Loft Conversion

[fez]

We have a 4 bed detached house with a roof that needs quite a lot of work. Perhaps needs replacing. All the guttering needs replacing (its old cast iron, cracked, leaking etc). Now I work from home full time and my partner also works from home perhaps 1 day every other week so we are thinking that this would be a good chance to kill many birds with one stone.

We want solar and batteries, we want to completely change the heating/hot water system so we can have a nice waterfall shower and ideally we would like another bathroom.

We're in the process of starting to look into all this but the sticking point at the moment is architects. Those that have done this, did you get an architect who specialises in loft conversions? Go with a company that does everything for you? Just find an independent firm/architect. From looking around there are plenty available but obviously their marketing material on their sites is all "look at this amazing eco house we built" rather than "look at this boring loft conversion".

I'm kind of of the view that loft conversions in general are dull and paint by numbers but this might be completely wrong. I have no doubt there is some complexity to the implementation but I also don't want to be hiring an expensive architect to do something which doesn't require that.

So what are peoples thoughts. What route did you guys with loft conversions go down?

 

[Calpol]

It was a few years ago now but we went with a firm called Econoloft. No need to architects they came and measured and drew it all up. I did have to get them to make an ammendment as they initially drew it with a stair intrusion in a bedroom which would have been odd so I asked them to re-configure and it worked out well. At the time, probably 2009ish it cost about £25k to create an additional room and landing in our 4 bed detached home. Needed a couple of big steels but the whole thing was pretty straightforward. I used the room as a male retreat and office during covid and now its my music / home cinema room. Not massive but a useful space.

The only tip I would give you would be to get aircon installed as the velux windows don't vent well enough to keep it cool. Without Aircon it would be unliveable in summer. Never needed to turn the rad on though as heat from house seems to keep it pretty warm.

Overall it was a really good way to extend our house for a relatively modest amount. We still have storage in eves and where CH header tank is so no loss of practical places for your xmas tree etc.
I recommend it. We kept ours low key without any dormer as I didn't want the house to scream loft conversion so just have two velux windows.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

The Velux windows with the powered sun/storm shutters do decent job of reducing solar heating, but judging by the last 2-3 summers, A/C as well seems a good idea.

 

[Semple]

We had a builder and architect who specialise in loft conversions. As I don't have permitted development rights the architects drawing for the planning application had to be specific. Especially as Manchester council are pretty ruthless at rejecting applications because there may be something about the design/drawing that they don't like. Also they no longer provide a free resubmission, so anytime they reject it would cost a whole new application fee. Meaning you were really reliant on the experience and expertise of the architect to get a drawing approved first time.

If you've got cast iron guttering then I'm going on a wild guess that your house is an older house? For that reason alone I'd stick with a specialist because you may need things like the existing first floor height adjusting, or positioning of the steels might dictate the design and layout of the top floor.

 

[Semple]

The Velux windows with the powered sun/storm shutters do decent job of reducing solar heating, but judging by the last 2-3 summers, A/C as well seems a good idea.

They're incredibly pricey last time I looked? Velux windows even their basic models already have quite a premium.