What do you need to factor in when budgeting for a loft conversion?
If you have loft space in your property that you use for little more than storage space, but you’d like to make more of the room available in your home, a loft conversion could be a cost-effective way to give you and the rest of your family more living space, or additional bedrooms. While a loft conversion is a great option for making the most of your property’s usable space, such a project will usually cost a minimum of around £20,000, according to Which?, so you want to ensure you budge accordingly and that you have enough funds to finish your project to the highest standard.
Here at Bournemouth Constructions, we have helped many Bournemouth homeowners to give their properties a new lease of life through the likes of a loft conversion. We are more than happy to run through the loft conversion options for your home, and give you a price breakdown to help you make an informed decision. But what other expenses might you need to factor into your project costs, beyond the main construction costs? This will, in part, depend on the type of loft conversion you choose and the type of property you live in.
For example, if you live in a terrace for semi-detached property, you’ll need to put a party wall agreement in place with your neighbours. To do this, you have to serve them with a Party Wall Notice, and at this point you may have to pay a party wall surveyor to assess your properties and the plans. Although most loft conversions are classed as permitted developments, and therefore don’t need planning permission, it’s sensible to check whether this is the case for your home. If you do need to get planning permission for your loft conversion in Poole, Christchurch or Bournemouth, allow around £1,000 to complete the application.
When you’re planning your loft conversion, don’t forget to budget for any plumbing or electrical work that may need to be carried out too. If you contact our team of friendly professionals, we can offer advice to help you keep these costs under control, and we can liaise with either your architect or our affiliate architect to draw up the plans. Among the factors that could increase the cost of a loft conversion are having a bathroom installed, or even the type of roof on your property. As a general rule, roofs constructed before 1970 have open and self-supporting rafters, which makes them easier to convert than more modern properties that have roof trusses.
When you contact us about a loft conversion in Bournemouth, or elsewhere in Dorset, we will be more than happy to visit your home and discuss your requirements. We pride ourselves on providing support at every stage of a project, and by working with our affiliate architect you can keep everything streamlined and simple by getting support with the design, lawful development certificate application and building regulations as well as having the conversion carried out by one experienced team.
Research by Pasquill at the end of 2020 revealed that there was a surge of interest in loft conversions in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, with searches of the term “average cost of a loft conversion” climbing by 170 per cent between March and July of 2020. We have certainly seen this interest in loft conversions in Bournemouth continue, so if you’d like to improve rather than move in the coming months, it could be worth exploring your loft conversion options.
