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We have open plan ground floor. The key thing is whether you still have the hallway to give a protected corridor between the bottom of the stairs and the exit, or the stairs just open into the open plan area.
We have the latter, so our options were (1) put the hallway wall back in, or (2) a mist/sprinkler system to provide a virtual protected corridor. (Or more dodgy (3), put the hallway back in, get sign off and remove it again - not for us but seems to be a common approach round here)
We went for a mist system: costs etc as at 2019 are in this post https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15713550/ . Plus we also had to reinstate a wall and fire door between the living area and kitchen
We got an L-shape conversion with one room and bathroom on a small Victorian terrace.
Builders quote for the build, electricals, plastering, bathroom plumbing and installation but not the bathroom fixtures:
£35K + vat for the basic work
£3K + vat for roof replacement - needed doing so made sense to get it done at the same timeWhat we actually paid:
42K + vat (50.4K with VAT) to the builders - extra cost was replacing the main beam which was too bowed give the headroom (they warned us upfront that was a risk)4.2k for the mist system, firedoor etc (excludes redecoration which we still have not done... so if you want to see how disruptive the the mist system installation is I can do some pics)
5K for the bathroom fittings and tiling
2.5K for carpets and decoration
So basically 64K all in including a new roof, mist system and decoration, North London terrace 2019 prices.
brokenbetty-
Thanks for the info. So we're not completely open plan, we still have most of the corridor but no door to the kitchen and a double wide opening into the rear reception room. We already have wired smoke and heat alarms in the kitchen and hallways and would rather have them in all rooms than switching to fire doors. The only unknown is the downstairs and this 'Fire Corridor' rule. Will have a look into these mist systems and see if I can get hold of a building control inspector to sound them out on what the options might be.
motman
We're also in the process of planning a loft conversion.
Did think about going down the architect route and got in touch with one that our neighbours used but found out their build cost £90k all in! I think it makes more sense to find a good company specialising in lofts and who will care about the detailing etc. I've been looking at examples of previous work and quizzing them on how they approach things. So far I've got 4 rough quotes of between £50k - £65 for an L shaped dormer with 2 bedrooms and a seperate shower room. Those quotes don't include the bathroom suite or decorating either.
Still waiting on some more detailed costs and the thing that is giving me a headache now is Fire regs as we have more of an open plan layout on the ground floor which might be a problem. Hoping that connected smoke alarms everywhere will be enough but trying to get hold of someone at Lewisham's planning dept is proving to be tricky