V-shaped (as opposed to inverted-V) loft conversion

[eshroom]

Looking to buy a top floor flat with a V shaped roof - only seen inverted V-shaoped roofs before.

Am I able to convert the loft (I would own the space and the freehold owner said he would give permission to alter the structure)? Building is c.1900 in north London. A loft conversion would essentially mean turning the roof into a flat roof and raising it up by about 1 meter.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Looking to buy a top floor flat with a V shaped roof - only seen inverted V-shaoped roofs before.

Eh? Wos that then?

 

[eshroom]

Eh? Wos that then?

Not sure about your question so I'll answer it with a drawing.

The house on the right in the middle represents the one I would like to buy the top floor flat in. Notice how they are terraced but different heights - they were built at different times and in different styles - which makes the inverted roofs all the weirder.

Would I be allowed to extend up or am I unlikely to get planning permission with this sort of set-up?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Are they really all such different heights and with vertical faces? That's pretty odd I gotta say. What is the rest of the street like and opposite? If they're all the same sorta style I' think getting a flatty up there won't bode well. If the street is a mix of allsorts with a few flattys about then probably a goer. Pretty hard to sat tbh. Any chance of a photo? Google Street View can be good for this kind thing do a screen grab or similar and miss out he road name if you like.

 

[leew2]

The permitted development rules were drawn up assuming everyone had square houses with regular pictched roofs so when you have an unusual house you can easily run into gray areas.
I would say that you could fit a flat roof up there as permitted development as what you would effectivly be doing is building two side dormers (which are PD) which touch each other.
To be PD, it would have to be lower than the existing ridgelines and also be less than 40m^3 in additinal volume.

Of couse it is always recommend that you obtain a certificate of lawfulness before doing anything like this, especially when you are in a gray area. Once you have a certificate of lawfulness and providing it's built to the submitted plans then no enforcement action can be taken.
A certificate of lawfulness is simply a conformation that what you want to do is permitted development thus there is no oppertunity for people to object to it.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

The permitted development rules were drawn up assuming everyone had square houses with regular pictched roofs so when you have an unusual house you can easily run into gray areas.
I would say that you could fit a flat roof up there as permitted development as what you would effectivly be doing is building two side dormers (which are PD) which touch each other.
To be PD, it would have to be lower than the existing ridgelines and also be less than 40m^3 in additinal volume.

Of couse it is always recommend that you obtain a certificate of lawfulness before doing anything like this, especially when you are in a gray area. Once you have a certificate of lawfulness and providing it's built to the submitted plans then no enforcement action can be taken.
A certificate of lawfulness is simply a conformation that what you want to do is permitted development thus there is no oppertunity for people to object to it.

None of that applies to flats http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/pe...#Iwanttobuildaloftconversioninmytopfloorflat.

 

[eshroom]

If you check the google map below on the left side, you will see the three houses, on the right of them there is a pitched roof house and on the left a flat roof house.

My only issue with a flat roof, without extending any higher, is that I can't knock through the wall to create any windows, so it would be strange to only have natural light coming from the ceiling.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Oh I see so you've got a parapet at the front anyway so you're saying to get the headroom you need to add 1m onto the height of this?

Whilst the street scene isn't the prettiest, sticking a 1m high block on top of one is gonna stick out, pretty hard to judge how the planners would view it IMO. May be advantageous to step the wall back a bit to minimize the impact. I would say seek some pre-planning advice from the local planning department. If the only way a sale stacks up is if you had to do the conversion then you'd have to get an application in. Nothing anyone from your planning department says or writes can be taken for granted except that bit of paper with 'permission granted' written on it. Bear in mind you'll need at least two party wall agreements.
.
True you're not going to get any views but them's the breaks!

 

[Sledge]

Gambrel dormers are one way these can go. Not exactly your situation, but if you imagine your parapet where the red brick is ... was that your idea? Anything like it locally?