Owning your own home

It can be. Lofts are not always designed to take the loads associated with a habitable room. There are also building control things like headheight and planning permission to deal with.

Yeah I understand the joists would probably need to be replaced (victorian terrace cottage) but I was hoping that would be about it, plus some stairs/floorboards.

You need a mains-powered smoke alarm and fire doors to pass building regs.

Not even sure where a door would fit! I was envisioning it as some sort of open-plan 'mezzanine' level...

I think if there isn't permanent access i.e., stairs, it's assumed to be for occasional use and different regulations apply. So you can easily make it into a pretty usable space quite easily if you don't require easy access. Obviously double check the building regs.

Presumably it's just a 'loft' for building regs purposes if there aren't any stairs? I'll have to do more reading.

Basically there are two choices. Do it properly and add significant value to the property. Do it on the cheap, have space that is significantly less useable, and add practically no value.

That's what I've heard.

Our house already had the loft converted when we moved in, but it wasn't really usable as a bedroom, so we had it re-done a couple of autumns ago. Building regulations had changed since the previous conversion, so we had to get it completely re-done, including having architect drawings done to satisfy the demands of building regulations. Areas like weight loads, insulation and fire safety all have to be met.

Sounds expensive, will have to see what my friend says when he's had a look.

On that note, are there any recommended architects on here?