House layout advice - Victorian terrace

[Laladot]

Can anything be done about these stairs to the loft conversion that are currently reducing space in the master bedroom in this Victorian London terrace?

And if so, how much do you think it would cost?

This is identical to our floor plan, except our loft conversion is over the bathroom and back bedroom as well (almost same footprint on all floors minus a metre depth or so at the back).

The loft stairs sit over the main staircase without encroaching on any bedrooms. The stairs do turn 180 on themselves so there is a double width corridor on the top floor for 2 steps (about 1m). Will try to attach a photo.

Just from looking at yours I don’t know why the staircase is not pushed at least a bit to the back of the house, although if you had to turn the stairs like ours then your loft room would narrow at the back and the back dormer window would be wasted over the corridor.

Hopefully pic will attach this time...

The bottom left of pic is where your back dormer window is...

Sorry it won’t let me attach a better pic.

Thinking about it, as you don’t have a door at the bottom left of my pic (I.e. no loft room over the back section of your house) you could just have a 90 degree turn there and perhaps avoid the double width corridor.

Ideally a local loft company could give some advice as they have architects who will know what’s possible, though they might not be interested in a smallish job.

Seems unlikely they would have done that unless they absolutely had to so unless building regs have changed since the conversion was done you may be stuck with it

@DressyNessy

Sorry it won’t let me attach a better pic.

Thinking about it, as you don’t have a door at the bottom left of my pic (I.e. no loft room over the back section of your house) you could just have a 90 degree turn there and perhaps avoid the double width corridor.

Ideally a local loft company could give some advice as they have architects who will know what’s possible, though they might not be interested in a smallish job.

Thanks so much for your helpful advice! Do you have any issue with light in the stairwell?

Also, how do you find the layout/size of the rooms?

@korawick12345

Seems unlikely they would have done that unless they absolutely had to so unless building regs have changed since the conversion was done you may be stuck with it

Have worked it out... it used to be flats!

Do you have any issue with light in the stairwell? There is a flat skylight window at the top of the stairwell. This was quite straightforward for them to install whilst building the loft, not sure how easy they are to retro-fit to an existing roof. So it’s nice and bright up there. The middle floor landing is quite dark unless the bedroom and bathroom doors are open which they usually are.

I would be tempted if you were going to move the stairs and have all the disruption, to get another bedroom dormer put in at the back. Ours is a nice ~2.5m square room and it’s a couple inches taller than the front loft room (every inch of height counted!) because the back of house is lower than the front - I see you have the same configuration with the two steps in the middle of your middle floor.

But then you’d only have a velux in your current loft bedroom so perhaps it would compromise that room too much if that’s your master.

We thought about putting our loft toilet where you have it, or even dedicating the whole back loft room to a bathroom, but in the end put a tiny shower room in the eaves at front (over the deepest bit of stairwell), it’s not ideal for tall people as it’s a bit cramped but it works for us.

@DressyNessy

Do you have any issue with light in the stairwell? There is a flat skylight window at the top of the stairwell. This was quite straightforward for them to install whilst building the loft, not sure how easy they are to retro-fit to an existing roof. So it’s nice and bright up there. The middle floor landing is quite dark unless the bedroom and bathroom doors are open which they usually are.

I would be tempted if you were going to move the stairs and have all the disruption, to get another bedroom dormer put in at the back. Ours is a nice ~2.5m square room and it’s a couple inches taller than the front loft room (every inch of height counted!) because the back of house is lower than the front - I see you have the same configuration with the two steps in the middle of your middle floor.

But then you’d only have a velux in your current loft bedroom so perhaps it would compromise that room too much if that’s your master.

We thought about putting our loft toilet where you have it, or even dedicating the whole back loft room to a bathroom, but in the end put a tiny shower room in the eaves at front (over the deepest bit of stairwell), it’s not ideal for tall people as it’s a bit cramped but it works for us.

Thank you. I think you have your bathroom in the right place - I would actually consider removing this shower room (this is a property we might buy) as it’s tiny inside and takes up the most usable part of the room.

I really like the house but am assessing potential to extend/improve the rooms/layout and potential costs. The loft in particular feels cramped with the shower and reduced ceiling height.

In terms of cost, our loft from scratch was quoted 36k and came in at 50k with some basic add-ons (like the landing skylight, larger windows, new roof tiles). Carpets, paint and bathroom tiles were on top of that.

So I’d guess you’re looking at somewhere between 15k - 40k depending on whether it’s just the stairs moving and making good, or the extra room /moving shower etc. Just a guess though.