Roof heights for loft extensions

[Cretaceous]

We are thinking of having a loft extension. The height from the apex of the roof to the ceiling joist is 2.42m. I've Googled, and it suggests that you can go as low as 2.1m.

However, we have had an architect in, and he says this will give us a loft room with a height of only 2.07m, which will be a bit low. Also, when we eventually come to sell, this is so low that it will put people off.

Has anyone done this with such a low ceiling height? Does it look weird? Would it put buyers off?

PS With a dormer, the floor area with a height over 6ft is about 6.9m by 3.2m.

We looked into this and had the same problem. It would have been legal, but pretty oppressive. However, we still might do it in the future for DS3 to have his own bit of the house when he gets a bit older IF we can do it without losing a bedroom to stairs on the first floor.

If you are short don't mind the height and need the room, then go for it as it will improve your quality of life, but don't expect to get your money back when you sell, as some people might not consider it suitable for a bedroom ( that's why I wouldn't knock out a room to accommodate it) - on the other hand, no-one's going to be put off a loft with a dormer for storage, playroom etc. so that might be a benefit.

there are a few get-outs -

most houses in my area have a low-head height loft conversion except

1. houses where the next-door house has a higher roof (they can go up to the height of their next doors)
2. detached houses that have gone for a near-total re-build.

it did put DH off a house as it meant we would have the downstairs bedroom not the upstairs one with a nice view. that said, most houses round here have about 6'2 head height in the top box and obviously they still sell.

Thank you for your help. Yes, we aren't that tall, so I think it would be ok for us as a bedroom. But it would restrict the market when we come to sell.

I think we could do it without losing a bedroom. Hmm, the house is a 3-bed semi, worth around £350k. I guess the loft extension would be around £35k, perhaps. I think we might get back a fair bit of that, as there is a shortage of 4-bed houses around here, and a lot of people move out here from London.

The 2.07m is about 6ft 9in head height, so that's more than 6ft2.

Oh, it's so difficult to know what to do!

I think it may put people off we have rejected several with low headroom but I think it the bulk of the room is able to be walked around in that is the ideal

I think you might find that once RSJs have been put on your actual roof height will be more like 6 feet only.

Building regs will also be an issue, and you wouldn't be able to market it as a 4 bed without proper veiling height.

Noddyholder and titchy, thank you for your replies.

noddyholder, the area with the "full" ceiling height is quite large.

titchy, the architect thinks the room height will be 6ft 9in in height at the end, as it's 7ft 11in now. I spoke to a loft conversion company, who thought we might be able to use smaller joists, but more of them, which might increase the height. I thought at 6ft 9in we would be able to sell it as a room, when we eventually move. I thought that the building regs just applied to the height above the stairs.

AnnetteFraser - thank you for bumping my post, with your none-to-subtle advertisement . Thanks to Google, I note that you also frequent other sites extolling this company. Guess I'll report your post, like your other Mumsnet posts...

I would definitely go for the dormer option (we did) and it makes such a difference to the finished room (doesn't feel like a loft conversion at all). We are all shorties though :)