Loft conversion built in 1908!

[ljhilditch]

The house we are in the process of buying has an existing loft conversion, that current owners say was built with the rest of the house in 1908 and was used as servants quarters. We would like to make this into our master bedroom with ensuite. Can anyone tell me if we'd need planning permission, strengthen the floors e.t.c..
Thank you

 

[DaveBrigg]

There are others better qualified to comment here, but as a start:
I think that if all you doing is adding a stud wall and the usual fittings you will not need planning permission. You will do if you are thinking of adding a dormer window.

If the building is listed, you will need to speak to the Conservation Officer at the council.

If you are planning on putting a bath in your en-suite it would be a good idea to get the floor checked professionally and consider strengthening that area. Otherwise, if it has withstood normal use for nearly 100 years it can't be too bad.

 

[ljhilditch]

Thank for the advice. There are already 2 dormers, again I’m told were built with the house.

It’s not a listed building although I wonder if it should be. The current owners have lived there for around 30 yrs and only one other owner before them. The majority of the house is untouched (quite literally!!) Unfortunately they haven’t looked after it particularly well. The beautiful lead/ stained glass windows I hope we can restore (the survey said many were irreparable, the survey was terrible reading but we were offered the mortgage!)

We hope to complete by the end of the month. It all seems rather daunting! We have no idea where to start. The house needs complete rewiring, central heating installed, damp fixed, roof repairs, parquet floors sanded, kitchen fitted (existing kitchen comprises of a sink!), bathrooms installed, plastering! I’m sure lots more will crop up. :shock:
If anyone has some advice on prioritising these jobs I’d be most grateful! :wink:

 

[MdB]

If anyone has some advice on prioritising these jobs I’d be most grateful!

Work on the things that stop the house degrading with time first and work on the rest later (*). i.e. The roof and the damp sound like a priority. (oh and read lots on this site about damp before doing anything! There is some very useful stuff in the posts)

(*) This would be ideal but if you will be living in the house whilst doing the work it may be worth making one or two rooms habitable first as otherwise you will just get completely fed up with the whole thing.

 

[ljhilditch]

Thanks,

We've had 1 quote so far for the damp $2,500(sorry US laptop!!) does that sound reasonable?

We'll have about 2 months to do some of the work before we have to move in with our 3 children!!!

 

[DaveBrigg]

It sounds like you are about to take on a similar project to ours. We started last August, moved in mid - November after the wiring, heating and plastering were finished, and are now at the decorating stage; I used to enjoy painting, but the novelty wears off after a few hours.

Before you have bought, you need to start getting quotes (unless of course you are doing the work yourselves!) We had estimates for the roof that varied by £12,000, and our preferred electrician dropped his price by £2000 when we explained that we had received a cheaper quote. It can take several weeks for the various trades to arrive, inspect and then put their costs in writing. It helps if you have a clear idea of what you want doing too, eg type of central heating boiler, number of sockets.

As Mdb says, sorting out the damp has to be a priority, but before forking out on damp treatment, find out where the water is coming from. There's some excellent advice on this forum (including the archive section), and it may be that you don't need the £2,500 treatment at all. In our case the roof leaked, which was pretty obvious, but the biggest cause was the gutters and down pipes, several of which were broken just below ground level. Every time it rained, the roof drained straight into the base of the walls. Curing the cost less than £100, and removing the plastic sheets from the floor and digging away the soil piled up against the walls was free! (reroofing was rather more expensive though). It might be easier to add any necessary insulation while the roof is being repaired, although if the ceilings are being replastered this will probably need to be done first.

The first fit wiring and plumbing need to be done before plastering, but ideally after you have removed all the damaged plaster, to allow them more freedom. When the power is disconnected, make sure that a temporary board is left to allow lighting and power tools to be used. It is a good idea to sort out phone, burglar alarm, tv and computer sockets at the same time.

Try to plan the kitchen before the wiring and plumbing are done, so that, for example, the sink waste pipe is below the height of the plug, and the wall sockets are not in the way of the corner unit or out of reach behind the fridge-freezer Radiators, tv and phone points will have to be positioned bearing in mind where your furniture will go. If you have big rooms, measuring the vacuum cleaner lead would probably be an idea too; we forgot to get a socket near the bathroom door and now need an extension lead to hoover the far end of the room.

Once the plaster has had time to dry, the lights, sockets and radiators can be fitted, and then would probably be a good time for the kitchen and bathroom to go in. Once you've got that far, the rest should be a doddle. :lol:

It's a lot easier for all concerned if you can completely gut the rooms, but don't throw everything away until you've finished. I imagine that your leaded windows can be repaired, it's just the cost involved.

Having planned all this, you then have to find reliable workers who can turn up when needed and finish on the required date...

Hope this hasn't been too much for you. It can be daunting at times, when no progress seems to be being made, but the advantage is that you will have a home that is truly yours.

 

[chuckey]

As adve mentioned the weight of a bath + one person, is quite a lot (500 lbs?). it would be a cunning idea to site the bath over the top of a down stairs wall, so part of the weight will be transferred to the floor one storey lower, especially it the wall is a solid one.
frank

 

[Geoff Flegg]

If the house was built with attic rooms originally, then it's not a loft conversion - that is when attic rooms and a staircase to them are added later, after the house was built.

My house is of a similar age - 1899 - and, like yours, was built with attic rooms, one of which probably was used for a servant (bearing in mind that was much more common then!).

Planning permission shouldn't be a problem, unless you are looking at adding additional dormers, because your work is all internal - you shouldn't need it. Building regs need checking though - Give you local building control department a call, they are generally quite happy to give advice - I expect you will need Building Regulations Approval, which is totally seperate to planning permission. Don't tell them it's a loft conversion, tell them it's an existing attic bedroom that you are adding an en-suite to. I presume that you are not planning to take any existing structural walls out as part of this work - we have 2 attic rooms, and the wall between them supports the roof, for example! Not impossible to remove but would be lots of extra work.

You say your house isn't listed, so no problem there. Is the house in a conservation area? If you are making any external alterations as part of the work then you may need approval.

We had the roof replaced on our house a few months ago, and had an additional roof window (not a dormer - flush with the roof) installed in what was already a habitable room. Didn't need planning permission, but I was concerned about Building Regs requiring a "means of escape" window, which have to be installed close to the floor - Building Inspector wasn't bothered, as it wasn't a change of use for the room.

You don't say if it's a bath or a shower that you're adding - with a shower you shouldn't need to strengthen the floor, but as previous posters have said, a bath may well require some quite serious work unless you can be very careful as to where you put it. Personally I'd take the easy option and just stick with a decent shower cubicle! Be careful of plumbers hacking large lumps out of floor joists to accomodate waste traps under shower trays, I've seen one total horror story with that! A little is OK, not 3/4 of the joist as in this case!

Re stained glass windows - yep, got one of those too, badly needs repairing. I'd be amazed if yours are irreparable - mine needs totally stripping, all the lead replacing and about 1/4 of the glass replacing. You may well end up with some windows with more new parts than old, but from what I've been told if the original is there as a pattern and the glass can be matched then anything is salvageable.

Geoff