Bungalow loft conversion- How much space

davisc02

Hi, I am about to buy a bungalow on a good size plot, the bungalow is currently 51ft across (with garage) and 25ft deep. My plan is to take the garage out with another room and go out at the back 15ft bringing the downstairs to approx 51ft X 40ft. I am trying to work out whether I could get 4 decent sized bedrooms upstairs as some of the floorspace will be eaten up with sloping ceilings.
I would like the roof to have the chalet style 3 dormers at the front and maybe dormers at the back. My main question is does anyone know how much floor space gets lost in this type of conversion?

Thanks

Doozergirl

It's all about the pitch of the roof and how many pitches there are. A bit of trigonometry for you!

Draw it out to scale on paper using the height of the roof to complete your triangles.

Anything under 1.5m is totally unusable - how usable the space is further in is completely bound by the steepness of pitch.

You need an architect immediately, really.

Waterlily24

Our bungalow was smaller approx 42 ft x 40ft and we got 3 large bedrooms and a bathroom. One of the bedrooms was big enough to be 2 but because of the only place for the door to go only one was possible (unless you went through one room to get to the other). The two end rooms have ordinary windows and the middle one has two velux. A lot would depend on your roof I would think.

Another important thing is where the staircase would go, in our bungalow there were only two places it could go because of the headroom, one was out of the question (in the living room) so it went in the utility room. We were also given permission for each stair to be slightly smaller (fractions of an inch).

We weren't allowed to have dormers (believe it or not). It might have been a good thing as the are very expensive. lol

Good luck.

flora48

Be aware of headroom in the finished room. We looked at several dormer bungalows and eventually stopped viewing any more because being tall people, around 6ft we found then to be claustrophobic no matter how well the conversion was done.

davisc02

Thanks for your answers. The roof is a good steep pitch and already has a bedroom upstairs (with dormer) and it is very airy and spacious, I was surprised. A completely new roof would be put on and stronger joists would be need for the non converted parts. It sounds like I maybe able to get 4 but better with 2 mediums and a massive with en-suites etc. Waterlily can I ask for approx costs if you dont mind. My best mate who is a builder and does double storey extensions, conservatories etc measured up yesterday and thinks he can get new roof, extension, electrics, kitchen, one or two bedrooms completely done, heating and water tight for approx 60k but completely kitting out everything will start to push towards 100k. Does this sound realistic?

Waterlily24

davisc02 wrote: »

Thanks for your answers. The roof is a good steep pitch and already has a bedroom upstairs (with dormer) and it is very airy and spacious, I was surprised. A completely new roof would be put on and stronger joists would be need for the non converted parts. It sounds like I maybe able to get 4 but better with 2 mediums and a massive with en-suites etc. Waterlily can I ask for approx costs if you dont mind. My best mate who is a builder and does double storey extensions, conservatories etc measured up yesterday and thinks he can get new roof, extension, electrics, kitchen, one or two bedrooms completely done, heating and water tight for approx 60k but completely kitting out everything will start to push towards 100k. Does this sound realistic?

Hi davisc

Unfortunately, I can't give you a figure. We had an extension done too. The work was mostly done by my hubby except the brickwork, electrics which included a rewire, and the central heating. The bungalow was completely stripped. We also had a complete new roof. As I said hubby did all of the rest of the work himself with a little bit of help from son and me. The only other thing he had help with was putting the the roof trusses on. We had to have a crane for that. They were very wide and had to be made specially. Some of the joinery places around here didn't have big enough premises.

To be honest the whole thing was a nightmare, especially getting the planning permission - took us ove two years!!!!! lol

It's lovely now though.

Our original plan was to keep it as a bungalow but the planning authorities wouldn't let us go as big as we wanted to. The main objection was the height of the roof BUT the roof now is the same height as it would have been if we had kept it as a bungalow. It's a very long story!!! lol.

Waterlily24

Just found the sizes of the upstairs bedrooms. 1. 13' 5'' x 11' 0'' 2. 15' 4'' x 13' 6''
3. 20' 2" x 12' 11". Being good sized rooms there is plenty of headroom, my son is 6' 6" and had no problems at all when he lived here.

Old_Git

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/landlord-fined-for-renting-london-flat-which-tenants-had-to-crawl-into-9685595.html


you dont NEED loads of headroom

Waterlily24

lol..............

davisc02

Thanks Lily, I have a feeling I am about to embark on something that will take a good few years to complete.

Old Git, didn't realise I could have a 4 storey house!!:T