Owning your own home

I had them fit two heads in my ex council flat before selling. They were very professional, not the cheapest, but the most convincing/reassuring. 1st fix and making good was a substantial cost, but reduced by Mistek being open to different head positions that worked better with the layout/access.

Happy to share more via PM.

Might be less of a faff for me to get a glass partition & doors put in.

This is 'sometime in the future' thinking - but has anyone done a loft conversion which is like posh boarding out with insulation in the rafters, ceiling and floor added, but no rooms? That's what I'd like to do - with 1 opening rooflight and an electrical socket or two. Maybe no fixed stair (so it doesn't become a 'habitable room'). Basically to make it a warm controlled space instead of a cold draughty space.

I was literally about to ask the same thing! 3-bed semi with a young child that will need their own room in a year or so. Not in a position to buy somewhere bigger as wife has cut work hours massively, but have a decent amount of savings. Would be happy to give it a go myself, with the exception of the roof light and electrics...

Yeah not sure if I feel confident about DIYing. Just wondering how the work and costs compare with doing rooms and ensuites etc. I'm guessing for a child's room you'd need a fixed stair, a door and a decent fire escape strategy.

I'm guessing for a child's room you'd need a fixed stair, a door and a decent fire escape strategy.

And possibly some windows

I did this several years ago which probably cost less than 5k but that was pre children. Currently selling that house (been renting it out) but can't market it as a habitable room.
It was done 'properly' with beams between party walls and new floor joists between the beams.

3 Attachments

Yeah that's exactly the kind of thing I have in mind. Very much not a bedroom. Did you DIY it?
I'm nervous about not getting the vapour control and ventilation right and ending up with mouldy rafters. (But I think many builders don't get this right either.)

Bear in mind that if/when selling a non-compliant room usually becomes a negotiation point as everyone assumes the room is priced in regardless.

I guess the big issue is getting the steels in. That's going to take some fairly substantial work regardless of the rest.

I had roof replaced (new battens/Tyvek membrane/etc ) and at the time had the beams lifted in. These were the a pair of timber joists bolted together (225x50 I think)
I did everything else apart from the skimming.

I wasn't concerned about selling it without Building regs as it didn't cost 40k. I guess it depends what you want it for/money available.

It's a trade-off between vapour control, insulation and headroom.

It seems that vapour control is often at the bottom of the list.

We have to keep a window permanently open, or I'm woken by dripping sounds...

^ That looks nice up there though.

I imagine you could completely obviate the need to be compliant with building regs by sticking a hatch across the opening, turning it into a fancy storage space.

[Edit] Apparently you might need to be compliant just with boarding out the loft. Who knew.

Personally I wouldn't bother to do a dodgy loft unless you really need the space and have no way of finding the cash to do it properly.

Itll cost you more than you think, given the increase in materials, anr won't really add any value to the house, will cause you a load of hassle when you come to sell.

You can probably get a loft company to build a dormer shell to first fix, and it'll cost about 22-25k. You can then do the rest of the work. Yes of course spending 25k is painful but you'll forget about the expenditure when you are 2 or 3 years down the line and enjoying the space.

Obviously if you have absolutely no way of financing it then it's a no go. But if you are considering doing the storage loft instead of the dormer to save some cash (and theoretically could find the money to do it properly) id really urge you to reconsider and do a proper job.

Just my 2ps worth.

tbh this

borrowing more to do a proper job would be preferable to using just savings to do a part-job.

Obviously easy to say, speaking from a position of privilege etc

^ and ^^ I also agree with this.

Maxim: don't do weird shit to your house.

Final stages of work starting on our front door refurb. Hopefully finished this weekend. I wish all trades were as considerate.

1 Attachment

Mine wasn't 'dodgy' or 'weird' - I'm an architectural technician and it was constructed properly (just by me)
I think there are options apart from handing over £££ to a builder and you are happy to take on some of the work yourself

It's fine for you, it's more the next person who will be looking at it thinking do I have to rip that out and start again? What crazies will I find underneath?

(appreciate that can be the case with developer built and signed off works too, but home brewed and left field stuff is rightly or wrongly looked at more sceptically)

I think poor choice of language aside, there would be a full job, a part job and nothing. Of course there is a sliding scale to the quality of the work/space and people will value this differently when living/buying/selling. But I would still suggest that doing a full/proper job for the majority of people should be the option to go for and fully explored before doing something alternative.

Yep. I looked at a few places with unofficial loft conversions. In my mind I valued them at less than just having an unconverted loft because there was the nagging feeling that something may go terribly wrong.

Obviously if you're planning to stay in the place long term then that is less of an issue.

If you do your research (building regs) maybe sketch out what you are having done and take progress photos I think this would be a benefit but undoubtedly it won't add as much value as an official build.

I viewed a house with a converted attic once and they'd just boarded the ceiling joists and they had two teenage boys living up there! I could feel feel the floor deflect walking round!

I would look at what is involved it converting the attic officially (self closing doors/open plan/sprinklers/access/etc and see if that's the route you want to go down. Otherwise you could get a builder to add the new floor joists/beams/rooflights and do the rest yourself?

thinking do I have to rip that out and start again? What crazies will I find underneath?

In our case we weren't thinking that at all when we bought the place with a "professional"-but-not-extra-room conversion that looked all cute and have ended up with a never ending stream of "WTF?!", "WHYYYYYY" and "You cheap f*cking f*cks".

Otherwise you could get a builder to add the new floor joists/beams/rooflights and do the rest yourself?

I wish we had done this when we had the roof redone, but now I can only assume it would be silly money and never going to be legit anyway given the state it's in (staircase emerges in the middle of the floor), but want to make sure it's safe/sensible etc.

Have already vetoed the stupid-heavy futon thing left by the previous owners going back up there or any sort of sleeping arrangement. Just going to run a desk along one of the walls for home office, maybe couple of beanbags/soft chair and bit of storage.

@hoefla going down the diy insulation+boarding+finishing route. We've had the roof replaced, new battens and a breather membrane, also couple of slate vents (not that I understand the purposed of them) and a new Velux. Going with 2 layers of the spaceblanket insulation as we have skinny rafters and we'll only loose 25mm in height compared to the original room. Eaves on one side will be warm storage, other half (with adjoining felted bathroom roof will be cold). Will make sure there's access to check the rafters periodically until I'm confident it's all working. Hoping there should be enough airflow.

Now that I've started thinking about this again, I wish we'd stumped up for a dormer/sacked it all off and turned it back into a loft/bought another house. Thankfully I have things to fix in the cellar this weekend. Hopefully this all passes when we get it finished.

Looks like a homicide scene tbf

At least it will be clean outside of that!

Too many replies to reply to!
I have no intention of doing a 'dodgy' or 'unofficial' loft conversion. I'm very concerned with maintaining structural and material integrity. No wobbly floor, no interstitial condensation. Consideration of fire safety. Building regulations.

Basically I have a space up there that 1. isn't used, not even for storage because it gets so hot and cold that everything would get ruined and covered in crap, and 2. adding an opening rooflight would enable much better ventilation in the summer. I don't need 2 extra bedrooms or a bathroom or whatever, just considering whether that space can be part of the house and not just a weird large unusable volume sitting at the top of it. Fancy storage basically. Another option is to put in an opening roof light over the stair and break up through the loft to reach it, ignoring the rest. I'm guessing the bigger job is at least 10 years away because I'm going to spend all my money in the next couple of years insulating all over the place and fixing the bathroom. Possibly by then I'll have decided to covert the hip into a gable, extend the stair, add a master bedroom, ensuite, etc I just don't see any need for it now or in the near future.

getting the steels in

This isn't always necessary, and something I'd want to avoid: old houses aren't designed to carry additional steel beams, getting them in is disruptive and expensive, it's a big material/resource impact. I've worked on quite a few loft conversions with reinforcement in small plywood and timber elements (joists, floors, webbing where bits of trusses are removed) and it's a much more pleasant process when all the pieces can be carried manually. You do need a willing structural engineer whose solution does not default to steel beams.