Loft Conversion

[Bazman]

Hi there,

Just bought a property and looking to add a loft conversion.

I'll have an architect draw up the plans first. Generally though how much should I epxect pay for a conversion the property in is south (very south) east London.

I had some guesstimates and they have varied from £25-£40k for cirva 55m^2 floor space.

I'd really like to hear of your first hand experiences with such developments. What kinds of conversion can be done and the relative merits of each.

I won't necessarily take the cheapest price butat the same time I need a genuine reason to pay more.

Any recommendations on architects/builders warmly received.

[buildingplans]

What type of roof is it, old cut roof type or modern trussed rafter roof? That affects the amount of structural work. Are the new stairs easy to fit in? Can you provide for a protected corridor for fir escape purposes without too much work?
The point I trying to make is that without a lot more information on what's there at present it's virtually impossible to make any guess at the amount of work involved. Why don't you just get someone round to give you advice and they can then assess your particular circumstances, otherwise it's just a wild guess I'm afraid :-)

[tony keller]

How is your loft conversion project going?

[zaccolbert]

Definitely don't cut corners, and get someone you trust to do the work, my mate recently had a loft conversion done and nearly got ripped off by a bunch of cowboy builders, in the end he went with the more expensive quote but he knew the crew and they were very straight up and honest with their numbers, and it paid off in the sense that he avoided a lot of stress

[brian]

That's a very good point - as the saying goes "buy cheap, buy twice". Only, it can often be a lot more than twice you have to pay if something goes wrong!