raising roof ridge v lower ceiling - please bear with another loft conversion q

[thegrumpallo]

We've had 3 companies come around to quote for a possible loft conversion.

cutting to the chase: the ridge height in the loft is 2.1m. we've had -essentially - three different options put to us:

1. lower the ceiling below by approx 15cm
2. do nothing, use thinner steel beams and end up with a finished room height of 1.9m
3. use thin steel beams and 'nudge' the roof ridge by approx 5cm, which might give a finished height of 2m.

apparently option 3. can be done 'without involving the council' but at our own risk.

i think we need to reconcile ourselves with lowering the ceilings - but does it need to be 15cms? please share your horror (or not) stories...we don't really have such high ceilings in the rooms below anyway.

thoughts on any of the above would really be welcome.
we are really keen to get on and appoint someone but i'm thinking i need to get more quotes (i've already contacted around 10 companies - to get to the current three quotes!)....

Presumably option 3. would involve getting planning permission. Speak to the planning officer. Do not take 'a risk'

yes i thought option 3 needs pp, but apparently it might be worth a 'risk'... not. definitely not going there but i'm frustrated at the lack of clear, honest (!) direction on what would be best to do...

direction from loft specialists, I mean.

What do you want to use it for (ie child's bedroom or adult bedroom?) and how tall are you? Our neighbours have about 1.95m but it's only ever going to be a child's bedroom (master with ensuite on 1st floor) so the additional expense (and disruption) of lowering the ceilings right across the first floor wasn't worth it.

Have you considered only lowering the ceiling where you'll walk (so for example where the bed/ furniture/ wardrobes go, they can stay put) as that's where you'll need the extra head height? That was o e company's suggestion when we looked into it.

thanks namechanged. we're thinking of dividing the dormer part into two rooms that will mainly be used as snug/ small study/guests bedroom . the stairs will divide that area from the other bit, which with the low & sloping ceiling height doesn't really offer much more than useful storage; we think possibly we'd put our washing machine up there... might be a bit crazy though!
we are not v tall people.
i saw elsewhere on mumsnet that a finished height of 1.9m might feel a bit like a static caravan to move around in, which is totally fine by me.

I think you need 2m head height over the stairs by law. It sounds like you could get away with lowering the ceilings by 5-10cm and achieve that.

Just put in for planning permission. It's not hard, you'll need some plans but that's got to be better than compromising your space forever more.

We had a loft conversion recently and did have to lower the ceilings of the front two bedrooms and the landing on the first floor by about 30cm. The loss of that height wasn't actually as bad as I'd feared - I'm not certain what our ceiling height is now though, unhelpfully. The mess produced was astonishing, so if you do go down that route I'd really recommend moving everything you can out of those rooms. You'll also need to plan on redecorating completely (our carpets are pretty wrecked and ideally we'd replace them but are too skint just now!).

We live in a bungalow, and do, just have enough height for a legal height dormer window upstairs, but have decided to go for increasing the ridge height (on the grounds next door has a humongeous extension and upstairs planned over their single stoor extension and passed with no problems & next door is a house not a bungalow, we are the only single storey property left in the road). It will mean less area of flat rood, which I'm sure is a better long term prospect

Thanks for replies again... I think we will have to come to terms with the lowered ceilings so I'm bracing myself! We had fitted an ensuite to the main bedroom two years ago (stupidly, I now feel - should've waited) so really I'm not relishing the prospect of living with building chaos for what will be the third time in 6 years of living here!
Thanks again for reading and comments.

Did you speak to the planning offer. It may be that the council would have no objection, and an application could then progress quickly.

A ten minute phone call might save weeks of chaos.

We are just starting a loft conversion and had a similar discussion last week.

The loft company manager is also a neighbour of ours, and he’s said there are thousands of houses in London with a raised roof ridge. He moved his own up 3 inches. This is in London, in a street of mixed Victorian and 50s houses, and there is a vertical ridge between each house. I’d never noticed before but now having a look down the street I can see some ridges higher than others where there’s been a loft conversion.

So I wouldn’t rule it out immediately if I were you but I haven’t personally researched it beyond what he said (as we don’t think we’ll need to do it).

needmore - i haven't called the council because i do live in central london and just totally assumed that even a tiny difference in the roof ridge would never be allowed. I will make that call, especially after reading what headbasher says.

Very similar situation here. We opted not to lower the ceilings. The joiner has used the smallest permissible joists plus nibbled a bit on the ridge height and left out a layer of insulation to get us 2m. It is just being finished off at the moment so we haven't moved in yet but we're very happy with 2m, it feels fine. DH is 6'1.

We were initially going to lower the ceiling by about 15cm. It has saved a lot of money to not do it plus we really didn't want to lose any ceiling height on the first floor. It would have meant losing height in two bedrooms for the sake of gaining a little in one. I was relieved to avoid the mess, disruption and redecorating costs too.

My understanding is that the planning office will not be interested in the few cm poking out over the ridge (in the unlikely event that it's brought to their attention). One of our nearby neighbours has a conversion that pokes over the ridge by a few cm too and they didn't get PP.

To be clear, the loft manager (my neighbour) was implying those raised ridges were done without any notification of the council / planning. He said the council could in theory ask you to take it down within 5 years, but in reality if they did ever raise it with you you could just apply for retrospective planning permission. Obviously don’t just take my word for it but just passing on what he said.

Might be different if you are in a conservation area, or a particularly neat row of houses. Have a look at the rest of your street and see if you notice any slightly higher roofs.

I spoke to the council - they said we'd need to apply for planning permission, which might be granted... it takes 8 weeks though so I think that's one to mull over.
thanks for all your input- much appreciated.

@thegrumpallo just found this thread! What did you choose to do in the end? We’re trying to figure out if a loft conversion is feasible for us. One company has said they will do but have shied away from confirming what final head room would be. We have 2.1 m in the existing loft, so hoping we can do it without lowering the ceilings below!