£70000 for a loft conversion?

[Jajajagi]

We are looking to get our loft converted. We have a 2 bed Victorian terrace and would like an extra room as we our having baby 2 next year.

We would like to have one large room with an ensuite bathroom. The ensuite would need to be a dormer but the main room with just be veluxes in the roof. We also need to change our downstairs stairs around to fit the upper stairs.

We've had 2 quotes:

-one for £68500 Inc vat which doesn't include plumbing, tiles and tiling, bathroom suite, flooring, electrics or the stair construction but does include fitting the stairs. This is a general builder who we've used before and he has done a good job previously.

• one for £65000 + vat which covers everything except bathroom suite and flooring throughout. This builder only does lofts.

Asked about not having the ensuite and the first builder said it would only make about a £4000 difference. Waiting to hear back from the 2nd.

It seems like so much money. Does this sound right or should we get more quotes? It's about 30% of the price of our house and probably wouldn't add the same onto the house price but we need the space and intend to stay here. We have about £30000 savings and would need to borrow the rest.

Whereabouts are you?

We paid 50k 4 years ago in an expensive part of the SE. We finished just before raw material prices went through the roof. Ha.

Oh and we bought tiles, paint and bathroom fixtures separately.

We're in the south

It’s very expensive but most work is these days. We are in the south, we also have a 2 bed terrace and need more space. We’ve concluded it’s cheaper and easier to move to a semi or detached house than spend the time and money on a loft conversion.

Loft extensions were the best part of £50k pre Covid / pre the massive increase in costs of materials. I think it's probably the going rate or perhaps on the cheaper end (we are London).

Those quotes sound about right op. It's a lot of work 😬

That's about right for a terrace in a nice area of outer London

I live in outer London and had a quote of £50k about ten years ago. So no, it doesn't surprise me at all that it's now coming in at £65+

I'm not in London, in a very small country town in Dorset, but I know the south is expensive. Our town is not that expensive though so it the percentage of the cost to our house price is high (our house is worth about 250,000 will be more like 310- 315,000 after the extension)

I would say 60k sounds right.

Probably not too far off right especially in the south.

It can easily be £50k for a basic LEGAL loft conversion but adding in the plumbing for a bathroom means things like moisture boards (more expensive than plaster boards) and running soil stacks through etc... it can be costly.

I really don't think you will save a huge amount getting more quotes. Its an expensive job.

Sounds about right to me.

Just make sure it doesn’t make your house too ££ if you want to sell in next few years. Maybe see what else you can get locally for the price of yours plus the cost of the loft before doing it

Sounds right - ours was £50k 7 years ago - that was all inclusive including bathroom suite. People round here (also South) have been paying closer to £80k for the same thing recently.
It doesn’t really matter if it is going on a cheaper house or an expensive house, the work required is pretty much the same so the price will be too.

Defo don’t skimp on the extra bathroom!!

Sounds very reasonable to me. I work in construction and have been a QS in my old job.

Where I’m based, (Home Counties), you’d struggle to get it for that price.

We paid 50k pre-covid (2019) - 3 bed semi in the north west - hip to gable, two single rooms and a loft landing to be used for a study desk.

So 70k in the south post-covid sounds about right.

Right ball park. Lack of materials, lack of labour haven't helped. Builders can pick and choose where I am. I want to be a builder.

Haggle with the 2nd builder. Should be about 55k + VAT for a loft specialist, unless you are having a double dormer because you have the victorian house outrigger

Hi had a rough quote a couple of months ago and it was the same - 70k. I say rough quote because the loft company did the house opposite with the same layout and I dropped into their office to ask about the rough cost. This is for a 3 bedroom 1930s semi in SE. It's a lot of money. I reckon it will add value (slightly above the 70k costs - say from 650k to 750k - but still makes it very hard to afford.

We are in South West - North Devon to be precise.

When we had our loft converted about 14 years ago we paid around £50k for the entire project. We didn’t have to replace the roof though which was a positive as the last owners had done it in the mid 80s!

we shopped around for materials to get them cheaper (2010 market was different to 2024 in terms of cost)

I agree

Can you get 2 rooms from it?

I had one done in on a 2 bed Victorian house London pre: Covid for £40k. The company I used said they could get another bedroom too for the cost. Which we did so went from a 2 bed to a 4 bed.

Ours looks like this.

I think that sounds reasonable. Work to existing stairs will bump it up a lot too. Yes, your probably won’t make your money back on it, but you will in terms of living quality if you are planning to live there long term. If not, it’s probably cheaper to look for a more suitable property.

I'd say about right. My neighbours (two bed terrace) just did theirs and I know it was that for bare bones - they have spent about £100k getting better spec.