Loft Conversions!

[MrsMontyDon2020]

Considering getting a loft conversion done on our home to give us a much needed extra bedroom and bathroom.

I don't know anyone 'in real life' who's had one so no idea of the work involved, whether they're "good" to do, cost etc.

we have the head height needed, and we wouldn't be losing storage space as we'd only be doing one side of the loft.

We've spoken to a couple of architects but would be interested in getting people's experience and opinions!

We had a loft conversion done 10 years ago concerting our 3 bed semi to a 5 bed semi.

It cost about £50k then (I understand around £70-90K now, SE prices).

Well worth it for us, but it has made the house 'top heavy' as we don't really have the downstairs space to support 5 bedrooms.

It will add value though be careful of being too ‘top heavy’ - you need to have as much downstairs to match the amount of upstairs. I don’t mean in square footage but no point having four bedrooms if you only have a tiny kitchen.
It is about £80-100k (I’m sure people will drop in saying they did it for £20k but I question the quality). If it’s a £150k house it won’t be worth it in terms of investment; if it’s a £600+ house it will be. It will take (after planning permission if you need it) about 6-10 weeks and it’s only when they break through that it’s disruptive. Be prepared for no water for the odd day etc.
In my street (terraced Victorians) about 80% have had the loft done and extended out back. If your street has similar houses look on Rightmove sold prices for your street - they will have the layout for the properties too so you can see what’s been done.

Ours cost £55k 14 years ago to add a huge room and bathroom, it was well worth it.

I was impressed that the impact on the rest of the house was minimal until they knocked the staircase through. They made a hold in the roof to build the dormer and put scaffolding around the house so everything was done from the outside initially until they put the stairs in. That was noisy and messy but only for a few days. It wasn’t bad to live through at all.

Worst thing for us has been the plumbing. There is a pump on the middle floor to get the water up to the loft and it’s very loud every time water is used up there.

We had a hip to gable loft conversion done last year (NE) on our 3 bed semi to create an en-suite master bedroom. We used a builder we know well to do it (he works on his own and isn’t VAT registered) it took the best part of 6 months for him to complete the work, the actual builder, electrics, plastering etc was £36k, building control and architect were about £2k, bathroom £3.5k. However, all in it probably cost nearer ££65k-£70k.
We need new fire doors throughout, we had fitted wardrobes installed, we needed new carpet in the bedroom and then hall landing stairs (we did the living room at the same time as it was in poor condition), curtains, blinds for velux windows, new light fittings for the landing/bedroom. We had a decorator in because we needed the hall, landing and stairs redecorated and also 2 bedrooms (one because we’d had a piece taken out to make the stairway and the other due to cracks/damage from the work above) and the bedroom/ensuite also needed decorating (£6k plus paint). I guess we could have done it ourselves, but it took 2 professionals the best part of 3.5 weeks to prep and decorate, so with a young toddler and full time work, it would have take us over a year of weekends. We also needed a new bed as our divan didn’t fit up the stairway.
It was all the smaller pieces of work we hadn’t factored in that added up, there were a lot of £2-3k here and there!
I am sure we could have had it done quicker but cost more, and equally done more ourselves like decorating and having regular wardrobes not fitted wardrobes, but for us it was worth it.
It was pretty messy once the builder broke through the ceiling and the cold from the attic over winter was something else.
I love the new bedroom, our master before was 2.9m x 3.5m so very small and we just didn’t have enough space, the new bedroom really makes a difference to the house.
I still want to get new bedding/ towels/ rug etc but these are nice to have not essential.

We looked into it; cons are:

expensive because of the cost of the materials at the time.

annoying rules about where/how stairs were required to be done

need for emergency exit routes and fire doors throughout the house (because you have to allow more time to escape since you can’t climb out of a roof easily)

not as much head height or space as expected due to rules about deeper insulation

loss of storage space

unbalanced “top heavy” house

Worries the room would be baking hot in summer

We decided against it!

Windows. More is more.

Windows give more light but also increased headroom. eg We have windows either side of where the double bed is, so when getting out of bed there is more headroom than there would otherwise be.

You can also splay the openings rather than having them at 90 degrees.

Love our loft conversion, and in some ways we have more usable storage space now than we did before with decent access and built in cupboards.

Oh yes, I have just remembered two other important things-

1. it is baking hot up there in the summer, truly unbearable during the heatwave. Consider the Sun and ventilation etc carefully
2. we had to dismantle every piece of furniture before it could go up there which was a nightmare

We have a loft conversion in our large (originally) 3 bed semi which was done by our previous owners and I absolutely love it. The house is now a 4 bed - 4 double bedrooms, 3 of which are really spacious. My teenagers are on another floor, giving us a lot of peace, quiet and privacy plus lots and lots of space for storage and a walk in wardrobe (plus an ensuite). The room is huge and the insulation must have been done properly because it's no hotter in the summer or colder in the winter than the other bedrooms in the house. So so worth it and in fact if the loft hadn't been done, we wouldn't have bought the house. So hard to find a house with decent sized bedrooms.

We had loft conversion added 2 bedrooms and bathroom. Downstairs we had a huge living area so not top heavy. Absolutely no regrets.cost about £25k twenty five years ago.

We had a loft conversion 2 years ago. We spent about 80k all in, including ensuite and new fire doors. 100% worth it.

Ours was about the same. Didn't gain a bedroom as we lost the box room to make the stairs up but now have 3 good doubles and a master with ensuite. Has been a game changer for us - would do it again.

We did a conversion a couple of years ago - added a bedroom, bathroom and study.

We love having the extra space!

It’s worth contacting different builders / firms to discuss ideas. We ended up going with a company that specialises in loft conversions as they had decent solutions to some of our worries. For example, we installed a fire detection system that meant we didn’t have to change every door in the house.

We had one done in 2018 and love it. We only had two double bedrooms and one tiny box room, now we have three double bedrooms (and an en suite). The worst part was the dust from when they were plaster boarding. Oh and they retiled the roof completely and there was a point where the builders had already installed the stairs, so we would lie in bed at night listening to the gentle sound of tarpaulin flapping in the wind 😂 But now it is so worth it.

It can get warm in summer but we have two big velux windows on the front elevation, opening them soon starts cooling the room.

Ours is wonderful, v happy with it. It cost a bomb as we got a lot up there (2 double beds and 2 bathrooms!). We did a huge amount of insulation, used higher spec than required, added rock wool everywhere, and insulated the uninhabited areas (the bits of roof too low to include in the room). We have external shutters on the velux windows. We also carefully planned front / back window currents and put an openable skylight in the hallway. All combines to ensure that this part of the house is even warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the rest of it.

Thanks for all the replies! This is great to hear and very grateful too for rough costs etc.
I am a little concerned about it being too hot in summer - it would be south facing so would get warm!! Interested to hear about the insulation/window solutions to this.

We're in the process of getting ours done now. We're a 1930's house, getting two rooms and a shower room put in. It's £66k + VAT (for the build, not anything else)

Re the heat in the summer - we're getting air con put in, which is about £5k.

Most annoying this are fire rules if you have an open plan layout. Since Grenfelll it's really strict, and the only options are insetring a wall and door between the kitchen and hallway, or a sprinkler system (misting system are no longer allowed). Sprinkler system was going to be in excess of £10k, so we're doing a glass door, which I'm sad about.

this is good to know - we're doing the house in phases and the kitchen would be last so something to think about! And also good to know about aircon

We have a south-facing loft conversion and we find that whilst the sun shines in on sunny winter days because it is low at that time of year, in the height of summer the angle of the sun means that it doesn't shine in much. It would be different if it were west-facing, but it's not. It is warmer up there, but not as much as you might imagine (and as much as it would be with more sun).