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Find Your Happy Place in Your Loft Space!

Find Your Happy Place In Your Roof Space!

Is your house crammed to the max? Have you been thinking of moving to gain that extra space you desperately need? Or maybe you are just lacking somewhere to have your own space? If you are, why not think of emptying out that loft space and using it to its full potential instead!

 Sometimes there can come a point where you are starting to outgrow your house, you have used every space saving trick you can think of yet your house is full to the brim. However, you don’t want to have to move….it’s a nice area, your close to the kid’s schools, you are settled and feel like part of the community, so what’s the solution? That’s right……Look up……that loft space that is only used to store a few boxes of Christmas dec’s each year is sitting there pretty much empty and wasted. That loft could offer you a whole new level of living space. With loft conversion prices starting from as little as £20,000, going up could prove cheaper then, a new house, stamp duty fees and solicitor fees.

Is your loft suitable?

However, before you leap ahead you do need to figure out if your loft is suitable for conversion first. One easy way to tell is to look at neighbouring houses if they are similar age/size as yours and they have roof windows in there is a fairly big chance your loft will be ok to convert. Another way to check to be more certain is to get up in your loft and measure – the minimum height for a conversion 2.2m at the highest point. Depending what trusses you have up there will affect how costly the extension could be. It is best to get an architect or builder round at this point to discuss your plans fully. They will be able to work out rough costs with you, if there would be any issues or planning permission etc needed, and they will help you decide if your plans are viable.

What are you going to do with the space?

So now you have found out your loft can be converted and the costs, what are you going to do with the space? Is it going to be worth the time, cost, and effort? Will it be an extra room for guests? Maybe your children are getting older and no longer want to share a room? What about a games/hang out room to get the kids out of your hair for a while? Or maybe you need some of your own space, an office, a work out space, or similar? Depending what you are going to use the room for will depend what access is required! If the room is going to be in constant use a fixed staircase is going to be best, but if it’s just for occasional use you could probably get away with a space-saving staircase.

Finally, be prepared……it will mean many weeks of upheaval in most of your house! Various tradesmen in and out, possibly some restructuring of your home, and you will need to think about where the stuff already in the loft is going to go too.

Tips:

• When planning the layout of your new loft space, remember there will be some height restrictions due to the sloped ceilings. Use this to your advantage by adding space saving storage into the lower spaces, and put beds, sofas, baths in the lower parts. This leaves the higher points free for wardrobes or walkways, to save stooping.
• Remember how far away from the front door you may be if spending time in your new space. This may be the time to look at investing in a two-way comms doorbell, or a video-cam doorbell system, to save you missing that important delivery!
• This is also the best time to invest in a cordless vac now that you have even more stairs to contend with!
• Don’t forget to fit that all important smoke and CO detector.
• If you have a chimney breast coming up through your loft space make use of the valuable space either side to have built-in storage fitted, and if possible add LED lighting to boost the impact.
• Think of using light colours through out to keep the space feeling open and airy, if you don’t want the space to be too bland add blocks of solid colour here and there.
• Some people love the sound of rain on the windows above their head but it can be too much for others. Think about if it is worth installing some of Velux’s acoustic range windows, they promise to halve the noise levels of rainfall.

For more tips on home improvement, check out our blog at:

https://greenstone-design.co.uk/blog

Are you thinking of having a loft conversion? Then why not get in touch we can advise you the best way to convert your space, whether you will need planning permission, and costs, follow the link below to get in touch:

http://www.greenstone-designco.uk/contact-us/

Find Your Happy Place in Your Loft Space!