how much does a loft conversion cost appox.?

[deedee24]

Me and my partner and looking at buying a 3 bed house, with a huge roof space, we have 3 little girls so need a 3 bed house this house we looked at is ideal only problem is the 3rd bedroom can only fit a cot in it and nothing else, i don't know how they have got away with calling it 3 bed but never mind we love this house cos it is, close to family and schools etc so we are thinking of buying and then do out the loft we just want to add a bedroom and maybe a bathroom up there but could do without if it proved too much, we would have to use the 3rd 'bedroom' as a place to put the new stair case, we just wanted a rough idea of how much conversions cost. just with velux windows not dormas cos i got told they are very expensive. anyone help?

[HatlessJack]

Whereabouts in the country are you ? How old is the house ? What type of roof construction does is currently have ? Is it a gable or a hipped roof ?
These will have an impact on the costs.

[deedee24]

hi, we live in newcastle upon tyne, the house was built in the 1970 app. it is a slate roof i'm unsure what you mean by gable or hipped? we had a look inside the loft and it has lots of supports coming from the roof to the floor so i pursume it would have to be supported in another way if we were gonna go up into it. sorry if thats not a clear answer i'm not into DIY so don't know the correct names lol

[HatlessJack]

If the wooden supports form a 'W' shape, you'll probably require a complete roof rebuild as these are specifically designed to support the roof covering only and cutting through them to open up the roof-space will require so much additional support as to make such a conversion overly expensive.

In a gable roof, the brickwork on the end wall goes all the way up to the ridge of the roof. In a hipped roof, the roof tiles wrap right round the building at the same level and slope towards the middle of the house.

[buildersmate]

Around here, Hatless, it is quite common on GABLED roofs only to insert steel horizontal purlins into the gables to support the trusses, prior to cutting out the supports.
This is completely impossible with a hipped roof, which demands a rebuild and hence is probably a no-no.
You need a loft conversation specialist around for a look - not just any old builder.