Loft Conversion Specialist versus Contractors. WWYD?

[pavlovthepregnantcat]

We want our loft converted.

Should we

a) get a structural engineer, architectural technician, builder (and his mates!) to do it. Might take 3 months to do, but will have flexibility on how we do it, might be reasonably priced.

or

b) a loft conversion company to do the lot for us. Will be done in 4-6weeks, they will do all the building regs stuff for us, including design, drawings, structural stuff, we employ them and they do it, leave it with just us to paint it. But it will cost around £2k more.
WWYD?

Depends on two things, imo (apart from price):

(1) do you want something non-standard because loft companies will do a very uniform layout and perhaps you think that that can be enhanced and have specific ideas.

(2) are you doing any other work in the house? We were renovating ours when we had the loft done and went with a loft specialist company who did a good job (in some ways which I will come to) on top of the builders who were doing the refurb downstairs. The problem was that there was enough grey area for them to be able to blame each other when something went wrong ("We can't finish this off because the other company hasn't sorted XYZ yet..." "That's not our rubbish, that's theirs" etc). In retrospect we should have had one company do all the work.

I would be a little about 4-6 weeks - our company were well on target for this, we were thrilled (fools that we were) but, as soon as they got close to finish the work just tailed off so we were left with nearly habitable rooms which we weren't able to use for at least a couple of months after that (in fact, we ended up holding onto the final payment and getting our original builders to finish off. That isn't an untypical experience...

agree that specialist loft companies do things their way - if something is tricky or more time consuming to do it won't be suggested to the client - they do things their way. dh is an architect and comes across this a great deal when he does private jobs.

We want a very basic, simple loft. Nothing fancy, just for it meet building regs and for us to sleep up there. The biggest problem is getting the stairs up without losing a room, but it is doable, just not as simple as bunging up a staircase.

We have spoke to a builder, who was recommended on a local trade internet site. He works with a structural engineer who used to work with local council building control, and he will be able to do both the structural design and the drawings. (Of course he will charge accordingly!). This builder will do all the work (he has some workers too!) apart from the electrics, for which he has some-one who works alongside him on projects to come in. He has told us that price he gives us will be the total price, he will walk away when complete with us just having to paint/move into the room. He has advised us to go for full building regs application not just a buildings notice, then both and and we know exactly what work is being complete before it happens - he has told us 3 months, possibly quicker, but not much. I feel that is realistic. I like the fact that the engineer/architect works alongside him, which means the builder is more likely to call on him for advice than if we go to a completely independent person.

This seems to be a good compromise between us sourcing all the contractors ourselves and getting a loft conversion specialist in, who seem to be very formulaic - they do xyz whether we want it or not!

We are going to get a couple of specialist co's to come out and quote us but we are starting to feel we will have a bit more control if we have our own engineer/drawings? We are also going to talk to 2 architectural technicians recommended by a reputable structural engineer - he said these would charge appropriately and not rip us off like some of the architect co's in the yellow pages!

Oh that was long .

It is just such a minefield, a bit different to sticking up some shelves which is as far as our expertise goes, so on the one hand we want someone to just come and do it, but on the other hand want to know as much as possible and be in control, then we learn, and know whether we are being ripped off or not, we have heard lots of stories and it is worrying. It is a lot of money.

We asked an architect the same question..... she advised us to go with a company who would manage the whole process, as what we wanted was fairly standard.

We have had 2 done (last house and current one) and were pleased with both loft companies.

lol we aked structural engineer today too, he said do it ourselves!!! But I guess this is on the basis of us wanting to customise the job, which we don't - we want simple - two velux windows, basic nothing complicated stairs, floor sorted with beams/joists etc, stairs, two light points, ton of cupboards under the eves, lots of sockets! We might have a small velux above the staircase to let some light down, depends on cost, might not. No en-suite, no dormers, no fancy woodwork or built in units. Nothing hidden, no planning permission needed or extensive hoops to jump through architecturally.