Loft conversion…..any survival tips?

[Baycitystroller]

Our builders are starting end of next month. Going to be a big job. Ceilings have to be lowered on first floor which means no upstairs for us for weeks! Luckily we have a downstairs shower room and toilet.

We were going to move out originally but that’s fallen through. We are going away for a couple of weeks so will miss the ceiling drop but when we return will have to camp downstairs. Me, DH and 2 teens! I must be mad.

Any suggestions on how to survive???? Dreading it.

Following as after three years of to and fro this will hopefully be us in a few months but with three primary age DC.

I don’t know if harder with teens or little ones!!!

Our bedroom furniture is all in storage now and we’re sleeping on sofa beds. My oldest son will sleep in a tent in garden he says!

I may go and book a hotel. Just for me

We did this last summer with 2 young primary and a 6 month old baby. DH was working at home and I was on May leave. It was awful.

Honestly, I would redouble your efforts to be out of the house for at least the first month. It was incredibly messy and disruptive across the whole middle floor for a bout 2 months. Our bathroom is on that floor and we had 2 bedrooms in use on that floor two but it was terrible.

Tips would be to insist they lay sticky plastic right to the edge of any carpet, tarpaulin across the loft access to reduce dust and those zip up door seals across any rooms you might still need to get into. Good luck.

Please let us know how it goes. I've been considering a loft conversion with ceilings lowered, only in one room though and the landing. Thought that might be less disruptive.

How much is it costing you?

About £50 grand. It might go up due to building supply costs going up.

Our neighbour is currently having a loft conversion. They haven’t moved into the house yet. The noise and mess is awful. They had the ceilings in the bedrooms lowered - it was carnage and I only saw it from the outside! If I were you, I’d move out for the start of the proceedings whilst the floors and steels are being sorted.

Borrow a caravan to sit on your drive for sleeping in?

We are deciding wether to this or not. The ceiling is the bit I am dreading.

I am thinking it would be better to just love house 🤣

Thanks. Unfortunately we have explored all options about moving out and we can’t. So we are going on holiday fur 2 weeks. The ceiling drop will be done by then. We will still have to camp out in front room though!

Tent in the garden isn’t too bad an idea actually for DS - at least it will be dust free 😀

@Baycitystroller can you tell us about your loft plans? We are adding a small master bedroom with ensuite to make a fourth bedroom. This means the 3 DC will each have their own bedroom, plus the family bathroom on the first floor. We've had huge delays with a disappearing architect and a load of complications trying to sort head height at the top of the stairs. The work should really have been completed last summer and now isn't likely to start until this Autumn. Plus now we're in the territory of huge rises in the cost of materials and issues with supply.

Ceiling drop on first floor. New stairs. One bed in loft with en-suite. With a Dorma.

So far no delays….fingers crossed.

Having our loft done was one of the most stressful things I've been through house-wise tbh.

Our builders were OK but no-one expected a month of heavy rain when we had no roof and we had water coming in through our ceilings which was fun!

The worst bit was when they broke through to put the stairs in. It took weeks to get rid of the dust and when it was finally finished we had the whole house deep cleaned.

The finished room is great but we made many mistakes, mostly having it done in autumn and into Xmas, when the weather is so unpredictable.

Sorry I can't be more positive but it depends how obsessed you are about having a clean house which I definitely am. If I was less house proud it might have been easier!

@Baycitystroller hope it goes smoothly. Three years just to get plans for ours has been frustrating to say the least. Moving not really an option for us either.

I am definitely expecting stress. However our builders are machine like. They only do lofts and are experts. One job at a time. If all goes to plan…..should be fine in 6 weeks. There will then be all the decoration to do of course.

Your builders aren't in West Yorkshire are they are?

Struggling to get someone that actually replies to messages. Doesn't give me much hope tbh.

I think the holiday is a fab idea though

Our loft builders some years ago in our last house had a clever trick. The put the velux windows in first. They obviously had scaffolding. Then they used the same space to get stuff in and out. We heard very little for the first couple of weeks, til they broke through for the stairs.

I think that holds for "normal" loft conversions but the OP is literally taking down every ceiling on the first floor and lowering them. This is like breaking through every day for weeks on end.

OP - my old advise is to make sure you have scaffolding over the roof. Not doing that will mean the water could even affect the downstairs if there were heavy rains.

Not W Yorks.,,sorry.

We did this about 5 years ago (without having to lower ceilings) and it's perfect. Now teenage kids are on top floor and I don't have to see em or smell em. I have 2 spare rooms, no box rooms and all the ceilings were skimmed so no artex. Treated ourselves to new carpet, new sofa and a full house paint job as well so as we'd had the kitchen done the year before it was like a new house. Neighbours probably hated us though for all the vans and the blokes turning up a 10 to 8 in the morning and having loud chats in the summer holidays before starting to bang and drill at 8am...

It's great though. It will pass!

Interesting thread, as we are just in the planning stages to do similar to create an extra/fourth bedroom with ensuite and move the bathroom upstairs.

We will need to lower the ceilings in the rear rooms, but not the landing or front bedroom and will be having a two storey rear extension built as well. Currently deciding whether or not to go for an L-shaped dormer or just stick with one above the rear bedrooms. Advice so far has been to move out and get it all done together by one team, to keep costs down and minimise disruption.

Dreading the mess, but the whole house needs renovating/decorating anyway, so it makes sense to just do it all at once.

Just starting conversations with architects at the moment, so not expecting it to be done any time soon. Potentially - allowing for hold-ups, planning problems and demand for builders and building supplies, we’re hoping for mid 2023. We’re hoping things will have settled down a bit re builders etc by then, as locally builders are already booked up at least a year in advance. If it could be done next year that would be preferable, as the extra bedroom and bathroom is needed for ds2 who has SNs, but I know we need to be realistic.

Has anyone contracted their architects to project manage the build for them? I would prefer to do this if possible. I know it will be more expensive, but with complex health and SNs in the family, think it might be worth the cost to reduce day-to-day stress throughout the build.

Be prepared for it to be utterly shit, and pleasantly surprised if it's a bit shit.

All trades here are working multiple jobs and using excuses to hop off to another site for a bit. Materials are on huge lead in, and way overpriced. Fence panels, bricks, and bi folds seem to be the ain culprits, oh and kitchen fitters.