Question about Loft Conversions

ST1991

Hi all,

Hope this is the right place to post?
We have just exchanged, and nearing completion on our first house. I have lots of ideas of things to do in the coming years we enjoy there, and i had a quick question about loft conversion and roof types.

The house is a mid-terrace, and it has a 'double pitched' roof. Excuse my explanation here, as it wont be great...
The guttering inbetween the roof points actually runs along the terrace (along the width of the house) so we didn't even notice the roof to start with, as if you are just looking up from the front you only see one roof! So, if we were on the end-terrace, you would see 2 roof points when stood to the side of the house.

Anyway...
Does anyone have any experience on converting lofts into livable spaces in a roof like this?
As it is in 2 parts, there would be 1 loft the the back of the house, and 1 at the front. The lowest part comes down above the stairway.
We are thinking of making one a livable space (potentially with an ensuite above the existing bathroom) and panelling the other out for storage for now. We could add dormers to the back loft to open up this space.

We would obviously need 2 stairways if we converted both...

We are obviously thinking well ahead so won't be looking to throw money at this for quite some time... but also have to bear in mind anything we do that might put off a buyer in the future.

Any help appreciated!!

System

in a mid terrace, putting two staircases in will be a completely pointless exercise - you will lose more floor area that you would gain - the biggest issues you are going to hit in a proper conversion will be the available height after adding compliant insulation, a suitable means of escape and getting a good stair arrangement which doesn't eat too much room

ST1991

Thanks for the reply. I didn't even think about losing height due to Insulation...

At present, the house has a really weird layout (bathroom is only accessibly by going through a bedroom) so you can essentially run full circles around the 1st floor (landing > bedroom 1 > bathroom > bedroom 2 > landing)

So, we are thinking about shutting off the entrance to the bathroom via bedroom 1 (around 2M walkway) studding out a corridor through bedroom 2 to the bathroom and having a semi-normal layout.
This way, at the top of the stairs you would have a door to bed1 on left hand side, and door to bed2, and door to bathroom on right hand side.

This frees-up the space between bedroom 1 and bathroom for a space saving stairway up to the front loft.

We could also put another stairway in bedroom to the back loft.

The bedrooms are what i feel are fairly large for a 2 bed terrace (bed 1 is nearly 5m x 4m) so we wouldn't mind, for example, losing some of that space if it means we gain space above...

I am probably just jumping way ahead of myself, and in time to come it may just be easier to upgrade to a larger house...!

teneighty

Put in a flat roof across the central valley to create a crown roof?

What is the headroom under the pitched roof? As a rule of thumb I like to see 3 metres to the ridge for a half decent loft conversion.

ST1991

I don't think we can put a flat roof across, as the guttering valley runs along the terrace (next door into ours, ours into the next along etc)

The Loft is tall enough to stand up in, although we would put 2 dormers in the back to create more 'standable' space. I haven't measured it though, so will do that when we go up next!