three doubles and the stairs would go up in a straight forward way from a good sized landing. We'd want to ideally make a good en suite master suite. There's a solid precedent for dormers being put in on the road, for what it's worth. Grateful for any words of wisdom. And as well, do you need to move out while the work's being done?

we recently had a loft conversion (bedroom and en suite) in our new home (3 bed mid terrace). It took about 7 weeks and cost us £30k. This didn't include the bathroom suite, flooring or decorating. We are in London. There is no way in hell I would have lived in the property while the work was being done - it was absolute chaos - but I know a couple of people who have done this and have survived with sanity intact! The first few weeks is mainly outside on the roof so mess is more contained (although part of the ceiling in one of the bedrooms fell down half way through!) but when they knock through the ceiling to put in the stairs, the mess and dust is pretty horrendous. It is only 7 weeks though so disruption is short lived.

Thank you-really helpful. We're not London, but would guess that would mean costs a bit lower?

Hi we already have ours converted but only have velux windows, we've had 3 quotes to add dormer windows for extra space and add a bathroom and they all came in between 31-34k, we are in Wales

£31,000 for two bedrooms, two velux windows and a shower room. Stairs to match existing. two internal frosted glass windows, two closets. Scotland.

Hi, we had a dormer fitted, full staircase, bathroom - its a big bedroom and guests love it.

Including all decorating, the stairs etc it cost about £34k, it was £29k to do the work and then £5k for bathroom, decorating etc

My top tips:

-make sure you get a written costing of everything thats included. E.g in our case, the costing didn't include the stair case which cost an extra £900.

-fire doors - you may need these fitted throughout the house - we had lovely original victorian ones that had to be replaced (sad face) and the new ones were around £50 each x 8 = more money!

-after the conversion, we had to redecorate the hall and stairs and buy a new carpet for stairs due to damage caused during the conversion even though our builders were careful - so cost that in and dont do anything on moving in to hall and stairs until you have finished conversion

-keep some space (perhaps in eaves on one side if you have dormer on another) for storage

-I definiately recommend dormer for hte extra space even if it costs more - you will prob regret not paying the extra for it

-be prepared for mess, dust and more mess and and dust - and for having no roof for a while

-when getting quotes, consider time it will take as well as cost. we went for a cheaper quote but it was a one man band doing it and it took a lot longer than anticipated

-ensure in costings that they take everything away (e.g skip)

-try to be on holiday when they 'break through' !

-dont do it when you have 2 x 8 month old babies

good luck!

Really helpful. I am trying to persuade dh that doing loft on new house better than doing two storey extension on current house!

How about one x month old baby and two older children

Well if you can go and stay somewhere else for a bit, at least during the breaking through (we happened to be on hols) then that would be a good thing. I found that my dcs couldn't have thier day time sleeps due to the noise and it wasn't necessarily possible to be out the house with them all the time for months on end. Looking back on it now it was a bit of a nightmare, but at the time you just get on with it!

We live in an edwardian terrace and had to have our ceilings lowered to get the required head height, went away for a few days whilst the bulders did that first, but were not too disrupted for the rest of the build. Total cost was probably about £37k for a large room with full width brick dormer at the back, large shower room, new carpets furniture etc. (NW England)

All very helpful! Looks as if we won't be buying the house I've fallen in love with. Funny time - not much on the Market so a bidding war could ensue and the house was over priced as far as we can see. But I can see us buying a loft conversion prospect to get what we want so all useful