Would I be mad to convert the loft but not add a bedroom? (with pics)

[united4ever]

So had two builders come round to look at doing loft conversion. The context is that I will have to work from home permanently so need to create some office space but would also like to get my son out of the tiny box room.

1st one suggested to reduce size of master bedroom to put stairs in and then. This would mean keeping the box room and adding a 4th bedroom - still enough space for an ensuite in loft with dormer but it would be a smaller loft area because the stairs would take valuable head height space in the loft.

2nd builder suggested to put stairs in box room and the remaining space could function as an office (which is what I need actually) but obviously if we do come to sell (no plans for many years) then it would be a 3 bedroom house - not 4 bed so it's not going to achieve as high a sale price is it? However, the loft would be more spacious with the stairs not eating into the best part of the loft. I pointed out that not adding a 4th bedroom would affect value and he accepted this but also said, with many people working from home you are still adding a small office which is valuable and if you do it the other way you will only be able to use half the space in the loft.

I am erring towards the 2nd builder but it goes against all the usual advice doesn't it of adding another room to get your money back when you sell. Thoughts?

@Melitza

We put stairs above our stairs by moving a door where your bathroom is. It was a kite winder staircase. My bil was a building inspector and said it couldn’t be done but I’d seen one in a friend’s house and knew it could. Obviously I don’t know if you can do it but it’s worth investigating. I can’t send a pic because we don’t live there anymore.

What’s a kite winder staircase???

I would go with 2.

In 1, you get a compromised master bedroom, a compromised loft, and the box room is still a box room.

A great loft space is a fine thing. As many people want home offices as small extra bedrooms, especially if it comes with a 'wow' loft.

I think you could get the loft stairs in and turning the corner where your toilet currently is, to run above the existing stairs. Then a pocket door to open into the (now rather small) bathroom. What size is your bathroom currently? Would add a few £k to make good your bathroom, plumb in new sink, pocket door etc., but well worth it to keep the third bedroom in tact.

With a now pokey first floor bathroom, I’d consider making the loft bathroom a bit bigger and with a separate door off the hall rather than as an en-suite.

We have just had a loft conversion with stairs above the old stairs. It involved moving the wall of the small bedroom about 30cm, this was to achieve head height to get up the existing stairs.

Presuming it's the bedroom at the top of the stairs, rather than the bathroom, as in our house, you may need to lose that space from the bathroom instead, but as pps have said, it looks possible by moving the loo.

We have one step, three winder/kite steps, four steps, another three winder steps and two steps to the top.

Our loft man already knew the limitations of our house and exactly what the architect would draw and everything he said has come to pass. In our dormer we have a small bathroom (it would be long and thin and take space from the bedroom if it were any bigger) and a large bedroom. I really love it!

On considering the bathroom it may be ridiculously small if we move the toilet. It's 2.36 x 1.72 as it is so would probably be comically small.if we take take off say 70cm from the 2.36 it becomes 1.66 x 1.72.

Thinking about option 2, wondering if we could get a second small bedroom up there (which would be used as an office). Therefore getting the 4th bedroom. Could be done with or without ensuite.

Is there any way to work out the practical space you would get from a loft conversion if you just have the floor plan think the floor plan is 6.88 x 5.11 metres just by measuring the rooms below - hard to know how much of that would be usable.

I can see moving house is an obvious point but we love this area and costs an extra 100k to get what we'd want around here.

With option 1 - why are the stairs there? I assume you're worried they'll cut the loft in two? If you started them further left, then had a half turn, you wouldn't lose much space at all. Or have the stairs in bedroom two (as I said before keep under the stairs open) parallel to where they'd be in option 2.

Here's the neighbours floorplan that has been done (with measurements - identical house I believe).

so there is a bit of a half turn at the top of the stairs but the stairs still start almost on the landing. I guess it needs that sort of length to get up to the required height.

I like the idea to keep it open under the stairs - could put a desk or piano there perhaps.

Good luck getting a piano upstairs! It doesn't feel like you lose the space that way though. Looking at next doors, I quite like their layout. Loft feels quite big - you could make the front half into an almost separate dressing room with some clever fitted wardrobes.

I wonder whether that bit of void space they have on the left could be used as a wet room? Then where they have bathroom, you'd have office space.

@united4ever - for imagining practical space, you can use floorplanner.com - you can add sloping roof there and you'd be able to see when the space becomes unusable. You can start using floorplanner for free (from memory) and then at some point you need to pay a couple of dollars - it is worth it if you have the time to fiddle with it. I used it to plan my loft conversion and renovation / interior in general (where does the furniture go etc).

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My in laws used the box room for the stairs in their terraced house in Cheltenham and it was amazing. They ended up selling a few months later unexpectedly but it went for about £70k more than other houses on the street. I would rather three large useable rooms than four that don't quite work. They had a slim dressing table and console table on the opposite side to the stairs so it could have been used as an office though they didn't need to.

We had the option 2 set up in old house, Victorian house but think loft done in 30's . It worked quite well , had it fit out as nice office with built in furniture which could leave door open and let light into hall. But that room would have been a tiny bedroom, more of an office anyway. It depends if your little room is big enough to be a usable bedroom?

I wouldn't do loft room without en-suite

For me, your neighbours have basically got two small bedrooms and a nursery/study on one floor, and a decent bedroom up top.
For someone else, they might have three bedrooms (one admittedly small) on one floor, and a decent bedroom up top.

Really depends on what people in your area are looking for, in terms of value increase/decrease.

The average household size (household, not number of kids) is 2.4 people (maybe the 0.4 could have the box room?).

Women are having an average of 1.9 children these days (www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42110846). Best not to speculate on the average for men.

Do you live in an area that is typically 'family'? If so, do people tend to have two kids or fewer, and one of the parents working at home - or tend to have more than two kids, and if a parent is working at home they just have to lump it?

As someone who spent their childhood sharing a bedroom, I'm definitely not in the "if there's not room for a double, a fitted wardrobe and a sofa, it's not a bedroom" camp. But expectations vary, and the number of 'bedrooms' isn't the be all and end all.