Loft Conversion Cost....

A question about : Loft Conversion Cost....

I'm considering having my loft converted to give us more space should we choose to have another child.

My house is a traditional mid-terraced house which originally would have been a 'two up two down' but has the typical rear extension for the bathroom and kitchen from the 40s.

When I had it re-roofed I had a velux window put in on the south facing side. What sort of price should I be expected to pay to have the loft completely renovated into a 3rd bedroom?

I will need the staircase, floor boarded in most places, the roof space insulated, water tank hidden away, a radiator and electrical points put in and the new room left ready to carpet and decorate.

Oddly no houses on my road seem to have had any loft conversions done but on other streets most have.

Best answers:

• Anyone please?!
• You don't need planning permission for purely internal works - the only parts that may need it are dormer windows or velux windows. Velux don't normally require permission as they are not generally held to be development, unless there are conditions on previous planning permissions which state no additional windows can be inserted. A front dormer will need permission (if the front faces a road or footpath) and a rear dormer will need permission if you are in a conservation area, AONB or National Park.
• You'll need to comply with building regs now & get steel supports put in if you want it to be used as a room. Expect to pay about Ј35,000 inc decoration for that.
• I think 35k is high for a mid terrace conversion - assuming no dormer. The main concern is always getting sufficient height above a staircase into the loft to make it viable.
  You need 2 big I beam steels going accross your house I guess between the 2 party walls - this is then used to hang the new floor joists from - you cant just use the existing ceiling joists as is.
• our lost conversion cost Ј28,000 last year, this included all building regs, steels x 3, fire doors, wired smoke alarms all ready for us to decorate.
  regarding building regs and steels, the steels are to support the floor as the existing ceiling joists are not strong enough for regular walking on, and building regs will want to see the steels just after they have been put in, if you ever wanted to sell your house and didnt get building regs to sign off the steels, your would not be able to state th loft as a room.
  this is what happpened to a friend, thought they were doing it right and spent about Ј15k and now they just use the loft for storage.
  bride
• We are hoping to do a loft conversion soon we have had the plans done and got building regs in place. We live in a 1930 mid terrece house so not a big house at all. We have been quoted from Ј36,500 for a full build (with dormer) to Ј18,500 for a part build. Our plans had to be redone as not enough steel beams we now have 6 steel beams in all. We need a dormer to get the head hight for the stairs, the only way to get the new stairs in was to have them dog legged over the exsisting stair case which also means knocking down and moving the badroom wall.
• A friend of mine in Scotland had their 3bed traditional semi converted for about Ј5000. This was no dormer, just literally putting plasterboard up, plastering, flooring, stairs etc. They had their stairs going off their study rather than in a cupboard or anything which I think made it a lot cheaper, as they essentially access it through a 'loft hatch' (but grander and bigger!)
• You would to check the new stairs dont affect the size of the existing bedroom as well
• That sounds expensive
• The problem with these, is there are an awful lot of facts to consider which affect the final price.
  How may rooms will it be split into
  En-suite fitted?
  Final finish
  How many windows
  Dormer, or velux
  ...and so on.
  If your roof is trussed, it will be more expensive as well. Considerable reinforcement has to be put in before the trusses can be removed.
  In our (terraced) house, we have a trussed roof - it would be around Ј3500 for the structural work alone. I could probably do the rest myself for maybe Ј2000, but not all people have this ability.
  You really do need to shop around for quotes on these and get as many recommendations as possible.
  Quotes can vary wildly to say the least.
• I converted my loft with ensuite (with Dormer and juliet balcony) to our detached house myself to full building regs - no planning permission required as doen under permitted development!
  Cost - Ј13,000
  Obviously that is cheaper cos I did alot of the work myself and saved loads shopping around for materials but I did use a roofer for most of the building work and a plasterer and an electrician.
  I did get alot of quotes prior to deciding to do it myself, these ranged from over Ј35,000 down to Ј20,000.
  I reckon I could have done mine even cheaper now due to the recession and cheaper steel prices (I used 6 steel beams at a cost of Ј2000)
  If your planning on converting a terrace house then you will need a party wall agreement (usually drawn up by a solicitor) as you will be effecting your neighbours walls. This can be a bit of a pain if you dont get on with them!
  You also need to factor in were you live as prices differ between part of the country.
  I would think in todays current climate for an average loft conversion you should be paying around Ј8-10,000 for a non dormer with no ensuite
  around Ј13-17,000 with a dormer and add another Ј3k for an ensuite.
  Anymore than that and there taking the p*** unless of course you live in London!!!
• Did one in Cheltenham last year, Ј26K all in with an en-suite and 2 veluxes
  This price is slightly higher than average loft conversion as we had to put steels into the party walls as the timbers wernt strong enough
  On average expect to pay Ј18 - Ј23K
• Hi,
  I bought my current property about 8 years ago and it already had the loft converted, but not to building regs as far as the owners know, so it was sold a useful loft rooms.
  Is there anyway to get someone to inspect the installation retrospecivley and see if there's any way to make it meet regs without breaking the bank?
  It's a mid-terrace 2 storey building with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor.
  There is no firedoor at the bottom of the loft stairwell, but there is a doorway, so one could be fitted between this and the main stairs. Do the other doors leading onto the stairwell all need to be upgraded to fire doors?
  Head height may also be an issue though anyone know what the clearance needs to be?
  They also seem to have dine something funny with the main staircase as at one point headheight is really low, perhaps they moved the original staircase or changed it's orientation.
  any advice, links etc appreciated.
• WAs quoted Ј45K by three different companys 8 years ago! I am in rip-off London.