Are you a bookworm who enjoys losing yourself in the world of books? Then converting your loft into a reading room or personal library could be the perfect haven.

Whether or not you’re a book lover, research has found that reading books reduces your stress levels by 68%, something many of us could benefit from. So even if reading isn’t something that usually interests you, then perhaps incorporating a quiet, designated room in your house could encourage you to slow down your busy day-to-day life.

Loft conversions can provide many different options for extra space, but a library can really offer a place for you to switch off and escape the rest of the house. Alternatively, you could create an office or study room, with a dedicated reading nook, giving you even more value for your money.

Here are some ways to turn your dusty old attic into a fictional wonderland.

Bookcase

You can’t have a library without shelving, so at the top of the list is a bookcase, to store all your much-loved books. Book storage is both practical and aesthetically pleasing, and you can make it completely personal to you.

From modern and minimalist shelving to traditional mahogany furniture, you can store your contemporary coffee table books to your classic antique hardbacks however you like. Why not colour coordinate your bookshelf? Creating your very own library conversion means you can have it custom-made.

Storage

Depending on how you use the space, you can store other miscellaneous household items in the loft. You could invest in furniture that includes built-in seating, keeping the room clutter-free, while still providing storage space away from the main house.

If you’re planning on using your reading room as a study too, then you could store any documents or files you need, keeping everywhere tidy and organised.

Furniture

To fully enjoy a good book, you’ll need a comfy seat! You want the room to be cosy, inviting, and most importantly somewhere you can wind down on a rainy afternoon or at the end of a long day.

A cosy armchair will do the trick, or even a sofa to really stretch out. Perhaps a seat fitted into a sloping wall will create the perfect reading sanctuary for you, like a window seat or a day bed.

Lighting

You don’t want to strain your vision when you’re reading, so make sure you have light to see what you’re reading. If you want to keep it snug and intimate then a reading lamp will illuminate the pages with soft lighting, while also making a nice feature in the room.

Alternatively, if you want a light and airy space then installing skylights into your loft roof will offer natural light, perfect for reading and keeping the room bright and calm.

Colour Scheme

Again, this comes down to personal taste. If you’re wanting to create a tranquil space then simple white walls will work, while neutral and pastel shades will create interest without being distracting. Remember, you want the room to focus purely on reading and resting.

Get Reading

Now you know the basics, you can create the space however you like. All that’s left to do is get reading!

There are several ways to insulate a loft conversion, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

The two parts of a loft which can be insulated are the floor and the roof. Depending on your budget and plans for the new loft conversion, you may want to do only one of these or both.

There are also two things to insulate for: heat and sound.

Insulating the Roof

Insulating the sloping part of the underside of your roof is done with rigid foam insulation, such as Kingspan. Sheets are cut to size and fixed in place between the rafters.

Virtually all loft conversions should have this. The only types of conversion which would not incorporate this kind of insulation is one which is purely for storage. Even in this case, insulating the underside of the roof is always recommended.

If your property is an older house with a loft which has already been boarded out, you may find that the roof has been insulated already. Good quality, modern insulation is superior to many of the older generations of insulation, so even if you already have some insulation it may still be worth replacing it.

For loft conversions where sound is a factor, you may want to insulate the roof with a product which has sound deadening properties too. Sound insulation will prevent sound coming in or out, which can be useful for:

The structure of a roof is relatively thin compared with most house walls, so there is a good change you will hear loud traffic and other noises unless you insulate against it.

If you plan on playing loud music, DJing or practicing the drums late at night, insulting the underside of the roof could help maintain good relations with your neighbours.

Insulating the Floor

If you have a virgin loft which has never been boarded there is a good chance that you will already have insulation above the ceiling of the top floor of your property.

In many cases, this insulation comes in soft thick rolls which are laid out between the ceiling joists, directly on to the plasterboard or lathe and plaster. These rolls are often deeper than the joists which they sit beside because they are more effective the thicker they are.

If your property already has this type of insulation, it is not recommended that you remove it or squash it down so that you can fix boards directly to the joists. Squashing this insulation reduces its effectiveness and removing it entirely will make the existing top floor of your house feel much colder.

Best practice is to use ‘stools’ which can be fixed directly to the top of the joists and will sit proud of the insulation, allowing the loft to be boarded out without compromising the warmth of the floor below.

You may also wish to explore sound insulation between your loft conversion and the rest of your house if you need peace and quiet in your new space or are planning to make a lot of noise in it.

Having your loft converted can create an amazing transformation in your home, but it often raises the question of how to access it, using a ladder or making a proper staircase?

The answer to that question may depend on your intended use of the new space, but unless you are planning to use the conversion solely for storage, installing a staircase is usually the better option.

Let’s look at the pros and cons for each choice:

Ladder Access Only

Pros

Cons

Stair Access

Pros

Cons

Safety

Both stairs and ladders have an inherent safety issue in that they are both putting the user at risk of falling from a height in some way – people fall down stairs all the time and people fall off ladders all the time.

Ladders are significantly more dangerous than stairs as the likelihood of falling off a ladder and the severity of the injuries which could be sustained from said fall are both much worse than falling on stairs.

It is worth noting that on most major construction sites in the UK ladders are banned. Exceptions are made when in use as access on scaffolding or in locations where a temporary staircase won’t fit, but no-one is allowed to work off a ladder and the standard method of access from one level to another is via a temporary staircase, not a ladder.

This is due to the high incidence of falls and injuries involving ladders.

Utility

Having a staircase up to your loft conversion instead of a ladder could have several benefits:

If you plan to use your loft conversion as an office to work from home, you will need to put a desk and chair in there as a minimum, plus storage and any other equipment that might be required.

On a daily basis, you might want to take a nice cup of hot tea or coffee to your place of work, which would be quite easy on a staircase but genuinely dangerous on a ladder.

Value

Whilst a staircase will be more expensive than a ladder, it is also likely to increase the value of your property by more than the ladder would. For the purpose of valuation, a bedroom with a ladder access might not be considered a ‘bedroom’ by an estate agent – the impact of effectively losing or gaining a bedroom can be huge in terms of the overall value of your house.

You can add a balcony to your home when you get a loft conversion, extension or other building work done.

There are a few things to consider when adding a balcony to a property which doesn’t already have one:

What type of Balcony?

There are four main types of balcony to choose from, some of which may be unsuitable for certain types of property:

A raised platform is the most traditional looking type of balcony where there is a separate platform sticking out from the main building with a door leading to it and some sort of balustrade around the edges.

A rooftop balcony is a flat roof with a door access and balustrade around the edges.

A window balcony is a special type of roof light which is fitted between the rafters of a roof (usually as part of a loft conversion) which opens out to form a platform and balustrade big enough for a person to stand or sit on.

A Juliet balcony is effectively a set of double doors with a balustrade across it, allowing a lot of air and light into a room above ground level without allowing the occupant to go outside.

A Bi-Fold balcony is where the upper part of one wall in a room is removed and replaced with a series of connected windows which can be opened and folded away together at one end, leaving the remaining wall to act as a balustrade and turning the entire room into a balcony.

Where on the property will it be?

Some types of balconies lend themselves to being built in certain places, such as a window balcony which can only be built in a sloping roof.

A rooftop balcony can only be built on a flat roof, so if you are planning to build a single storey extension you could make an access to the roof from a room on the first floor.

If you are having a double height extension, you could have access from a dormer or mansard with a loft conversion.

A Juliet balcony can be built in any vertical wall or in the side of a dormer as part of a loft conversion.

Bi-fold balconies are be built into a wall and benefit from having larger walls to be built into to get the best effect.

Do I need planning permission for a balcony?

With the exception of Juliet Balconies, all types of balcony will need planning permission.

Most of the types of balcony listed will give you a better view of your neighbours (assuming that you have some) and this is likely to be grounds for rejection if you live in quite a built up area.

Having Bi-fold windows doesn’t technically give you a better view than you have previously, but it will require planning permission because it is a significant change to the existing windows, replacing one or two windows with an entire wall of them.

If you would like some advice about building a balcony, extension or loft conversion, please give us a call.

Yes, you can.

There are limiting factors which need to be considered when having a loft conversion in a terraced house, but some of them apply to any kind of loft conversion:

Budget

Loft conversions are not cheap when done properly; and not worth doing cheaply.

The simplest type of loft conversion using only roof lights is still likely to set you back £25k including design, permissions, structural alterations, a staircase, electrics, heating, lighting and finishes.

For an extra £5k-£10k you could have a dormer conversion which will give you significantly more usable floor space, but essentially the more space you gain the more expensive the project will become.

The value of the property will also increase for gaining an extra room and it will increase by a bigger amount for a bigger and better loft conversion, but the precise amount depends on many factors.

Planning Constraints

Loft conversions on terraced houses don’t automatically require planning permission as long as they stay within the bounds of what is known as ‘Permitted Development’.

Permitted Development covers a range of extensions, conversions and other home improvements and was created to reduce bureaucracy within the town planning system and allow small, straight-forward projects to be completed without the need for oversight.

A loft conversion in a terraced house falls within Permitted Development so long as it:

In practice, this means that if you have a terraced house and you want a loft conversion with a dormer looking out over your back garden and a front facing roof light you don’t need planning permission to build it.

Plan Area of the Roof

The area of your existing roof will ultimately limit how much extra space you can have.

Adding a staircase for access will reduce that space, so if you only have a roof light loft conversion you will not have a great deal of usable space. Adding a dormer is the least expensive way to maximize the usable space of your loft.

The last piece of the puzzle is where the stair access will go.

Access from the Floor Below

A proper loft conversion should have a proper staircase.

Your new staircase needs somewhere to start where it doesn’t impede the existing layout of the property and it needs at least 2m headroom at all times until it terminates in the loft.

In some cases the new staircase can mimic the original stairs and continue upwards without needing drastic remodelling of the floor it starts on, but sometimes this will put it into the eaves of the roof and mean that a dormer is required just to create the necessary headroom.

If you are unsure about the potential location of the viability of a staircase for your loft conversion, please give us a call and we will be happy to discuss it with you.

 

What type of loft conversion should I have? 

This is an excellent question and the answer will depend on three things: 

What Types of Loft Conversion Can I have? 

There are four main types of loft conversion, you can read about them here in more detail 

Budget 

People are often surprised how expensive a loft conversion can be, especially if they have had quotes for other building work in the last 5 to 10 years.  

The prices for timber, in particular, have shot up in the last five years and loft conversions require a lot of timber!  

The timber used in rafters is expensive because it is stronger than average wood, also the amount of cutting and shaping required demands a high level of skill, which also doesn't come cheap.  

Aside from the rafters, there will need to be a staircase, a floor, walls and door/window frames which are all made of high-quality timber. 

The cheapest loft conversions usually cost around £25k-£30k (roof lights only) but a conversion of this type is much less appealing when compared with the only slightly more expensive dormer option, which is between £27k and £50k, depending on the size and complexity. 

Dormers are the most popular loft conversion type and are suitable for most houses, but if a property has a hipped roof (as many semi and detached houses do) it is likely a hip-to-gable conversion will be required, which is significantly more expensive, usually costing between £42k and £50k. 

Hip-to-gable and mansard loft conversions replace some or all of the existing roof structure, which is why they are some much more expensive. 

The Existing Property 

The property being converted will often dictate what type of conversion can be performed; deciding factors include: 

A terrace house can't have a hip-to-gable conversion because it won't have a hipped roof. A common option in terrace houses is roof lights in the front elevation and dormers at the rear, as this combination gives a good amount of light and space but doesn't normally require planning permission. 

Getting planning permission for dormers at the front of a house in a terrace might be tricky if the property is directly opposite another house and only a roads' width apart from it. 

A semi or detached property which is further from its neighbours and not directly opposite another house close by is much more likely to gain permission for modifications to the front and sides of the property, especially things like dormers and mansard loft conversions. 

Motives Behind a Loft Conversion 

The reasons a client has for wanting a loft conversion can also affect what type of project they embark on. 

A home office which will be used for 40+ hours per week would need a lot of natural light and space to make it a pleasant place to work in, whereas if space is to be used infrequently or in short bursts (like a Gym) then having a smaller option might be reasonable. 

If you need more advice or want to discuss your ideas with our team, please give us a call today!  

 

Which is better, a loft conversion or an extension? 

The answer to that will ultimately depend on the property being converted/extended as some properties will automatically lend themselves to one or the other. 

Extensions will usually be built on the land around the existing house, most often in the back garden; if the back garden is tiny or if an extension has already been built in the garden, it might be better to convert the loft. 

Conversely, some properties may have lots of land around them and a relatively small roof to convert, which would lend them more to being extended. 

If a client has sufficient budget and space around the property, the best option is to do both at the same time! 

Pros and Cons 

Here is a list of items which apply to both loft conversions and extensions with comparisons. 

Getting approval 

Both loft conversions and extensions can be completed under what is known as 'permitted development', whereby you don't need to make a planning application to the local authority as long as you meet certain criteria. 

For an extension, this means limiting the extension at the rear of the property and single storey only. The extension cannot take up more than 50% of the empty land around the property, which includes previous extensions if they have been made since 1948. 

A loft conversion under permitted development can only have roof lights at the front of the house, but dormers at the back. Dormers, hip-to-gable or mansard conversions which affect the shape of the front or sides of the roof require planning permission, as do balconies. 

Design 

Every project is different, but on balance, the design of a loft conversion is probably trickier because there are more constraints on space and where things like windows and stairs can go. There are, however, fewer things to design in a loft conversion. 

An extension will usually need not just walls and windows but: 

Construction 

The construction pros and cons will vary drastically depending on the size and complexity of a project. 

A simple loft conversion will be cheaper and quicker to build than a large extension and vice versa. 

Loft conversions will usually require scaffolding to at least one elevation of the property and may need the whole house to be completely covered for a sufficiently large project.  

Mansard and hip-to-gable loft conversions require the removal of a lot of the existing roof, replacing the old timber rafters with new ones which provide more space inside. Timber has become very expensive over the last five years and has increased in price more than any other product in construction. 

An extension will also require timber for the roof in most cases, but flat roofs will be much cheaper and simpler to build than a dormer or mansard roof on a house. 

Extensions may still need scaffolding if they are two storeys in height, but they will also need foundations, which can be quite substantial if the ground is poor or contains lots of clay. 

An extension will often connect to the existing property through a new opening in a wall which will need to be supported by a steel beam in most cases. 

If you are not sure whether your house would suit an extension or a loft conversion more, give us a call and we can help you, as we have a great deal of experience with both! 

 

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