Loft Conversions

[DRAFT COPY — for review at Gate 1b]

The space is already there. We turn it into a room that meets building regulations for fire escape, stairs, insulation and headroom, rather than a boarded attic with a ladder.

The common types are rooflight conversions, dormers, hip-to-gable, and mansards where the roof and the street allow one. Which one suits your house depends on the existing roof shape and the headroom you actually have.

A loft floor was built to hold a ceiling, not a bedroom, so new floor joists and steels sized by a structural engineer are part of nearly every conversion. The staircase is designed alongside them, because where it lands downstairs shapes the whole job.

The joinery half of the firm finishes the room — stairs, doors, eaves storage and fitted wardrobes into the awkward angles a loft always has.

A loft conversion within the boundary of the property usually does not need planning permission, because it normally falls under permitted development. There are exceptions: some dormers, some streets, conservation areas, and houses where permitted development rights have already been used or removed. Building control inspects the work either way. We tell you which applies to your house before work starts. This is general guidance, not legal advice.

Where a conversion touches the structure below the loft, that work is covered on our Structural Alterations page.