Loft conversion - people who have done it, what's it like?

[JinxyCat]

Hi all,

DH and I are arguing discussing whether we should do a loft conversion or a basement excavate and I'm concerned that people I know who have done a loft conversion say that they regret it because:

1. It's too hot in summer/cold in winter (even with good insulation)
2. Their storage space is incredibly diminished

Is that a common experience? What do people think of their loft conversion? Are you happy with it? Do you miss the storage?

I confess I am a bit of a hoarder - and I love my loft, and am very reluctant to do the conversion. We live in London and I've had an architect say he could do a basement for £25k assuming that we didn't underpin and instead used the space between the existing footings (not sure if that makes sense) and our builder says £30k for the loft conversion.

We live in a conservation area, so I'm thinking that either will be particularly complicated to get permission for.

We don't need the extra bedroom per se, we'd probably be doing it so that the kids had somewhere to stick all the toys and for them to play (DS1 = 5; DS2 = 2) - but my thoughts are that a basement would probably be much better when they're teenagers and for resale vale when we eventually get sick of our postage-sized garden

I know that we're lucky to even be considering adding space when we don't 'need' it - but would really appreciate people's views...

We sleep in the loft conversion and it's gorgeous in the summer as the velux's are opposite each other and it's wonderfully cool. It can be a little colder in the winter but we use a heated airer which keeps it warm.

Storage space not an issue but then I've never understood what people need to store as I only keep things we need. We have access to some roof space but the only thing in there is the Christmas tree.

@Waiting, I am a terrible hoarder - in my loft I have

• I have toys which DS1 has outgrown and DS2 hasn't grown into
• Present box with random presents I will never give
• Suitcases (four big suitcases, three small ones, two kiddie ones)
• Out of season clothes (2/3 boxes)
• Ski clothes for skiing holidays I can no longer afford since having kids
• Baby paraphanalia that I am too nostalgic to throw out (despite being moth eaten)
• Baby paraphanalia that I want to give away and haven't yet
• Maternity clothes
• DS1 outgrown clothes
• Fancy dress costumes (in a big bag)
• All my brother's crap (he moved into a tiny flatshare and I have somehow been looking after it for over two years)
• Boxes for toys that I will never have the time to sell on eBay
• Random filing and professional books that I will never read again

God, I need someone to come and help me get rid of it all! Maybe I should just advertise on freecycle to come and take what you want

I have no idea how I would fit it all (or even most of it) into the eaves!

@PreciousBane - that's a good idea, I will call them tomorrrow!

We have a loft conversion in our house (previous owners did the conversion). It is our third (spare) bedroom and in doing the conversion the original box room was converted into an en suite to our bedroom. When we first moved in it was great - we loved the extra bathroom and the larger third bedroom - but we have since had DS and are hoping for DC2 and in a way feel that the original layout would have worked better for us. We wouldn't really want to put a small child's bedroom up there as there is 4 x eaves access in the room and obviously the flight of stairs leading up to it. That is just a personal choice though and I know a lot of children would love a loft bedroom!

We are currently in the throes of moving and when looking for our next house we did consider houses with loft conversions but where the master bedroom was up top and with a bathroom/ensuite in the loft too.

In terms of storage, there is quite a lot of eaves storage which is great, the only problem is that there are small doors into each storage cupboard - there are a few things (baby toys, sturdy suitcases) that would fit in but are too awkwardly-shaped to get through the doors! Bearing this in mind when house hunting we only considered loft conversion houses where they also had a garage (for storage).

25k sounds way off base for a decent basement conversion. Do you have an existing cellar? All in, including finishing etc, it can easily cost 10x that figure in London.

If you insulate properly and have cross ventilation for the windows there is no reason your loft should be too warm or cold.

We never had good access to our loft so we only used the bit near the hatch anyway. Therefore, creating the eaves storage allowed us better access to our stored items and was a better use of space for us. However, if you have a loft full of crap, then yes youll miss the space.

I love our loft bedroomthough its a guest room not our master.

Regarding resalea lot will depend on the existing house. How many bedrooms do you have already and are they all a good size? Adding a 4th bedroom will add more value than a 5th bedroom. Also, if you only have one bathroom, its probably a good idea to add another bathroom in loft to balance the offering. How much living space do you already have downstairs?

Love ours.

1. Not at all. We have velux rooflights with blinds that have reflective material on the outside, and also solar panels on the roof may help to soak up some of the heat. In the hot weather the loft was the coolest room in the house because we were able to open the Veluxes on both sides and got a breeze through. It's not cold because the warm air from the rest of the houses rises - we hardly use the heating in the loft itself.

1. It is obviously less in volume but we have eaves storage on both sides so it is far more accessible and better organised than before. Climbing a ladder to get at things is harder than going up some stairs.

Far more likely to get problems with damp or flooding in a cellar than you are to have problems with a loft.

I'm also suspicious of the costs. Our loft was 15k (in the north of England: proper stairs, a bedroom, a study and no plumbed rooms) and I would expect the basement to be far more than 25k.

£30K for the loft sounds a little on the low side. We've just had ours done (NW London). We've ended up with a bedroom that is 1.5 times larger than our room downstairs and it cost just over £50k.

We had our cellar done, we're outside London with easy access etc, it didn't require digging out or walls removing but it still cost loads more than 25k...(probably depressingly 3 times that, although it is a big space)

It's fantastic though and worth every penny :)

Jinxy. I will let you know in a few months. The list of stuff you have in your loft is almost identical to mine, even down to professional books and dust gathering ski gear, and we are doing both basement and loft shortly.
Might move it all to mums loft!

Had our loft conversation done last spring. Didn't intend to use it but love it so much we moved up there; have a bedroom, en suite and use the second bedroom we put up there as a walk in wardrobe type room. Lovely.

Two things I would def recommend:

1. We got a unit put in that's a heater in winter, air con unit in the summer. Is amazing. Throughout the heatwave in the summer we slept comfortably (it is noticeably hotter than the floor below) with a newborn with us in a room cooled to 19 degrees (was the envy of all my friends!) and have used it occasionally at winter to take the chill off the room. Cost £1000 all in, if you pm me I can give you the details.

1. Underfloor heating in any en suite up there is well worth it

We've had two loft conversions (bungalows). Never had a problem with the temperature. I would think more carefully about the storage next time however, and put in more access point. I would also like to do something like putting drawers in the eaves space:
www.pinterest.com/terrarosa/eaves/

If you had the space you could put in big fitted wardrobes for storage. Much easier than rooting around in the loft.

If its just a velux conversion without a bathroom 30k is feasible. However, if you want a dormer extension and a new shower room and built in storage in the eaves 45k is much more realistic for the loft.

£25k sounds cheap. We converted our loft in 2009 and it cost almost £40k for a dormer and a small ensuite (basin and toilet only). Did include having the ceiling height lowered on the first floor to get the requisite height upstairs but I don't think that would account for the difference. We're not in London btw. The loft room is our bedroom and we love it. We have French doors and a juliet balcony overlooking the garden and its lovely up there. I don't think it gets any hotter or colder than the rest of the house (Victorian terrace) tbh. It totally changed our lives because we'd have had to move without the extra bedroom and we're all about location. We cope with the reduced loft space. We only keep what we need unless you are my DH with his 'empty boxes for electrical equipment' and I do an awful lot of trips to charity shops if we start to get cluttered. I would imagine that a basement excavation would unearth (boom boom) more potential sources of extra cost than converting a loft because you don't really know what's under there until you start digging whereas you can see what's what with a loft. We didn't need planning permission and weren't in a conservation area then (it is now) so I'm not sure if we'd have got the dormer if we were applying now. Without the dormer it would have been a complete no go because the roof space just wouldn't be big enough for anything other than a den for the kids maybe and we needed a functioning bedroom.

Our loft conversion, with a dormer and en suite, has worked out to around 35k including VAT. We didn't have built in storage created, but we have a corner of the room which is basically just a big cupboard and at some point I will build a wooden partition and door for it. Right now it has a curtain. If we hadn't been creating a new loft space in our extension for storage I would have been very distressed at losing the space, but as it is our new loft is much easier to get to and cleaner too. Could you consider building a very very nice shed to store things in? We keep non-clothes stuff in our garage loft, and it's fine. I am also very suspicious of the low cost of your basement - is there a basement there already? Is he just talking about tanking it and maybe creating some lightwells?

Our bedroom is the loft - with an en-suite and walk-in wardrobe.

It has certainly given us more time in our house and, although it is hotter/colder than the rest of the house, is certainly manageable.

The only thing is to make sure you get advice (could you speak to neighbours who have similar layouts/houses) and choose the contractor wisely.

Thanks for all the comments, will try to reply to all points

@LondonGirl83 - I agree, "decent" basement conversions can easily cost over £100k (that's what the 'London Basement Company' quoted without a site visit) but because the solution the architect is proposing doesn't involve underpinning it should be less risk. We have gone around and seen the basement he created in a neighbouring borough for £30k without lightwells which included a utility room so know that it's possible (although I'm not sure what type of cellar they had before the work started).

The water table and sewage are a concern though, the only thing which gives me any comfort is that I know a house two doors down has a basement so the problems hopefully wouldn't be insurmountable. But I do agree, we just won't know what the problems are until we start and it's a lot more hassle than doing the loft...

And I should have mentioned, when we originally renovated the house we had to re-do the roof joists so have already got all the structural RSJ's up there as well as a separate electric circuit (with lights) and we brought the hot/cold feeds up and have capped them off - all of which is bringing the cost of the loft down but I appreciate we need to get proper quotes to validate all of our thinking.

Seems like everyone is saying that you can use the eaves for storage, but another area to store bigger things might be a good idea. Unfortunately we don't have a big enough garden to put in a storage loft (damn london postage sized back gardens)

We were thinking that rather than doing the bathroom within the loft, we could try for planning permission to get a new bathroom on top of the existing rear extension (where the stairs would logically 'turn' to get up to the loft) which would mean that the top bedrooms could access that one.

We already have four bedrooms, so I'm not sure that the fifth will really add that much more value - it's a good point to consider for the money and hassle we'd be going through.

I think we'd want a loft conversion with a dormer window at the back with some juliet balconies and a velux or two on the other side if the conservation team would allow it.

@PrimalLass - love the eaves storage ideas on your pininterest link, have given me lots of ideas!

@staverton - do PM me and let me know how you get on, where in the UK are you out of interest?

@janey1234 - will PM you for your heating/cooling unit, am very interested to hear more!

Thanks for all the comments - would be grateful for any more!

We have had a company in london, Algang Ltd, excavating our basement, they provided us with honesty and value for money service. just what we needed. they were the cheapest and the most respectful builders. we did not even have to move out of the property while they were working. small company with no overheads and very easy to communicate with. the director was so easy to talk to it felt like talking to an advisor. well worth a look up. www.algang.com