Building a Dorma Window

[JellyBean123]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how much this would cost?

We have a 2 bed house but both bedrooms have sloped ceilings with about a metre or so flat level in the middle (at a ROUGH guess) My step daughter has one and we have the other. We need another room for a new baby, there is no way the two children can really share, even though my step daughter only stays over every 2 week for one night, it is her room really.

My partner is saying that we can build a dorma on the back to open out the rooms and build a wall down the middle to make two rooms for the kids.

Obviously we will look into an official quote but I have a feeling that it is going to be impossible and if so I would like to think of a new idea.

Thank you for your help.

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Hi Jellybean - done exactly what you describe in our house over the last 12months - done most of the work myself but got a builder in to do the external shell of the dorma and roof. That cost in the region of £6500 plus VAT for his labour, plus around £3,000-£3,500 on materials (plus VAT again). Ours is a flat roof dormer about 4m wide.

Hope that gives you some idea of price but it'll depend what style of dormer you're building, how big it is, what materials you're using and what your roof is like at the moment. Ours had no insulation whatsoever beforehand so we've had to insulate all the roof as part of the works!

 

[JellyBean123]

Thanks for that message.

Was half of what my partner suggested it would be, but like you say depends on the state of the roof etc. And then you've got to think you have a 6 month old child and no bedroom whilst the works are being done so I imagine is VERY disruptive and don't think I would cope. As well as the fact that we don't have money to pay for it and despite what partner thinks we're not going to have that kind of money in 2 years never mind 6 months.

So I think I'll do another post about how much a builder/plumber whoever would charge to dig a waste pipe in the dining room to move the bathroom from upstairs to downstairs. And the other half can do the rest as he is an electrician and general DIYer!!

Thanks!

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Jellybean - we started our loft conversion 13months ago when my wife was 7months pregnant As its been a predominantly DIY conversion and i've only really had weekends to do it in (and not every weekend at that) we're only just coming to the end of it so we've had the birth of our second child in the middle of the works (and we had a home birth!!) and she's now 11months old. It hasn't been easy and if i ever do it again, we'll find somewhere else to live whilst the work is going on.

To be fair, our job hasn't just consisted of work to the loft - to fit the new staircase in and comply with fire regs we've had to change almost every room in the house so its been a fair job. By the sound of it, your loft is already habitable so the work would probably be quicker, easier and less disruptive - consequently it'll be cheaper but the prices i quoted are my best guess at what the dormer part of the project cost us (although that doesn't allow for my labour which we obviously haven't had to pay for)