Loft conversion: Dormer, gable or nowt?

[Longshanks]

Hi

Please see piccies recently uploaded to album. Am just about to go up to measure the dimensions of loft (may be the 8m rewquired).

The house is a Wimpey home built in 1980. All other things being equal does it look OK for a loft job? If so which type would you suggest?

Many thanks

L

 

[Static]

Hi

Please see piccies recently uploaded to album. Am just about to go up to measure the dimensions of loft (may be the 8m rewquired).

The house is a Wimpey home built in 1980. All other things being equal does it look OK for a loft job? If so which type would you suggest?

Many thanks

L

Urm these are all external photos.. take some from inside the loft space.. for all we know you have a truss roof (very common for mass house builders)..

Also measure the floor to apex height as well as some overall roof dims.. etc..

Oh and consider where your stairs will go..

 

[noseall]

You have roof trusses.

These do not lend themselves well to conversion.

Not impossible but £££££'s.

 

[Longshanks]

Hi

Have now included foties of trusses and joists etc. These are far from scientific measurements but the distance from apex to floor is about 87" so a little short of the 8 ft recommended. Distance from left to right is about 15 ft 4 in and front to back about 23 ft 6 in.

Does that seem about standard for a standard Wimpey home built in 1980?

Many thanks

L

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

87" is 2.2m. With an apex height of 2.2m, once you take off say around 75mm at head height for insulation & boarding beneath the existing trusses and add on around 200mm at the floor you will be left with around 1935mm floor - ceiling height. This is gonna make it fairly unfeasible/impractical. Probably ok as a kids room though. At the very least you will need a huge dormer on the rear, trusses aside. Converting a loft with trusses is not quite as bad as noseall says, more expensive and tricky but not impossible. You will have to either brush up on your drawing skills or pay a techy for some feasibility. If your dimensions are internal from wall to wall I would say you may possibly get a tiny ensuite and a bedroom up there although a ceiling height of 1900mm would put me off. With some clever engineering/detailing you could maybe get that up to 2 or 2.05m. Domers, so long as you're not in a conservation area etc generally do not need planning permission however it would be so big as to look pretty unsightly. That said its your house.

It would probably make more sense to move house.

 

[Longshanks]

Thanks

Just confirming what I thought. The loft conversion was meant to be a cheaper alternative to moving!

Wondered why I hadn't seen many dormers around here!

Thanks again.

L