Loft conversion - your tips and what you wish you'd done?

[sellotape12]

For anyone who has a classic Victorian terrace and has done the master + shower room + dormer room, please can I ask your tips? We've found a builder that seems good (S London). Is there anything you wish you'd done differently about the choices you made, or anything you're soo glad you did? Please let me learn from you!
For example I've heard

• 'Glad we shelled out for air con, it was an extra £5k but worth it all summer'
• 'I wish we'd done in-built joinery at the same time otherwise now we'll never get round to it.'
• 'If you're tall, choose the layout where the shower room is in the middle with a tall window overlooking the side return. If you don't need as big a shower room, an en-suite is ok.'
• 'Make the window on the dormer room as big as you can afford otherwise it's a bit of a boxy room.'
• 'We put the kids up there once they were 8 or 9 and it was fine: we reclaimed the first floor to ourselves.' (Have also heard the opposite of this too!)

Anything goes! What would you say?

We were advised to if at all possible, have the loft bathroom be accessed from the little landing at the top of the stairs, not the bedroom. That way it’s not an en suite that belongs to that bedroom, but another bathroom. Colleague who suggested that our one of her dcs in the loft room and said it meant the other dc could use that bathroom without having to go into their sibling’s bedroom to do it.

we did do that and then found the other advantage was it stopped there being another door off the bedroom so you’ve got more flexibility about wardrobe placement

Check who they bring in for plumbing and electrics. Our builders were great but it was mates for the other stuff and I wasn't entirely happy. We didnt seem to get receipts for everything or know who to contact afterwards. Flooring for example - they got a guy to lay it but we never even got his name. Same with the built in wardrobe. We should have managed that side of things better.

Also, suddenly they would be asking what door handles or curtain frame we wanted, and we hadn't thought about it, so they were giving us brochures to choose from, from their suppliers. If we didnt act quickly, they would have to leave it.

We reduced the size of the bathroom - we decided we didnt need another bath - and put a long, thin cupboard in. We put a clothes rail which could be pulled in and out in.

We had a lot of trouble with the plumbers they brought in. We went for 2 bedrooms, separate shower/ loo and a box room which is now an office. Could do with aircon and a bigger boiler to get more heat up there but overall we are delighted.

Definitely aircon. I can't understand how people who sleep in loft conversions survive the summer without it!

We went for the separate shower room too so it could be accessed from both bedrooms. We have a rooflight at the top of the stairs and wish we’d known we could have an external blind fitted. Too late now, and it gets so hot/light because of it.

Definitely air con. You won't use it much, but when you need it, you need it. Also, the external blinds for velux windows help with managing heat. Basically, as soon as the sun hits the window, it's heating the room. So the external blinds function a bit like shutters.

Oh wow, so can I just ask him about these external blinds? How do you control them if they’re on the outside?

If you get a velux Windows/skylight over the new stairs for the love of all that is holy make you you have an automated blind and means to open and close it (and the window). Am sure our house would be 10 degrees cooler if we had one.

Also velux in the dormer a) can't be open when it rains, and b) as it had a built in blind if the window is open the light gets in. V annoying at this time of year.

We had 2 double rooms and a bathroom in ours for the DC and it's been life changing.

We’ve just done this. First point - it was much more expensive than anticipated - think double what the architect estimated.
we went for planning to get a bigger volume than PD - I think it’s about 70m3

We went for 2 bedrooms and a bathroom off the landing rather than en suite. As pp said this gives more flexibility for room use and for furniture in the bedroom. Downside you lose a tiny bit of bedroom space to the landing. We had a good space so not an issue for us.

Our layout is bathroom alongside bedroom at the front of the house, which means that bedroom is dual aspect (rooflights + dormer window over side return). Great view and lovely through breeze. Head heights in bathroom are fine but we lowered ceilings in the floor below. The other dormer room over the outrigger is a slightly smaller double.

We got aircon because more expensive to fit later and it’s absolutely sweltering up there. Haven’t got built in joinery yet because have run out of cash!

We will be using the rooms as spare bedroom + home office as kids are still young and I want to be on the same floor as them, but they’re both good and similarish sizes so would be suitable as kids rooms down the line. For us this option - as opposed to the master suite thing - gave maximum flexibility. But also I’m not a big fan of en suites anyway and we are lucky our bedroom on 1st floor is pretty big already.

Also an openable skylight over the stairs is lovely! It’s easy to reach with a pole from landing so I wouldn’t bother with an electric one - more expensive and a pain to fix if breaks.

We have a side entry early Edwardian. These are not easy to do the loft in as placement of the stairs makes a massive difference to what you can do. We chose to put the stairs over the original stairs rather than shrink a bedroom and I don’t regret it. If you are aiming for 4 bedrooms that won’t work of course but it’s made it 3 really pleasant, useful and spacious bedrooms and a decent family bathroom.

we have doors from a small landing up the top. Box room/ weeny office at the front under the roof and door to our bedroom the other side (plus ensuite- no way to put the bathroom anywhere else really). Velux’s do get hot (we have external blinds for heat minimisation and internal blinds for light as I work in there when I’m wfh and the glare was quite impressive).

Skylight in our bedroom is gorgeous- but it isn’t necessary, generates heat and meant we had to get a custom fit blind so we can actually sleep at this time of year- which of course we never actually open in the summer due to it letting more heat in the space.

i made sure we can get a through draught from front to back with windows that open, which helps the heat removal- air conditioning could be worth it but that doesn’t sit on my regret list.

and… i didn’t do it, but i am thinking about solar panels. Given the heat that clearly can land on that roof- why not put it to good use and reduce the heat landing in the first place by using that sunlight to generate some electricity????

Air con it’s gets too hot to sleep up there at points in summer.

if it includes velux style windows, the normal ones are noisy when it rains heavily - get some with a form of sound proofing.

Get the biggest dorma style roof you can get to improve head room - I’m forever banging my head and having to bend over - you don’t need it all to be window but the less slope area the better. If you can get full width dorma then go for it - front and back even better.

And a huge yes to air con being essential!

We didn’t put in air con, and it’s been fine even in this hot weather - but we’ve invested in some decent fans - and we want for huge velux (which we had a wobble about being too big, but they’re really not!).

Ours is 3 bedroom semi and we put two rooms in the loft, removing the box room on the first floor, but suspect your layout will be different. The one thing I absolutely love is the book shelves we had built into the wall at the top of the loft stairs - didn’t cost much, and it’s not only useful, but makes great use of otherwise fairly empty space.

definitely get any cupboards, shelves etc built in at the same time

A friend did a loft conversion without Veluxes in the bedroom She made a high vaulted ceiling by raising the roofline to the rafters then doing tongue and groove and put in wooden sashes in dormers. I’m sure it was more expensive but looked spectacular - sort of Victorian New England style - and suited the style of the house much better. It also meant she could open the windows when it rained and use normal curtains and blinds.

We did a loft conversion 45 years ago, first in the street and pretty basic as the floor space was limited by the size of the small 3 bed terrace: stairs above and matching existing, velux with blind at the front and proper sash windows in the full-width dormer at the back.. At that stage we had to go for planning as PD did not exist, but we fought the council by appealing to DOE and won. Since that time virtually every house on the street has done one.
The point is that, two years ago, we went into our old house and found that the loft was unchanged, still quite basic but obviously what people need - they tend to move on from the small house when they have more children so no need for master bedroom suite. If someone wants to stay it is simple enough to add this if the good bones of the conversion are there.
So bear in mind what future buyers of your house might need. It may be that a loft conversion in a small house needs to provide extra space but no need to go over the top on the layout or expensive fittings as you might not get your costs back.

Definitely aircon.

The ONE thing people don't think about is insurance. Yours will increase due to the extra rooms. However you will also probably be gaining some flat roof - here is the important bit: don't let the flat roof % exceed 50%, as it gets very expensive and difficult to get insurance if so.

If you are having flat skylights, try to have one openable one somewhere where a ladder can be poked through it, so people can get up there easily if needed. No idea if there is a solution to this but mine get really dirty, they don't seem to be self cleaning. Normal window cleaners won't clean them as you need someone who will get on the roof, making it more expensive.

The skylight the builders put over the new loft stairs is good but I wish we had put in a solar powered opening Velux to allow air to circulate on a hot day. We have solar Veluxes in the kitchen extension and they are fantastic.
Check the style of windows they’re putting in the dormer. Ours only open out half way and I hate them! I wish I’d put in PVC sash windows instead.
We put Pax wardrobes along the chimney wall and they are great - much cheaper than built in wardrobes.

We did one in S London a few years back and loved it. Very glad we went for mansard rather than dormer. We had a bit of a landing at the top of the stairs (enough for a bookshelf and small chair) but meant it didn’t have that Alice-in-Wonderland feeling shrinking as you go up there. Bathroom on the landing - as good as en-suite when no one in the house but meant if you had to say “there’s another loo on the top floor” it didn’t mean going through your room. We configured ours with light and heat that meant should someone want say to convert it to two kids’ rooms it would have been very easy. We had a decent size box room up there too. You don’t want to convert your spacious attic only to realise you now have nowhere to put the baubles and suitcases when not in use.

Thank you so much, everyone. I’ve read every single thing. And of course house insurance, duh, hadn’t thought of that.
We will likely do Velux roof guest room at front of house, shower room off landing with full height ceiling and small double as the dormer. It’s your classic big standard Victorian mid terrace with the outrigger bit of the back garden (so underneath our dormer will be an existing bedroom).
did you find you had to redecorate and re-carpet put the rest of your hallway and landing?

Go with a loft conversion specialist rather than a general builder

Yep we have redecorated and recarpeted existing hall and landing. We could have done without the new carpet as the builders protected it really well, but we decided we wanted it to match the loft rooms. The walls definitely needed it, but we did a lot of first floor work as well (inc lowering ceilings) so not sure if it was due to that.

Yep, it all needed redecoration anyway so we’d held off, but the filth from when the chimneys came out and ceilings came out was revolting… so felt good to do. New carpet all up the stairs. We haven’t done downstairs yet- so only repainted down there to make it look continuous.

We did but it was ten years overdue!