Things to look for if your house or flat is in a city. The following problems could be missed by your builder or local company and could have unforeseen problems which will cost you extra money that you might not be aware of until its too late.

The problems are as follows:

If there is only one point of access into the flat. There may only be access through the front door. If there is no rear access to the property all the materials may have to go through the communal area or through the house. This could be at an extra cost as it will take longer. Plus no builder really wants to do this. As well as having to carry the materials up the 2/3 flights of stairs the team will have to go through tight turning corridors which is often very difficult.

If your house or flat is on a double yellow line or on a red route. It then might have a restriction like a certain day when the crane company can operate so it doesn’t restrict the flow of traffic. If its a Saturday or Sunday, the crane company could charge you or your company extra for a weekend slot and this cost is normally absorbed by the customer even though they may not know it at the start.

If there is a bus shelter and/or bus stop outside the property. This will cause similar problems to the point above but also you may not ever be able to use a crane for the build. This decision is made by the local council subject to health and safety to the general public. If you cant use a crane you/your company may have to use an electronic wench which is attached to the side of the scaffolding. It roughly costs the same amount as a crane but it takes alot longer to lift everything up onto the scaffolding and into the roof. Health and safety issues are also present with regards to storing materials on the front scaffold and working off it with such a busy street. One situation I’ve been in before is that there was a bus stop and shelter that where always in constant use, even on a Sunday the buses were running from 6am until midnight every 3 minutes… This is a major problem for a building company, the council and for your road. Also if the road is very slim it can cause issues for the crane delivering materials.

If your house is on or below a parade of shops there is also a major issues with the scaffolding. It will have to be netted, possibly have a scaffolding alarm fitted and be specially designed so the general public can safely walk underneath the building area. Costs are around £1000 on top of the quoted scaffolding cost.

Most of the points above will all need a scaffolding license as the health and safety implications are massive. There is also nowhere for the skip to go at the front of the property. If there is a side road you can apply for a permit form the council but if there are yellow lines on the side road there will be costs attached, approx £200+ a week which again will probably be missed but then get absorbed by the customer…

If there are no parking bays that can be suspended for the trades to park, the tickets will cost around £1 to £2 per hour in most cities. Trade permits can be available in some areas and are alot cheaper but will need to be arranged with the local council by the home owner.

At last, the planners are beginning to understand the demand for loft conversions.

I found this on the web and found it interesting,

Its from the Daily Mail

Click here

Good news in from the ‘loft group’ at the FMB, They have started to discuss the new changes that may come into effect this year. It will happen either at the end of April 2008 or at the end of November 2008. I know theres a bit of difference in the times but for all those people holding on for the new changes it should be well worth the wait.

At the moment every house has a certain allowance that it can be extended, for a mid terrace the allowance is 50 meters cubed and out of that 50 only 40 meters cubed can be used in the loft. For a Detached and Semi Detached house the allowance is 70 meters cubed and out of that 70 only 50 meters cubed can be used for the loft.

So if a mid terraced house (50m3) had a ground floor extension that had already used 40 meters cubed, there is only 10 meters cubed remaining which wouldn’t be enough to do a dormer under Permitted Development (PD). This means you would have to do the loft conversion under a Planning Application. This may cause problems like restrictions and guidelines that you have to follow in certain boroughs. A can of worms some might say…

Not any more!!!

The biggest change that is pending with the government is the allowance (PD) to be separated from loft conversions and other extensions that may exsist.

This means that if your house already has a side or rear extension you can still apply for a loft under PD. (40m3 for a mid terrace and 59m3 for a Detached or Semi)

This is also going to help houses that need hip to gables.

At the moment 90% of the councils around the country will never allow Hip to gables under Planning Permission. The only type of conversion you can do to a hip to gable is a side dormer. Side dormers cost the same as a hip to gable but only give you a third of the space. A lot of people have put off converting there lofts because of this and if they change the law i think the councils around the country will soon be inundated with the thousands of home owners ready to convert there lofts.

The FMB really need to push the government to decide on a fixed date for these changes. When the decisions made the local councils will need to start passing the extra applications before the chosen date otherwise they will just be in the same situation there in now… To many people wanting to convert there homes, to many applications for the council to cope with and a 56 day waiting list applications to be granted…

There is a small chance that this new law may not come out at all but the chances are very slim.

Unfortunately the new law will not apply to purpose built flats or converted flats, Conservation areas or second grade listed buildings. Sorry.

Some roof spaces are more easier to convert then others in terms of size, shape and construction.

The major thing you need to have when wanting to convert your loft is head hight. if theres lots of height there’s much more of a certainty that you will be able to convert your loft. The higher the better and even when you cant get planning permission for lets say a rear dormer if theres a good head hight, you can still just convert inside space of the loft and still make a very good sized loft room and maybe even a shower room or bathroom.

The minimum head height you will need to do a loft conversion is 2.2m (7′2″) but you will need a dormer as the space is so restricted.

If your loft is under 2.2m then its pretty much a non starter. It will still be worth getting a quote through from your local builder though as there is a special way not losing any height in the loft called triperling the joists, or you could lower the ceilings but that will depend on the windows on the 1st floor and if theres enough space.

You achieve this dimension by measuring the top of the ceiling joists to the underside of your ridge board.

Some builders you might come across may say they can convert your loft even if it a bit smaller but please do be very careful. If you decide to take your builder up on his offer do make sure you get some sort or agreement between you both before the build commences the works.

Imagine being 3 or 4 weeks into the build and the floor and stairs have finally go in… the last thing you want to be arguing about with your builder is the new bedroom head height. He’s promised you a good head height but it ends up being 5′6″

The reason you need 2.2m or more is because once the new steels and the floor joists have gone in over the existing ceilings, the head height will easily be reduced by 150mm (approx).

Secondly you have to allow for all the new plasterboard, plaster, insulation and carpet/wood flooring etc. Taking all this into account, the total height lost in the loft will be around 180 to 200 mm.

Obversely on a 2.2m high loft a finished head height would be around 2m (6′6″) which is fine if your only 5′ tall but if someone was 6′4″ was buying your house it may be a problem for the purchaser if they cant use the loft room properly…

There are a few ways to convert your loft without having a good head height though but please do take professional advice and discuss all of your options before beginning the loft project.

If your property is on a corner site where the side or the rear faces a road or any public way, then unfortunately you will have to apply for planning permission. this is to protect the council from stopping you doing something they don’t like to the side or rear of your property. If you live with a house with a hip to gable and you have Permitted Development rights then you will be fine unless you are at the end of the street and a road runs alongside you property, then unfortunately you will have to go for planning permission.

BUT…!

If you extend parallel with the road then you will be OK under Permitted Development. Its just not towards the road…

This council formula works for public roads that run along the back of the houses too. Even though this is very rare, the dormer projecting towards the road will need planning permission and if a hip to gable is needed, this could be done under PD.

Permitted development is an allowance in which you can extend your property without having to achieve planning permission.

For a detached or semi-detached property an allowance of 70 cubic metres is allowed in total (only 50 cubic meters of the 70 are allowed for the loft)

And for a terrace or end of terrace an allowance of 50 cubic metres is allowed in total (only 40 cubic meters are allowed in the loft.)

e.g If you lived in a semi detached that already has a rear extension of around 30 cubic metres. This property would have 40 cubic metres left for the loft conversion. If the rear extension was only 18 cubic metres then you would still have the total amount of 50cu metres to use for the loft.

If you lived in a terrace house with an extension of 20 cubic metres then you would have 30 cubic metres left for the loft.

Please note that a listed building or a conservation area has it’s permitted development rights completely removed, and will always need planning permission.

Planning permission will need to be obtained from your local authority prior to building work if the property in question does not have any permitted development allowance as this has been used up, or your permitted development rights have been removed.

To apply for plannng permission you will need to either go online to the Planning Portal, or download a copy of their application forms from their local site e.g. www.merton.gov.uk.
If you are applying onlne via the Planning portal you will need to attach a copy of your drawings in Pdf format or you could post them seperately along with a cheque for £135.00 (on the portal ou can pay by credit card). You will also require a design statement, you can ask your architect to do this for you, if you are writing this yourself you can ask the council for some guidelines about what exactly they require from you from the design statement.

Once the application has been received by the council they will then check the application and make sure it is valid. Once it has been made valid it will be given a reference number, a case officer, and a decision date. You can call the planning department to get this information. Some loft companies will do this for you, and follow the application up on your behalf. If you are doing this yourself the application will be given 8 weeks to be decided. Within this time i would contact the case officer and find out when they will be undertaking their site visit. Try to be there so you can discuss the application with them briefly to find out what their views are. Most councils will probably not give you much information until the decision date, but it’s always worth a try. I would advise you try to find out as early as possible if they are happy with the application, if they are find out if they will be recommending the application for approval. If they are not happy ask them to give you the opportunity to submit amendments. Be careful if you are in the Richmond Borough, alot of their case officers are extremely difficult to deal with, and will more often than not not take your phonecalls, and if they are not happy with the application will just refuse the permission rather than give you a chance to amend something that could be simple.

This will be very frustrating if you have a time scale you need to stick to. As you will need to do all the neccessary amendments and then re-submit a whole new application, taking a further 8 weeks.

You could call the case officer every couple of weeks to find out what stage the application is at, and if they have made any decisions yet.

Make sure the architect that either you or your company are using only design loft conversions. Some may say they do however you may be there first client so ask to see an example or a set of plans prior to giving them the go ahead. Once you’ve seen a previous customer or a set of plans you can make your own mind up deciding weather the designs they have drawn previously will be good enough for your property.

The reason it’s VITAL to use a loft Architect and not a general Architect or “friend of a friend” is because they don’t know everything there is to know about lofts. The design is completely different compared to an extension or conservatory architect. A couple of reasons are, making the stairs work so it feels completely in keeping with the rest of the house is a major part of the design, maximising the bedroom space to its full potential is again very important and the way the room works i.e. where the beds going to go, where you can walk and can you walk around the bed.