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.

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.