Loft conversion

CDP

Hi

I am thinking about a loft conversion. I will need planning permission etc but has anyone got any tips for me?

Thanks

Sheel

Hi

I'm going to move this over to the In My Home board as I think you will have more chance of getting answers there

regards , Sheel

I shall be watching this thread with interest as we're thinking of getting this done and have got a couple of builders coming to give us quotes next week

alyssa_mae

CDP wrote:

Hi

I am thinking about a loft conversion. I will need planning permission etc but has anyone got any tips for me?

Thanks

My biggest tip would be don't use english builders.they are lazy. we had
a loft conversion done 2 yrs ago. the blokes were all from the cezh rep. They are hard workers. They worked from 8am to7pm with 30mins for lunch. They were very tidy and thoughtful ( I was 8mths pregnant at the time and they made me cups of tea) the whole job took just 7wks and that was with a few changes we made along the way. Freinds who used english builders had nothing good to say about them. some days they didn't turn up. If it rained or it was too hot. Bang on 4pm they downed tools and took twice as long to do the same job.
We recommend Frank and his company to many friends and 3 have had there lofts converted and are really pleased.
It was the best thing we ever did. It gave us a new bedroom and shower room ( we had a two bed terraced house)and it was a lot cheaper the moving.

CDP

Where in the country are you though?

We are in NE England which is probably too far for lots of people

Thanks
Christine

alyssa_mae

CDP wrote:

Where in the country are you though?

We are in NE England which is probably too far for lots of people

Thanks
Christine

We live in middlesex. But if anyone in the area would like his number pm me.

alanobrien

alyssa_mae wrote:

My biggest tip would be don't use english builders.they are lazy. .

Oh dear, this is an incredibly inappropriate statement and
it is also factually incorrect.

We had a superb loft conversion done by English builders three years ago. they were polite, courteous, efficient
and cost effective.

Most of their work comes from referrals because they are so good and indeed we have recommended them to friends on many occasions.

If anyone is interested they are from the Reading area and are in the phone book as "The loft conversion company"

I have no ties to this company at all, just a happy customer.

Cupcake_4

alyssa_mae wrote:

My biggest tip would be don't use english builders.they are lazy. .

A tad racist wouldnt you say????

JayS_3

We had our last loft converted by (we have no other connection to this company) LOFTPLAN, who are based down here in Hampshire and cover the South of England. We had a massive loft, in FOUR weeks they had completed the conversion and we had two big bedrooms and a shared ensuite. They also work from the outside in, loft down, to minimise the mess, and we only had that in the last week when they broke through the ceiling to put the staircase in. It was fantastic.

When they said they would take 3 to 4 week, we thought "oh yeah, I bet, pull the other one", etc; but they were true to their word. They have the whole procedure down to a fine art. They were recommended to us, and we have recommended them to others.

I'm not sure it anyone has already said, but you should not need planning permission unless you change your roofline, ie put in a dormer (we put in six Velus windows, increased our bedrooms from 4 to 6, and bathrooms from 2 to 3 without planning permission).

Sorry you can't get them up in the NE. Best wishes with whoever you go with, it will be worth it.

PS They were English too!!! No problems, worked hard; had to, to get the job done professionally in four weeks.

alyssa_mae

Cupcake wrote:

A tad racist wouldnt you say????

is racist the right word. maybe a little bit predjudist. or like me could u not spell predjudist.

alyssa_mae

alanobrien wrote:

Oh dear, this is an incredibly inappropriate statement and
it is also factually incorrect.

We had a superb loft conversion done by English builders three years ago. they were polite, courteous, efficient
and cost effective.

Most of their work comes from referrals because they are so good and indeed we have recommended them to friends on many occasions.

If anyone is interested they are from the Reading area and are in the phone book as "The loft conversion company"

I have no ties to this company at all, just a happy customer.

I am willing to appolagise to all english builders out there who do work hard. but u have to admit there are some lazy !!!!!!'s who let the good ones down. I must get down off my soap box. I think I just got a bit carried away.

robnye

Sheel wrote:

Hi

I'm going to move this over to the In My Home board as I think you will have more chance of getting answers there

regards , Sheel

I shall be watching this thread with interest as we're thinking of getting this done and have got a couple of builders coming to give us quotes next week

do you have plans drawn up then?

I have just paid the architect to draw up plans.

we already have a large kitchen extension, which means the distance between the garage and the back of the house is less than 5 metres, meaning that the size of the garage is taken into account of the the 60 or 70 cubic metres of possible expansion of living space.
the architect came back with a sketch, which included 2 dormers a 16ft room, plus new bathroom, without requiring planning permission, once we get the detailed plans back (he is also sorting out the building regs)

we can then take the plans to companies to get quotes