Anyone renovated their existing loft conversion?

[cathibiscus]

Just wondering if anyone here has renovated an existing loft conversion and what approach did you take? Rip it all out and start again? Tackle the roof at the same time?

Our semi has a Velux loft conversion from the 90s. Just a small bedroom with an ensuite and some storage at the eaves. It got building regulations sign off back then, so it's not a bodge DIY job but it's just a bit tatty now, plus freezing cold or boiling hot. I really want to be able to actually use this room year round. The roof is also the original from 1920, has started to spring leaks regularly and just needs replacing. Eaves have no insulation either. I'm not sure how to best approach this. Do I treat re-roofing separately from wanting to renovate the loft room or should it be one big project? Fully aware none of this will be cheap, I just don't want to run into the "I replastered but now I need to rewire and destroy the plaster again" situation, just with my roof and loft room.

I would do the whole project together but I would set aside at least £50k to do this work as a minimum especially if you are replacing the roof.

We have a loft conversion from 2004 that's too hot or too cold 4 months a year, despite building regs and has a few minor leaks when wind blows rain in wrong direction under window sill flashing and tbh I've decided mitigation better than renovation, and cheaper (ie electric heater occasionally, open door to let heat rise, close door in summer, close curtains windows until nightfall, v good wuality duvet, electric blanket wool carpet will see us through old age.

We're doing it all in one go. Adding a full width dormer to increase existing bedroom size, creating a new en suite bathroom and getting the whole roof redone + insulation at the same time. (And a ground floor extension too!). Definitely felt best to swallow some short term pain for long term gain.

@DevonshireDumpling1 I had quotes for just the roof which were around 10-15k, so was hoping we'd get the whole thing done for 30k. Obviously always more than you expect. Not sure I'd be able to justify 50 tbh.

@Nettleskeins Yeah, I am going back and forth about it. Our personal circumstances mean we either do it now or likely never.

@RunAwayNow How did you approach the works? Are you using an architect because of the dormer? I'm having trouble even approaching a builder to get an idea because I'm not sure what to say other than "just make it better please". Don't want to be a nightmare client.

Yes, we found a lovely architect who worked it all through with us and recommended builders she'd worked with before. She's helped with the building regs side of things too. Until we had the drawings it was very difficult to have meaningful conversations with builders or get even ballpark costs.

We did a loft conversion in 2021/22 on our bungalow. It was an old one initially with a small cute dormer but it leaked. We started from scratch. It is to building regs. Very well insulated. It isn't cold in the colder months. We barely have the heating on. However, it does get very warm on the really hot days. But then, our previous semi that was a normal 2 storey home was also very hot upstairs during the really hot days so who knows. I have noticed a few loft conversions on rightmove with ac units in all the rooms upstairs.

Ensure that you do have windows on opposite sides of the loft to get cross ventilation. We have normal windows on the back on the dormer and veluxes to the front. Even with a very slight breeze, it is very effective.

You really do need a budget of about 50k minimum. We spent more than that as we had to replace the water tank in the loft with an unvented tank. Two bedrooms, my little office(box room) and the family bathroom. Including everything - structural work, electrics, plumbing, decorating the rooms, furnishings, flooring it worked out at about £2450 per sqm.

We reused the original roof tiles to clad the dormer so saved about 1k in material costs. We did all the decorating ourselves post plastering. We laid all the floors ourselves.