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Top floor/loft renovation

3 replies

Secondsop · 21/02/2020 14:55

Hello, I’d be grateful for any insights if anyone has done this before. The top floor of my house (Victorian semi) has 2 “original” attic bedrooms (once were servants quarters I guess) with a small original dormer in the back bedroom, and a skylight in the front bedroom. Previous owners made a bathroom out of what was a water tank cupboard. The way the rooms are built, there’s access to the loft eaves all around, through a door from each room.

My question: there’s LOADS of unused space in the eaves, because the original rooms’ walls are at full height. I’d like to change the rooms to move the walls “back” to have more floor space (with therefore some restricted height areas). Would make a big difference to usability. I could really rolls-royce it and try for a bigger dormer and bathroom and additional skylights but that’s not essential - just interested in whether there’s an easier solution that involves knocking down the existing plasterboard walls, re-boarding in a different place (appreciate will need to make sure roof insulation is right) and re-flooring.

One builder said I was basically looking at a full-scale loft conversion, but is that really right? Is this that big a job?

OP posts:
Secondsop · 05/06/2020 00:01

Just giving a little bumpity-bump to my post as I really would be grateful for any thoughts. I’ve been trying to find information online about this kind of job without any real joy. Thank you in advance.

OP posts:
Loofah01 · 05/06/2020 09:41

Did the builder mention you might very well need additional joist support for the conversion? Building regs comes into play with this so get pro advice; if you do need the extra support then it means, probably, either reduced height in floor under (with new ceilings) or in the new loft space.
It might be that the existing support will be fine (as there's already habitable rooms up there) and you can do exactly as you planned without too much fuss. But definitely get pro advice.
And get three comparable quotes!

Secondsop · 05/06/2020 13:09

Thank you @Loofah01 that’s a very helpful pointer. No, he didn’t mention additional joist support but I completely take the point about pro advice in case it’s needed. The room spaces that are there are, I assume, likely to be the original layout (there have always been rooms there in these houses eg some others in the street still have the original small fireplaces up there). The other neighbouring houses that have done work have either opened fully to the corners of the eaves, or have gone not as far but further than mine and created built-in storage and I don’t know if they needed additional support but if so it hasn’t needed to come from the roof height of the rooms below. So hopefully additional support isn’t needed but I will see what the quotes say. If no additional support I’m hoping it won’t be the same as a full loft conversion costs given there are already habitable rooms. Thanks again.

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