Basic loft room cost

[AntiHop]

Can anyone give me a general idea of costs?

Small terraced house. We want to put proper stairs in and just velux windows (no dormer). We won't be putting a bathroom up there. Just want it cheap and cheerful.

We're in London.

Lots regret not going for dormers. Do it properly or don't waste your money.

We definitely can't afford a dormer extension. We need a space for my DP to work from home so a loft room with velux would fulfil this purpose.

£30k

Hi AntiHop,

We did this not so long ago and I'd budget £1500-£2000 for the staircase, £2000ish for velux windows (plus or minus depending on number and size) and another £1000 for loft boarding/rugs/plastering/making good etc.

If it helps, we love the new space it has given us (and as an added bonus it made us tidy out the loft!) so you won't regret it.

To use it as a room, it has to be compliant with building regulations. Otherwise it’s a contravention and you could be prosecuted and your house insurance will be void.

So it’s not as simple as boarding it out and adding stairs and roof lights.

I want to do this for the exact same reasons! We are in London too. That sounds very interesting @mimsnet, where are you? I'd wonder how we could find a builder to do it, and whether it would pass building regs.

There are building regs and fire regs. You can look them up. You may have to have fire doors too. Any decent loft conversion site if you additionally google building regs will spell it out. You need to comply with staircase regs too.

Op you are best asking for a “ storage room” if you are not going to sleep up there.
Approx £8-10k

Hi again @AntiHop,

There seems to be some confusion about building regulations - apologies if I implied otherwise but you will of course need to ensure that your property meets the relevant regs, just as you do for many home alterations. Of course, the cost of even a basic loft room will increase substantially if the floor requires reinforcement or you want to install heating or add built in storage etc

@MiddleMoffat we're in Oxfordshire and we were (luckily) able to use recommendations from family for the builders, so sorry I can't be of any help to you there . Building Control came and inspected the work at various stages and gave us a certificate at the end

IME approaching a builder to do a 'loft conversion' yields the most expensive quotes by far. It's a package deal with a premium for convenience.

I know someone who did a semi diy conversion which cost half what it 'should' as they're fairly competent at basic diy. So the dh did all the insulating and plasterboarding himself for instance, plus all the final decorating.

They got a window company in to do the windows only. Searched for quotes to reinforce the floor. Someone else to put a staircase in and so on. A stand alone plasterer to skim it.

They shaved thousands off the cost although obviously it was more effort and work and took longer and a lot of research from them. But it is an actual bedroom and compliant with regs/checked out.

Some of the cost will depend on what structurally needs moving/reinforcing...