Loft conversion

vikkigenie

I'm tinkering with the idea of doing a full loft conversion (dormer windows, ensuite, walk in wardrobe and staircase) but to be honest don't the foggiest idea of where to start. Can anyone give me some pointers??

maryjane01

We are 6 weeks into our build doing exactly the same thing. You basically have 2 routes you can go down.

1. You can go with a company that does everything including getting plans drawn up.

2. get the plans drawn up independently and get a builder to quote and do the work.


From our experience we had a few of these all in companies come to quote, they send a sales type person to your house. I am sure some are very good, but we just could not be certain we could trust a sales guy. They can be competitively priced because of economy of scale, but they do seem to have standard ways of doing things, if you want things that are not to their standard it could add considerable cost. eg. they can buy one type of fire doors in bulk, therfor savings can be passed to you, but if you want a different type of door, it may be a problem.

We went down the get plans drawn up separately route. We had a very small roof space and went with a guy that just draws loft conversion plans. We went to a few local architects but they sort of sniffed at us when we told them our roof height because they couldn’t do the next Grand Designs with it. If you go down this route to keep it cheap just go for an architectural technician or somebody that draws up building plans, architects want to charge the earth and will want to do something fancy.

With our plans drawn up we then asked for quotes from builders. It was very difficult to compare quotes because many do not include essential items in the quote so their headline quote seems low. Eg mains smoke alarms throughout the house (building regs will probably want you to have these), and fire doors throughout your house (if you are adding a 2nd story, all doors to habitable rooms in the whole house will need to be replaced with 30 minute fire doors).

If your house has not previously been extended you probably won’t need planning permission as you can build a dorma under your permitted development rights in most cases, unless you are in a conservation area. You will need to get everything signed off by building control which has cost me close to £500 here in south east London. I think some of these all in loft conversion companies have their own guys that can sign work off. The planning department were very helpful when I called for a chat. If you do not need planning permission you can get a certificate of permitted development (less than £100 from memory), this is so you can prove to future buyers of your house that you did not need planning permission.

All in with a lot of extras (including pocket sliding doors to save space, huge patio doors with a glass Juliet balustrade, knocking a wall down on the 1st floor and removing the chimney and chimney breast down to the 1st floor) we won’t have change from £40,000 all in. I think in London you would struggle to get it all done with a bathroom for under £35,000 if you hire people to do all the work. Our quotes ranged from £23,000 though so look for what the low quotes do not include.

planning_officer

maryjane01 wrote: »

If your house has not previously been extended you probably won’t need planning permission as you can build a dorma under your permitted development rights in most cases, unless you are in a conservation area.

Only on a rear or side facing roofslope - i.e. not one that faces a road (if you have a road running alongside the side or rear of the property then you would need to apply for planning permission for a dormer window on these facing roofslopes.

maryjane01 wrote: »

If you do not need planning permission you can get a certificate of permitted development (less than £100 from memory), this is so you can prove to future buyers of your house that you did not need planning permission.

Yep, a Certificate of Lawfulness for a Proposed Use or Development (CLOPUD) - current fee is £75 (i.e. half that of the relevant planning application fee). It's a similar process to applying for planning permission - submit plans and forms, pay the fee, and get the decision within 8 weeks.

marybishop

And if you're in a terraced or semi detached property don't forget Party Wall Act may apply. www.rics.org/usefulguides