Loft conversion in new house

lees1950

Just wondered if anyone had had their loft converted in a new house (ours is 2006). Have found a company (Truss Co) who seem to have found a way to get round the problem with the roof struts. Awaiting their surveyor but in the meantime any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks

Jon_Tiffany

We had the loft of our new build converted, any decent loft conversion specialist or builder should be able to convert a truss rafter roof (where the rafters form a "W" shape). There's nothing about a modern house that makes it difficult to convert. Do a search on google for "aboutloftconversions" to find my website (or check out my profile - I cant add links yet), then look for the example loft conversion page to see a conversion of a loft in a new build.

PS - I'm not a builder, I found that when we were looking to convert our loft there was not much info available on the web so I started my own website on loft conversions to help others.

lees1950

Many thanks for your reply and I will investigate your website. Surveyor came today and it seems quite promising - only problem is the house is sort of fan shaped (sharp bend in middle) so getting the stairs in may mean a dormer which I would rather avoid if possible. Pleased that it is now possible to convert modern houses as 20 years ago it was a big no-no.
Thanks again

mrscmr

hi leess...

i would be interested in knowing how you get on with this.. i would love to extend into the loft but we have the same style roof.

thanks!

boxer691

My advice is that you get an independant surveyor who specialises in loft conversions, should should also get him to inspect the work at various stages. The fire regs have also changed with regards to egress and fire sfety measures

lees1950

hello mrscmr
what a coincidence - am following your other thread and with you all the way on trying to hold everything together - been through some tough times myself over the years. Would love to use your shop if you can pm me but not sure if I have put my email address in right place as a bit useless at this.

Anyway back to the loft. Found a great company (not sure if I can say who) and they have done some plans. There will be a dormer over the sharp bend and we can get 2 reasonably sized rooms (double bed size) plus a loo/basin but probably not a shower. Will cost in the region of £40,000 but if we move fees would be about £15000 so I guess it makes sense as we love the rest of the house downstairs.
take care x

lees1950

thanx Boxer - think I have found just the people - who seem to have done quite a few in the past. thanks for replying

jog

Hi,

We are having a loft conversion done in our 12 year old house. They are due to start work in the middle of March. We started off thinking we wouldn't have dormers but in the end have gone for 3 dormer windows, will end up with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom up there. We're having to have a slice taken out of one of our bedrooms in order to make the landing bigger to fit in the stairs.

Well worth talking to a few different companys. We had quotes from 3 and they all had different ideas about how to do it!

Good Luck

Jog

lees1950

Hi Jog
We rang about 3/4 companies in the beginning but only one has rung back. Suspect they looked at shape of the house (I directed them to a Ward website as they are still being built) and decided it was too much hassle. Never discussed budget so was a bit short sighted of them.

We are losing one bedroom which was tiny anyway i.e. 6 x 6 (and a triangle shape as it is across the bend in the house so that will become the landing and also enlarge the main bedroom a little. Will make the house much better to have 4 double bedrooms plus a study instead of 2 (just) double bedrooms plus 2 cupboards(!!) so think it is worthwhile.

Did u have to have planning permission for the dormer? (is it front or back)
Not sure if it is always necessary. Just slows things up a bit and I am all keen to get on with this as we are bursting at the seams here.

Would love to hear how your conversion goes...

all the best

jog

Hi Lees1950

We haven't had to get planning permission as the dormers are all at the back of the house and fall within permissable development rights, so it just has to meet building regs, definatley makes it easier.

We were advised that we wouldn't have a chance of getting planning permission for a dormer at the front as our house fronts a road junction, but that's fine as we can fit in what we want without needing one at the front.

We thought long and hard about the dormers but in the end they will make a big difference to the usability of the new rooms and we decided that if we were going to spend the money on having it done it was worth spending the extra and having it done properly. The company we are using drew up drew up 4 different sets of plans with the different combinations of options for us with different windows, layouts etc. I'm now getting very excited about it and am looking forward to them starting.

I will try to post an update once things get underway. We've been told it will take 7 - 8 weeks which doesn't sound too bad, but we'll then have all the decorating to do, which will take us a while!

Jog

lees1950

Hi
Thanks so much for reply....I will update progress as well as we will definitely go ahead.
Can I be really cheeky and ask what your ball park figure is.? We are being quoted around £40,000 inc vat. It sounds reasonable bearing in mind the benefit to us.
cheers