7 ways to get more loft for your money
Most of what you pay for in a loft conversion is fixed before you choose a single finish: scaffolding, steel beams, the roof structure and Building Control. The decisions that change how much room you get for that money are mostly about layout, and they cost little or nothing extra if you make them early.
These are the seven we talk through on every survey.
1. Choose the conversion your roof suits
A terraced house with a pitched roof usually gets the most space for its money from a rear dormer. A semi with a sloping side roof gains far more from a hip-to-gable, because a dormer alone leaves the sloping end unusable. Forcing the wrong type onto a roof means paying for structure that never turns into floor space.
2. Take the dormer as wide as the rules allow
Once the scaffold is up and the steels are in, a wider dormer adds relatively little cost but a lot of floor you can stand up on. Under permitted development the dormer must stay below the ridge and sit back from the eaves, and the whole enlargement must stay within 40m³ on a terraced house or 50m³ on a semi or detached house.
Headroom is what makes floor area usable. A big floor with low slopes on both sides feels smaller than a narrower room you can stand up in everywhere.
3. Stack the new stairs over the existing ones
Running the loft stairs directly above the current staircase keeps the landing below intact and uses space that is already a walkway. Putting the stairs anywhere else usually takes a slice out of a bedroom on the floor below.
4. Put the shower room near the soil stack
Waste pipes need a fall. A bathroom close to the existing soil stack keeps pipe runs short, avoids boxing in pipes across the room below, and gives you more choice over where the toilet goes.
5. Turn the eaves into built-in storage
The low space behind the short walls can't be a room, but it makes excellent fitted cupboards and drawers. Building them in during the job costs less than buying furniture later that fights the slope.
6. Choose finishes before you compare quotes
Quotes built on vague allowances look cheaper and then grow. Pick the stair style, doors, sanitaryware and flooring level up front, so every builder prices the same loft and nothing needs re-pricing halfway through.
7. Fix the rest of the roof while the scaffold is up
Scaffolding is one of the biggest fixed costs of the job. If the front slope, chimney or gutters will need work in the next few years, doing it now saves paying for a second scaffold later.
Not sure which of these apply to your house? A survey will tell you. We measure the headroom, check the roof structure and explain which options are realistic before you spend anything on drawings.