Loft conversion

[tinkerbell23]

Ive heard its expensive......,

How expensive?

The house is 9y old, 3bed semi.... Sorry dont have measurements lol!!! Roughly xxx

[craft1948]

What............1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, a bathroom?

[naomi24]

Depends what you want it converted to. No one can guess. Best to get a few builders in for proper quotes.

[tinkerbell23]

Id quite like to just floor it and make
It into a bedroom if i had the dosh x

[tamborine]

I had the loft turned into a studio, with staircase to lounge in a top floor flat. Cost £4k.

[tinkerbell23]

Thanks tambo!!! Id need a staircase etc xx

[VHG]

You cant just cover the floor and turn it into a bedroom. There are a number of legal things you need to do.

For example if it becomes a three floor house you need fire doors on the top floor, smoke alarms throughout the house (wired to mains), an escape window in the roof (Velux type window) and you are supposed to fit "door closers" on each door in the house.

If you dont do these things it could well invalidate your house insurance if there is a fire, and also kill one of your family members if they get "stuck" in the loft and cant get out.

Also, unless you do something with the roof it is going to be freezing cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer. So you need insulation in the roof and walls to keep the heat in and the cold out.

Also the stairs up to the loft may well take up a lot of space and this can mean you need to reduce the "box bedroom" quite a bit to get the stairs in.

If someone did it for 4k then I doubt it followed all the legal requirements.

[VHG]

Read more here:

http://www.planningpo...jects/loftconversion/

Note it says about Fire Safety

Loft Conversions

When converting an existing roof space into a room or rooms the provisions for escape need to be considered throughout the full extent of the escape route. This often means that additional fire protection will be necessary in the existing parts of the house.

For example, a typical loft conversion to a two-storey house will result in the need to provide new fire-resisting doors and sometimes partitions to protect the stairway. This is because it is too dangerous to escape via windows from floors above first floor level.

Mains powered, interlinked smoke alarms will also need to be provided within the stairway at each level.

It may also be necessary to upgrade the fire protection to some parts of the structure of the house such as the floors.

[VHG]

btw I think for a proper loft conversion you are taling betwen £10,000 (minimum) and £25,000 (maybe more) depending on all sorts of factors.

Factors such as age of house, size of house, work involved, size of new bedroom(s) and/or bathroom.

Even where you are in the country can change the cost as a loft conversion in London will cost more than a loft conversion in say Newcastle.

[hc4361]

The foundations may also need to be tested to make sure they can support the extra weight.

[VHG]

Also, if the house is 9 years old it may not be able to support a loft conversion as modern houses are not as well made as older houses.

There may not even be space in the loft for a decent sized bedroom.

[The Builder]

Everyone's covered it pretty well, especially VHG.
I thing I would say though, is that it will depend on the use you put it to. A lot of the restrictions concerning Fire (means of escape), sound, insulation etc, don't always apply. There is also a relaxation on stair construction/width..... if the staircase serves only one room.
A new(ish) house is unlikely to have the room for a conventional staircase anyway.
Quite possibly, the best you can hope for would be a non-standard steep staircase to a storeroom/unofficial office/playroom.

[The Builder]

// modern houses are not as well made as older houses //

Haha ......... oh that could start a fight ;o)
but that's for another thread ;o)

[tinkerbell23]

Thanks so much all really informative answers!!!!

Not something i can afford now. Wondered if it was something to save towards! Possibly not haha!!

Thanks all xxx

[ummmm]

Whose house will it be in?

[Mick-Talbot]

For example if it becomes a three floor house you need fire doors on the top floor, smoke alarms throughout the house (wired to mains),


That's news to me.

[ummmm]

You only have to watch programmes like Location Location Location to know that you don't. It just means that you can't advertise the room as an extra room unless it meets all building regs.

[tinkerbell23]

Ah yeah i thought that about not being able to advertise as another room. Just a space. Would need a window.

Ach it was just me clutching at straws and making ideas! Here at home, a friends, grans...anywhere ...cost less to move out ha xx

[tinkerbell23]

Oh ps....and thank you all for the answers xx

[keyplus90]

I have just got it done. Work only finished couple of weeks ago. First of most of the things VHG mentioned are true. Our inspector actaully got our all of the interior doors changed with fire doors (extra exp).

To answer your original question, we converted our loft into one big room with toilet and shower with rear dome where they lift the back side of the roof and you have more than half of flat roof. I did ask two or three builders. First two of them told me that it would cost 28 to 30K. But the third one only asked for 20K. As he had already done one loft in my street only about 5 houses away so I had a good ref as well. And now when work is finished I can give anyone a good ref about him and that is how much I am happy with the way they carried out the work.