Take a slice out of dd’s room for en-suite or spend a fortune on loft conversion?

[PEPS1C0LA]

Just that really - dd has, proportionally, the biggest room in the house. Ours is marginally bigger because of the bay window but there are two of us in it with a super king bed and a large wardrobe. I always dreamed of converting the loft into a master and decent bathroom, a floor just for us to escape to, but there’s no denying it’s big money. The alternative is we could box off a corner of our bedroom for an en-suite, or we could box off on dd’s side and knock a doorway through.
The house is 4-bed - 3 double 1 single - with a family bathroom (overbath shower) upstairs and a downstairs toilet. We fairly regularly have house guests. Knocking through would also bring dd’s room slightly more in line with her older sister’s much smaller room and it would still be a double, if a little cosy. Will I regret skimping and chopping bits off the house? Or is a loft conversion just blatant self-indulgence and waste of money? Estate agent is not convinced we’d get our money back on loft conversion any time soon so it really would just be for us.

Def left. You will spend money doing the current floor but not add much, whereas you will make money on doing loft. We were told we wouldnt but we made double what we spent when we sold. So long as you do it properly.

Could you swap bedrooms with your other daughter and make it a Jack and Jill bathroom between your daughters bedrooms? Certainly cheaper than a loft conversion and the family bathroom would be mostly yours.

Other daughter’s bedroom is significantly smaller - when I say ‘double’, even a small double bed would be tight with a wardrobe and two adults. It’s really ideal as a kids room or a guest double.

After all your helpful thoughts we’re tending towards shelving the lot, starting a savings account and planning a loft conversion for summer of 2022...gives us time to scope out the job situation a little better, settle our finances and kids will just be in their first years of secondary school so still plenty of mileage. And if shit happens and we have to move before then, we won’t have spent a fortune yet! Thanks all...much obliged....

Hate en-suites. Too small, poorly ventilated. We rejected a lot of houses we were looking at as rooms were too small so the much smaller bedroom might be off putting to some.

Loft conversion every time.

Oh and for those curious for plans, house is loosely Victorian terrace in layout (but detached!), current waste is on the stairs/kitchen/return side, en-suite planned for opposite side between front and back bedrooms in the main body of the house.

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Sounds like you have a plan @
@PEPS1C0LA . If you do, builder will advise about planning, BUT check with your planning office as they get it wrong, including the planning office itself. I know someone who was told by the planning office on general advice they wouldn't need it, but advised they submit (forget what it is called now) some plans of intent and the council would issue a letter saying they were within permitted development. After two months they wrote back and said full planning was required which was a real pain. Planning is so complex that even they don't fully understand it.

What you definitely will need is building control approval. As such you will need plans for that so don't try and avoid planning just for convenience as most of the costs are in plans and building control inspection anyway

Thanks @MarieG10, will keep this all in mind!

Given the layout you have described, round here (zone 3/4 east london) the normal approach is to do a loft conversion. I have seen rooms carved up but the result is normally rather awkward and personally put me off houses as i would consider putting back original configuration and extending up.

Personally I don't like loft conversions, where do you store the Xmas decorations? Equally though we bought a house with a room which had been split in twoand was two awkward rooms. Which we then put back to one amazing room.
Can you post a picture of layout?

We had a large bedroom and tiny bathroom. We took a slice off our bedroom and now have a much larger bathroom, good size ensuite (with a large window) and good sized double bedroom still. Very pleased with the end result.

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MotorwayDiva

Personally I don't like loft conversions, where do you store the Xmas decorations?
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Definitely got to be the reply of the thread!

Anyway back on topic we took out a bit of our large master bedroom for a partial ensuite, basically a large shower and a basin. As we had two toilet rooms already and only one bathroom, and we didn't want a poky shower that we would rather not use.
We were nervous about the remaining space left and whether the ensuite would actually be nice or feel like a cave, but with decent lighting we definitely are happy with our choice.
So consider a partial ensuite as a compromise but some people can only accept a full ensuite so bear that in mind for value vs space and usability

Haven't RTFT but was advised by an architect that generally loft conversions are a very inefficient and expensive way to create space, due to the structural work to the roof. So if you can find a suitable alternative that creates the space you need without the disruption and cost it might be better.

@TiddleTaddleTat in comparison with what? Extension cost about double the amount on average per square metre, and basements double again.
The only thing cheaper would be a conservatory or porch or outbuilding but only because they are not insulated or meeting structural standards.

@johnd2 yes, to be fair, the architect was specifically comparing a loft conversion with conversion of a brick garage into a guest bedroom.

Got it that makes a bit more sense to varying degrees of "creating" space! Even a loft conversion takes away space for the Christmas decoration.

Think this conversion would be relatively straightforward, in that it’s a 1940’s house, detached, with 2.7m headroom from ply floor to top beam and a decent landing below to start a new staircase from. The only limitation is that the return roof means we could only have a dormer across half the width of the house at the back. There may be scope for an L-shaped conversion incorporating the return roof which would really increase floor space but I’m not convinced it’s :
a) necessary
b) aesthetically acceptable re planning etc (the return has a much shallower roof with a crawl space - to make it tall enough to stand in would mean a pretty unsightly addition from the outside)
c) wouldn’t skew the proportions of bedroom to living space.

Covenant forbids extending so increasing downstairs is not an option.

Plenty to think about! Time to get my architect pal around for coffee...

On my council's local planning site it allows me to do a map search and a drop down allows me show all planning applications or building regs and those in the last 5 or 2 years or all time etc. Each time it details all the houses who have put in for planning/building regs. I can see a brief description such as single storey rear extension and then you can open up any that may be relevent.

If yours has something similar (under the search via application number or property search) then you can see if anyone has put in for a loft conversion and have a look at not only their plans but also the report the council has made.

I think you would have issues with the soil stack being on the other side of the house. If you can post a floor plan of something similar to your house( Rightmove sold properties) then MNetters will be able to see the situation.

Which rooms are next to the bathroom and could you swap rooms with your DD and put an en-suite in in that room?

Here’s a sketch, possibly not my best work - sorry I can’t work out how to write on it! Hopefully enough to get an idea of layout and proportions.

Blue - DD 2.8m x 2.7m
Green - DH and me 3.5m x 4.5m into bay
Pink - DD (en-suite would be between us) 3.5m x 3.9m
Yellow - family bathroom, downstairs cloak is under stairs.
Red - spare room/study 1.9m x 2.7m

Sounds like your dd room will still be big enough as it's similar size to your room but no bay. We have a similar master bedroom to you and sliced off 1.3m by about 2.5m although tapered in width, taken from that back wall, although we back onto the bathroom.
We still have space along the door wall for big wardrobes and space in the window for a dressing table. We also have an EU king size bed 160x200.
You do have to be a bit tidy but we have a good area for dumping things near the door.