I had my loft converted by a company called LMB Lofts. I do NOT recommend them.
I thought I’d add to this as we have recently used benchmark Lofts and have been very impressed. They started and finished on time, (7weeks start to finish including decoration for 2bedrooms and a shower room) very competitively priced and included decorating costs too. All their workman were nice and respectful and importantly, good at their job - especially the decorators who have given a really good finish and Tom was always on hand to discuss design ideas and troubleshoot concerns that may be arising. Thoroughly recommend
Just wanted to add to my earlier recommendation for Tom and add to JBrew’s to mention that he and his team have been out to redecorate after areas around the new staircase settled (inevitable after loft conversions) and they have been fantastically responsive with the odd snag. Brilliant team of builders and 12 months on from completing our loft, first and ground floor adaptations and installing a kitchen we still absolutely love it. Competitively priced and very highly recommended. Google Benchmark lofts or he’s on 07747 694087
We used Taylored lofts - excellent and I would recommend them. It is worth running a competitive an informal tendering process though, so you understand the differences between the suppliers, what’s important to you in the design and it also helps reduce the cost.
Hi Nylon,
We’ve just had a quote from Taylored Lofts. If you have any more insight you can share with us that would be great! Did they complete on time? Anything to watch out for? Basically anything you could share with us would be really appreciated!
Thanks 
Hi Emily, Can you share who you weren’t happy with? We’re looking for companies at the moment and obviously want to steer clear of people who aren’t good!
Thanks!
Hi pm your email address and I’ll send you the quote comparisson I did. It was a few years ago now so costs will have increased but may still be of interest.
Thanks - have just PMd you.
Hi James,
Alas my builders who were great have re-located but for what its worth this is what I learnt from the process:
- Measure, measure, measure. We have small London houses and every inch counts. The builder/architect does one of these everyday and they’re not going to push to the limits unless you push them.
- Don’t skimp on the insulation. Good insulation not only means it can be thiner (giving you higher ceilings) but will also make the difference when it comes to using the room in the summer and the winter.
- Rooms in the eaves look bigger when you extend into the eaves. Even though you can’t actually the feeling of space really helps.
- If at all possible go with you neighbour. Lots of gains: generally cheaper, you don’t need insulation between the two houses (meaning you can have bigger rooms) and it looks neater.
- When you’re told you need a saniflo get a tape measure out and see if you can’t persuade them that there will be enough drop on the soil pipe to avoid one.
- If you’re having a shower put in then put lots of sound insulation under the floor below the shower so the people sleeping in the bedroom below can’t hear too much.
- If you’re running hot water pipes up to the loft run them alongside the central heating pipes. That way the water in the pipe is kept warm meaning you don’t have to wait ages for hot water.
- Fit as many big Veluxes as you can. Not only do they provide light but crucially they artificially increase the headroom in the eaves bit.
- Perfect builders do not exist so be realistic about what you can deal with and what you can’t. Mine drove me mad because I thought they were too slow but in hindsight they A. did a good job and B. were trustworthy. I had no concerns about them being left alone in my house, my neighbours trusted them, they were considerate when school children were about etc. That’s worth gold.
- Remember your builders are more like live in staff you have with you for several months than contractors popping in to do a fixed job. You’ll need favours off them, you’ll need them to want to work for you and want to do a good job. To do that you need to keep them motivated and motivated right the way through the job.
- All the extras will add up, even though you think you’ve planned everything in. You’ll want to budget for them as it’s generally cheaper to do this/change that/add that now than it is later.
Only my thoughts and I did most of mine myself (all bar the actual building bit with steels and bricks and stuff) so can’t comment on most of the internals. Hope it helps.
Dan
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Amen brother. We bought our house with the conversion done, and it has been done to a very high specification with great use of space and light. But in summer it can overheat quickly and become a furnace. Opening windows/bifolds on either side can help but on those days with no wind. Better use of insulation could’ve helped this.
Proper compliance with Building Regulations will ensure adequate levels of insulation so any decent contractor will be bound by these regs.
If you haven’t found a builder yet, JA Lofts is run by a good guy. You can see a local job that he’s doing on his facebook and instagram pages.
My neighbor had insulation done to building regs and their loft still gets very hot in summer. I’m getting mine done at the moment and have gone for sash windows, which will face the prevailing winds, as well as a temperature controlled skylight which I am hoping will lead to a chimney effect through the house. Fingers crossed.
When was theirs done?
My brother-in-law’s loft room was specified at 50mm (useless!) Celotex/Kingspan c.2000, then I think mine was 140mm (which is comfortable) in 2009 but I think it’s been increased to around 170mm now.
Presumably your sash windows are made to todays thermal standards so you should be fine.
That skylight/chimney thing sounds interesting.
Last year. In think regs are 120mm on a flat roof now (warm deck construction).
Aha!
For a pitched roof I have a feeling it’s much heftier, at around 170mm. So if a roof only has 150mm rafters, and allowing for a 50mm ventilation gap, there would need to be 130mm hard slab insulation between the timbers plus maybe a 48mm thermaline plasterboard.
(I will confer with Jordan of JA Lofts when I see him in my local bakery at 6:30am tomorrow).
Not all insulation is made equal and the recommended x mm of it is meaningless unless you know what it is. You can have 100mm of cheap stuff that provides the same insulation as 50mm of expensive stuff if that makes sense. (That’s probably an exaggeration but you get what I mean).
Which is why I mentioned the brands Celotex and Kingspan
It’s all in the U values.
Absolutely!
And to acheive the requisite U values Kingspan and Celotex will have their own table showing what thickness of a particular insulation board does the trick
Ahh, yes, sorry!