Tell me your loft conversion takes of woe…

[Usernamenotavailabletryanother]

We’ve been powering ahead with an L shaped loft conversion in. 3 bed east London terrace. Have found builders, issued party wall etc.

The architect has just been round and casually mentioned that he thinks the ceilings are too low and we won’t be able to do a full L shape under permitted development. That would’ve been nice to know three months ago

And one neighbour is having jitters about the party wall.

I just want to move. But there are no properties, we can’t afford the size we need and even if we could, everything round here sells to first time cash buyers.

It’s all a bit bollocks and I’m hoping your tales of loft conversion nightmares will make me feel a bit better. No pressure.

I thought that the only height requirement for a loft conversion is to have 2m at the top of the stairs

Apparently our roof is too low, so we either lower ceilings on the first floor or apply for planning to raise the roof…

@Usernamenotavailabletryanother we are in exactly the same position re the loft height! Scaffolding was supposed to go up next week - we specifically told them that we did not want to lower the ceilings (we have a 9month old who has just started nursery and have no family nearby to move out whilst they faff about with the ceilings), and there seems to have been a miscommunication somewhere along the line as they only put in for permitted development. The design team are apparently looking for a solution... but im not holding my breath. We hoped to have the scaffolding down by the summer but it's not looking likely now!

Sorry to hear you’re in the same boat @AnotherNC22… we too don’t want to lower ceilings, we can’t afford to move out and have nowhere to go!

Waiting for a solution now- please let me know if you find one!

Name the companies you are using please. Shockingly poor planning by them.

I'd say lowering ceilings is a good idea to get decent head height as long as the rooms below aren't compromised.

@Usernamenotavailabletryanother

Sorry to hear you’re in the same boat *@AnotherNC22*… we too don’t want to lower ceilings, we can’t afford to move out and have nowhere to go!

Waiting for a solution now- please let me know if you find one!

Will do! They are supposed to be coming back to us in the next couple of days but I'm rapidly losing hope... 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

@Rollercoaster1920 I will absolutely name and shame once I find out WTF is going on. This particular architect also told me that if the neighbour didn’t respond to the party wall within 14 days then they are deemed to have accepted, which I know is wrong- I’m hoping he’s wrong on a few other counts too.

@AnotherNC22, are we in the same area?