Reconfiguring loft/attic conversion

[BigBlueHandbag]

Hoping for some home renovation advice. I live in a 1930s bungalow with an attic conversion, bought as it is now. Having now lived here for a few years I’m increasingly fed up with the poor design and waste of space.

There are two very unevenly sized bedrooms & one bathroom upstairs, and one big, deep cupboard. But there is loads of wasted space. The stairs and corridor take up a lot of space in the house. It’s too dark and cold (in winter) / hot (in summer) to use for e.g. a work desk.

I’m wondering about asking an architect to quote for designing a reconfigured space, but I’ve not heard of anyone changing the layout of an existing attic conversion, only adding one.

Has anyone done this? Is it worth the hassle/expense? (I don’t think I can afford to change it now but maybe in a few years time). If you changed the layout of an attic conversion, how much did it cost and what did you go from/to? Or, any thoughts on this layout? Thanks so much! I am clueless on house stuff and really welcome fresh eyes on the layout!

Do you also have the downstairs floor plan so we can look at how the staircase might be altered

Yes, thanks for suggesting that, I’ll add it here. We’re thinking of moving the bathroom to the ‘utility’ (really just dumping ground and laundry) room as we have a wheelchair user in the family and would like to make it more accessible. But not settled on anything yet.

There is a lot of hall, it’s a strange layout! Lots of rooms, we’re lucky, but lots of wasted space too.

which way does the roof slope?

For example, could the stairs going up to the attic shift rightward into the cupboard or would you then have no head room at the top?

one option would be to shift the bend in the stairs further into the existing utility (this would make the room smaller) and have the stair come up into the existing cupboard at the top. Then you could re-arrange the upstairs landing to have a study S (or v small bedroom) and a bigger bed4.

In terms of the upstairs being to hot / cold, you would need to redo the insulation for that and keep windows open in the summer.

For both these, you don't need an architect. an architectural technician might be able to do nice drawings, or a sensible builder could just get on with the work.

if you are thinking of moving the downstairs bathroom into the utility, think about where the sewage pipes are. if there is no sewage pipe on the right hand side of the house, that shift is much more difficult.

We're in a similar situation with a far worse layout than yours. Just waiting for quotes as we're having to put an extra dormer in the side to allow wardrobe space in the bedroom and a small dormer at the front to reconfigure the bathroom. I think we're looking at the 50-60k mark including bathroom fixtures and fitting

Thanks for the replies, especially the one with the amended drawing, so helpful, thank you @parietal !

Sympathies, @Howdidthathappen1 - so annoying that the previous owners made such a hash of it. (Ours is also horribly decorated so needs ££ to fix cosmetic stuff too - houses are money pits).

We reconfigured our loft space last November. The space had been divided into three small bedrooms but we were really only using one plus using the smallest as storage. We combined the three rooms into one larger bedroom with a walk in wardrobe. The space works much better for us and I’m pleased we did it.

The work involved removing and replacing stud walls (we reused the existing doors), replastering all walls (including around the Velux windows that we’d put in separately), radiators moved (labour only) and painting/decorating the new rooms. Total cost was £7,200 plus VAT (SE London). The work took around two weeks to complete.

Hope that helps!

We have recently done a loft conversion so not quite what you were asking but it is worth noting that I remember when ours was being built, we had the floor joists installed in a certain directions and were also doubled and tripled where had walls installed for extra support. I also remember having seeing more tripled up 6x4 timbers around where the stairs landed. Keep in mind that the structure of the loft might need to be checked to ensure what you propose has enough support. also BR will need to get involved with regards to changing the stairs, and possibly other things.

I used home tales to reconfigure my loft and they gave me loads of advice before I begun.
www.hometales.co.uk