UKC

Evening everybody,

Yes, having a loft conversion.
It is a 1950's 3 bed semi with a good full length loft space with 8 foot high apex on the roof. Old obstructive steel truss needs taking out, new steels puttng in. New stair case that will need the walls of two existing bedrooms being shifted slightly.
All the designs and structural calculations have been done. There is no requirement for decoration or fitting of feaures, except 3 velux and insulation........ 25-30 K ????

This is the first quote I have had.....is that the going rate these days??
I don't have the foggiest, but the builder, who is reliable, began to detail the procedure and it did seem to add up to a fairly large sum. Labour was estimated at 3-4 weeks.

Anybody give me some guidance on this, or have a figure for there own conversion.
I live in Harrogate, which probably adds 5K on the price just for the postcode !!!

Thanks in advance.

Sean.

In reply to sbc_10:
Get three quotes based on the same spec then decide.

In reply to sbc_10:
There are some specialist loft conversion companies that give you a rough estimate based on their online configuration. Unfortunately I can't remember which ones sorry, 25k seems ok, 30k a bit steep if your not having a bathroom unless they are doing serious roof work (e.g. Moving perlins etc). Just re-read the bit about moving walls, are these stud walls?

In reply to Tyler:

They are brick / breeze block at the mo., but will become stud walls I would image.

In reply to sbc_10:

I reckon 25k sounds about right for a Velux conversion. When you say features.. do you mean skirting, doors ect or just paint?
90% of my work Is loft conversions and refurbs. Most of them tend to have an en-suite and we include all finishing and they usually end up around 40k.

In reply to elliott92:

Well the grand plan at the moment is to use the top floor as a storage area as the rest of the house gets renovated. So I have no need for even paint. Doors and skirting would be to keep dust out/in and stop draughts. When I am in a position to add carpets / flooring / cupboards /storage etc I will decide about en-suite and the final layout.
It is a good enough size that I am not too limited in where the wet facilities can go.
This first step is to get a habitable and fire regulated room.

In reply to sbc_10:

£25-30k doesn't seem out of the ordinary, you're still having some structural work done (steel beams and walls moved). A full on dormer and ensuite type conversion could easily be £40-50k depending on the spec.
As you say, where you live has a bearing on it so perhaps get a quote from a less local firm, one that normally works in a cheaper area and might not load the price.
I once had a partial conversion done by a firm from Oldham (cheap area) on my N. Cheshire house (expensive area) because they came in a lot less than local firms.

In reply to sbc_10:

My mate runs a company that specialises in loft conversions, and from what he's said about jobs previously, that sounds about the right price.

In reply to sbc_10:

I'm with you now. Bare in mind that you may well have to have all the doors in your
House changed to fire doors and/or radial linked smoke alarms fitted to protect means of fire escape and get the conversion passed on final. You could get it signed off at a later date once all the refurb work is done though.
Might be worth putting in the services for en-suite before the floor is fully fixed and walls plastered too.
Hope it goes well mate.

In reply to elliott92:

Thanks. Yes a bit of a step into the unknown, even though at my age I should know better. About getting on top of the mortgage as well and it looks like it will leap to just over the horizon again....such is life.

Good advice from all the respondents. Cheers everybody.

SBC

In reply to sbc_10:





Yep - £25k ball park sounds reasonable. Two things to look in to:

1) When we had our loft converted one of our Velux windows had to be positioned a specified distance from the guttering to allow egress in the event of fire.

2) The loft space has to have fire resistance for a given burn-time (normally 30 minutes). Makes sure your builder knows this figure for your region. Our builder thought the figure was 20 minutes (because that was the rule in his area), and as a result we had to have all of our first floor ceiling re-plastered to improve fireproofing (rather than rip the loft flooring and walls up). As you can imagine, this then meant we had to redecorate the whole of the first floor!

In reply to Shani:

Thanks Shani. Yes I opted in with a design consultant for the plans/structural engineering work who have sorted out the planning applications and all H & S requirements and have building regulations inspectors due to visit during and after the build. There are horror stories aplenty about 3 to 4 bedroom conversions that sadly remain 3 bedrooms after the builders leave but with an added costly, roomy unplanned stairwell....

In reply to sbc_10:


One other thing we did was to get access hatches put in to the walls so we could get in to the eaves on each side of the house. We boarded the eves out and put lights in there and now have huge and long storage facilities down each side of the house.

In reply to Shani:

+1 for eave storage. (Another note) most people will celtoex the dwarf walls as it is less of a ball ache to do rather than continuing the celotex down the rafter length to where it strikes the wall plate. If you plan on keeping anything that doesn't like the damp (photo albums (that naked selfie of the your ex that you've been hiding for years) then it is better to take the celotex down the rafter otherwise your
eave storage will be a cold spot and you'll get damp.

In reply to Shani:

PPS I always prefer to put the dwarf walls in at either 1000mm or 1200.. any smaller than that then it looks shit when pushing a bed or chests of drawers against it. If said carpenter says the walls need to go on top of the steel for structure then they can always build another dwarf wall (non-structural) in front to give you this better height 👍