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Original poster

Loft Conversion - worth the hassle?

38 replies

Ofchris · 22/12/2018 17:38

We are thinking of having our loft converted in the new year to add an en-suite bedroom for DH and I. DS is currently in the boxroom. Adding an extra bedroom would give him more room and give my pil somewhere to sleep when they stay rather than us playing musical beds. If anyone’s had this done, was it worth the disruption and how long did it take?

OP posts:
BackforGood · 22/12/2018 18:37

Depends how much you like the house, the road, the area. How long you are going to stay there, etc. Obviously having builders in your house for weeks / months is a pain, but then, so is trying to buy and sell.
Might also be worth talking to local estate agent about increase in value vs cost to do (tho keep in mind it is in their interest for people to buy and sell, not convert) but might be worth looking on Zoopla to see if any similar ones have sold recently to give you a fair idea.

Original poster
Ofchris · 22/12/2018 20:17

Thanks that’s good advice. We do like where we live and have to stay in the area as we don’t want to move the children’s schools. We’ve spent quite a bit on getting the rest of the house how we want it. Have you had a loft conversion done Backforgood

OP posts:
sparklepops123 · 22/12/2018 20:25

We have had one and yes glad we did.we added two bedrooms and one en-suite. It is a mess and a pain but worth it. Ours prob took about 3 weeks but then builder did drag it out in the end

Lunaballoon · 22/12/2018 20:26

Definitely worth it especially if you’re happy with everything else. The upheaval is no where near as disruptive as having a downstairs extension and it’s relatively quick, depending on the type of conversion you choose (dormer, mansard etc).

Loletta · 22/12/2018 20:29

We've had a loft conversion done. Can't remember how long it took. In terms of disruption, most of the work is done from outside. It's only in the last few weeks when they build the stairs to go up that the disruption becomes significant.
HTH

Toomanycats99 · 22/12/2018 20:33

We had one done. Not that much disruption as most is done from outside. We loved the house and areas so didn't want to move. It cost probably half of the cost of getting an extra bedroom via moving and we have ended up with a large bedroom with study area, a double and a just about double. A move would have most likely given two doubles and a box room.

I love it. A loft conversion gives an extra layer of removal from the living area noise if you are first in bed / last up.

I also cannot stress how lovely it is to have a bedroom on a different floor from my children........it's my little oasis of calm!

TooDamnSarky · 22/12/2018 20:34

Ours was 100% worth it.
Make sure you get a specialist company. The general builders who quoted for us were rubbish. The specialists got everything done in 6 weeks with minimal disruption.

zonkin · 22/12/2018 20:58

We had a loft conversion and I love love, love it. En suite bedroom for DH an I plus a small bedroom/office.

Yes, it was a hassle and messy - especially once they broke through into the main house. But it was so worth it. A lot cheaper than moving and we got much more space out of it than I imagined. In fact my neighbour got one done about 6 months after us with the same company after seeing the result (and I suppose how quickly the build went).

As a pp mentioned, it's best to go for a specialist loft conversion company. They get it done really fast. You might have to wait a while to get a slot in their build schedule but they know what they are doing and it's worth the wait.

Original poster
Ofchris · 22/12/2018 22:37

The oasis of calm from having a separate adult floor sounds amazing! I’ve seen a couple of local specialists nearby, so that will be my job for the new year. Thanks for the advice.

OP posts:
Goposie · 22/12/2018 22:42

Took 6.5 weeks. Minimal disruption. Now we all have double bedrooms, I have my own bathroom and study and we have a guest room.

SophieGiroux · 22/12/2018 23:14

Six weeks. Definitely worth it. Oasis of calm has ended up into a room filled with junk though which I do need to rectify!

CatkinToadflax · 23/12/2018 12:19

I could have written your post myself, OP. We are about to start doing our loft conversion for the exact same reason as you, even down to DS currently having the box room and PIL having no room of their own when they visit. We're expecting it to take around 8 weeks and have been promised that it won't be too chaotic....we shall see....reading this thread has given me hope though! Smile

Papergirl1968 · 23/12/2018 12:38

Sorry to jump on the thread, but roughly how much does a loft conversion cost?
And where do the stairs go from? If there’s no space on the landing, presumably the box room?
We had a traditional three bed semi with two double bedrooms and a box room, but then built a further double bedroom with en suite above the garage a couple of years ago so we don’t need any more room at the moment but might in the future.

CatkinToadflax · 23/12/2018 12:47

We've been quoted £75,000 including VAT, which is more than we expected tbh, but we have a weird shaped roof and need steel beams, a specially made dormer etc etc.

Our stairs up to the loft are going in a larger bedroom rather than the smallest. We've currently got two fairly large 15'x12' bedrooms and one little 8.5'x8' bedroom. We wanted to keep the 3 first floor bedrooms and not make the smallest one so tiny as to be unusable, so we're moving the wall of one of the larger bedrooms back by 4' to put the stairs in there. It'll still be a double bedroom (11'x12') so we'll end up with 3 doubles and a little room.

Original poster
Ofchris · 23/12/2018 13:09

Best of luck Catkin. I hope it goes well. We have a separate toilet (50s house) so I’m hoping we can use that space for the stairs and move the toilet into the bathroom so we don’t lose a room. Slightly scared by your quote though!!! I was banking on it being around £30-£40k!!

OP posts:
sparklepops123 · 23/12/2018 13:28

We paid 30 k for two bedrooms and en-suite

AndromedaPerseus · 23/12/2018 13:31

Totally worth it cost us £50k

AndromedaPerseus · 23/12/2018 13:32

Agree re: using a specialist loft company

Papergirl1968 · 23/12/2018 14:46

Wow, big difference in prices.
Our extension over the garage was £14,000 to the builders, but plus the planning permission, electrician, plumber inc shower suite I would estimate it totalled about £25,000.

Bluesheep8 · 23/12/2018 14:50

Ours was a ready done when we bought the house. It cost 35k 5 years ago. Bedroom and e suite shower room. We wouldn't have bought the house if it wasn't done so in our case it clinched the deal really.

Sabulous · 23/12/2018 15:02

Definitely worth it as we have two more bedrooms and a bathroom. Ours took about 3 months from start to finish and it only really got messy in the house once they put the stairs in, in the last month. Ours was £50k, plus the cost of the bathroom suite / tiles, and flooring.
What has also been great is we now have contact details for so many tradespeople, so when something goes wrong in the house I have a trusted contact, rather than getting in an unknown who could be a cowboy (has happened to us in the past).
This is our forever home, so definitely worth the cost and hassle for us.

LynetteScavo · 23/12/2018 16:16

@Papergirl1968 we put the stairs where the airing cupboard was.

MadgeMak · 23/12/2018 16:23

It's not that disruptive. When we had ours done the builders went in through the roof so it was pretty contained until near the end of the build when they broke through to put the staircase in.

Original poster
Ofchris · 23/12/2018 16:48

Quite a big variety in prices. We will have to get some quotes in. Head height is quite important as DH is 6ft5 so I guess that could be more costly.

OP posts:
Toomanycats99 · 23/12/2018 18:20

Ours was £50k ish as well. They can lower bedroom ceilings if needed and you have enough height there.

We are mid terrace so no option to increase roofline.

Ours is actually legal minimum which is fine for us but obviously would not be enough for you!

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