Loft Conversions and Exetensions renovate or relocate?

loft conversion can easily add 15% to the value of your home and in some extreme cases an extension can even add up to 50%.

Dormer | Gable end| Kitchen Extension?

When you consider the average property price especially in cities this suddenly becomes a no lose calculation.

In all fairness a normal kitchen extension kitchen extension generally adds 5-10%, but when you consider some of the situations that the modern family finds itself in, relocation is often not the best answer to the question of more space for the coming of children.

Some people are just cannot get a home loan or are tied into a deal that costs too much to move from one bank to another. Some families just cannot locate a property that’s right for them and when your bank will not let you change your existing deal…. suddenly extending the space that you have already got seems like a much more appealing option.

Ultimately renovating can cost much less than relocating considering moving expenses stamp duty and fees to horrible estate agents..adding an extra bedroom can be much easier on the bank balance.

Adding an extra bedroom while turning a small kitchen into a spacious kitchen diner are a sure fire way to instantly justify their costs.
These days the fashion is to have bigger living areas with variable use in mind, being able to watch your children do their homework while you are cooking and your husband is using the laptop to plan your next holiday or sort out the finances is much more how we want to live these days.


Before you finally decide on a project compare the costs and benefits of a loft conversion or kitchen extension to the money down the drain in solicitor’s fees, mortgage arrangement fees, estate agents commissions and to the tax man when you move.

Average house prices in the UK are still around £210,000 and in London hovering around £390,000 .
When you add the uplift in the value to the fees that you have not paid out ( by not moving) the benefits all very significant.
For example the average cost of moving including mortgage fees etc for in London is around £19,000 add this to the 15% uplift in the average house price for
(£392,000 x 15% = £58,800) and you are £77,000 better off. Once you have taken account of construction fees you still have over £30,000 left over for a new car or a nice holiday.

So if you can stand a little hassle for a few weeks there never has been a better time to do this. Unsurprisingly most people think the summer is the best time to do this but actually you will get a more precise and foster job done in the winter simply because your builder is not so run off his feet

High Demand for Loft conversions in Hertfordshire

Recently it seems that demand for Loft Conversions in Hertfordshire has gone into overdrive. Never has there been more planning applications put in than there has been this month and last month (compared to the same period last year).

As I’ve mentioned in my previous articles the cost of moving is so high and stamp duty is unbelievable (and not looking like it’s going down anytime soon) that people are really concentrating on expanding the size of their properties. The most popular choice is at the moment seems to be loft conversions and kitchen extensions.

This can mean that your local loft conversion company has already taken on too much work. Small firms will often start lots of projects to ensure the customer is tied to them but will then drag out the job once you are stuck with them. They will then oscillate between all their angry customers spraying promises and platitudes like riot police with a water canon trying to calm you down while turning a 12 week job into a 40 week job.

Don’t be upset you can take cold comfort in the fact that they will be doing this to at least five other people at the same time.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying family builders and small firms will definitely do a bad job, that would be unfair, it’s just that they don’t have the resources to fill their ambition. It’s understandable with the winter coming up (and the obvious lull in activity that that implies) that they are trying to make sure they have enough work for themselves and maybe their regular guys to keep them going through this quiet period.

The stories you hear and television shows that you can see such as” cowboy builders” or “Homes from hell” really don’t happen that often, when you take into account how much work is getting done at the moment.
But of course bad news travels faster than good news, it’s the same with plumbers you are expecting a bad experience and this fits your mindset into getting one.

Buying a new motorcycle or a new car is a much more positive experience or decision and you look forward to doing it, nobody really looks forward to having a plumber come around or having builders traipsing mud through the house.

So more often than not the relationship between you and your builder starts in a suspicious fashion, this means that often you are setup for it to turn bad.

It is tempting to choose lowest quote especially when it’s very difficult to tell the difference between the three or four guys/firms that you invite around to give you a price.

In my experience if you telephone four different companies half the time only two of them will turn up, one of these two will be a happy go lucky chappie with a roll up cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth and cheeky glint in his eye.

To stop a job over running you could try and build penalty clauses into your contract but in the end your builder will only add time onto the job to compensate for this.

Sometimes the consumer is their own worst enemy as they set themselves up for bad service and are only willing to pay for a worse one. My advice to you is to choose a company that looks like it has more resources than your average local family firm. Often, if they have a few guys working for them a bigger company won’t necessarily be the most expensive. Remember they can share resources across more staff which means that actually their profit margin will be protected because of typical economies of scale.

Most people don’t want the cheapest job a lot of people don’t want the most expensive job but NOBODY wants to be left hanging in the lurch.

Costs of a Loft Conversion

The latest figures from building societies show that the average cost of moving into a property valued at £500,000 is more than £24,000; think about it if you are and elderly couple there is no way you are going to self move. This means on top of the taxes you will have to set aside money for the removal men. Ad this all together and in London this really adds up.

If you are at the upper end of the ladder
moving into a house valued at £1m could set you back £57,000.

Where prices are high, the capital for example, are financial sense.

If you have to spend over £50k move, you would be silly not to convert your attic instead.

Around the country are generally a bit better and house prices lower, so it probably will take longer to redeem your expenditure.

Providing the space is used for a bedroom and a bathroom, you should add enough to the value of your home rapidly to cover the cost.

Current interest is increasing at an annual 5%-10%.


To be fair it’s an empty space filled with the left overs of normal. Most people treat their loft as the preferred place to store suitcases. Consider how much more useful it would be as a home office.

Also a loft conversion is far cheaper than buying extra territory in the form of a larger house and about 30% of the cost of scooping out the basement and unlike a kitchen extension it won’t eat into your garden, either.

So, you have decided to take the plunge. What happens now?
Well you need to agree what you’re going to do, you would be shocked[spin]at how many[spin]people are still debating what to have done on the morning the construction firm demand their first cup of tea.


What are you doing? installing Velux windows and leaving the space as it is, or do you want to expand outwards, with a dormer window?
Establish how much height you have. If the roof is 5ft high in the middle, you’re in trouble - unless you are a smaller person.
Subject to local authority requirements building control regulations will almost always be required if loft space is being modified into any usable form of accommodation.

The one thing most property owners don’t comprehend is that the attic conversion can be undertaken with less disruption to the existing house than a normal small extension causes.

In fact everbody thinks the summer is the best time have it done when in fact the property is only exposed to the weather for a very small portion of theproject, so having it done in the winter can be a cheaper option since builders are not so busy at this time. This also tends to be a cheaper way of getting more floor space because you are working within the existing footprint of the house rather than adding to it.

Loft Conversion costs

It is amazing how trends in home improvements are circular.

Three years ago the fashion was to buy a property and try and move up the ladder.

This was generally achieved by installing new bathrooms.

Now the fashion seems to be stay in one property and make it bigger.

People often ask about the cost of but a conversion is an excellent means of getting more space without having to endure the stressful process of moving.

In fact these days, with stamp duty, legal fees and all your removal costs, its is often only a relatively small further investment to add a loft
(and also approximately 20% to the value of your property.)

The government has rolled back the planning rules to make it easier to achieve this but there is still quite a lot of choice for a home owner.

Most people want an extra master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, but home offices are also very popular.

Home cinema rooms, mini recording studios and general hobby rooms are another need for extra space.

There are three main styles of loft conversion.

Dormer: where a box like structure protrudes from the plane of the original sloping roof surface.

Hip to gable or Gable end: where the conversion encopasses the exposed side of the property.

And

Roof window conversion: where the roof has window installed at intervals to allow light into the decorated attic space but the structural profile of the property is not changed.

In the UK these are all very popular and in a lot of cases planning permission is not required under the new permitted development rules.



You will need to check with your local council planning site to see what precedent applies where you live and sometimes it can be quite a minefield.

Subject to local authority conditions building control regulations will almost always be required if loft space is being converted into any usable form of accommodation.

Your current ceiling joists in most houses are only designed to support the weight of a ceiling, therefore additional support will be required to transfer the loads from the new loft floor to rest of the structure.

The one thing most property owners don’t understand is that the attic conversion can be undertaken with less disruption to the existing house than a normal small extension causes.

In fact everbody thinks the summer is the best time have it done when in fact the property is only open to the weather for a very small part of the job, so having it done in the winter can be a cheaper option since builders are not so active at this time.


Crucially it also tends to be a cheaper way of getting more floor space because you are working within the existing footprint of the house rather than adding to it.