Loft conversions in Nottingham

Usually not. Dormer, rooflight and hip to gable conversions normally fall under permitted development, because you are converting inside the existing roof rather than extending the footprint. Mansards typically do need permission. So do flats, listed buildings, conservation areas and estates where permitted development rights have been removed. We check your address against the council records during the free survey.

As a rule of thumb you want at least 2.2m from the top of the existing ceiling joists to the underside of the ridge, measured before anything is built, because the new floor and insulation will eat into it. Less than that and a rooflight conversion stops being viable, though a dormer or mansard can sometimes rescue it. We measure this at the survey and tell you straight if it does not work.

We do not publish a price, because the honest answer depends on your roof. What moves it most: the type of conversion, whether you need steels and how far they span, whether you are adding an ensuite and how far it is from the existing soil stack, where the staircase can land, and the state of the existing roof. The survey is free and the written quote is fixed.

A rooflight conversion is usually five to six weeks on site and a dormer six to eight. You stay in the house. Most of the work happens above your ceiling and behind a sealed opening, and the staircase goes in late in the programme rather than at the start.

Generally yes, and it is one of the better-returning things you can do to a house, particularly when the conversion adds a double bedroom with an ensuite rather than just a room. The exact figure depends on your street and what similar houses nearby have sold for, so treat any national percentage with caution, including ours.

This is usually the hardest question in a loft conversion and it is worth thinking about before the room itself. The stairs normally rise over the existing flight, which keeps the landing intact, but on a narrower house they sometimes have to take a slice off a bedroom. We work the stair out at the survey and show you exactly what it costs you downstairs, because that is the part people are most likely to regret.

If you are in a semi or a terrace and the work touches the shared wall, which a dormer or a hip to gable almost always does, then yes: your neighbour has to be served notice under the Party Wall Act, normally two months before work starts. It is a formality far more often than it is a fight, but skipping it is one of the more common ways a job gets stopped. We prepare and serve the notices as part of the job.

Yes, though it is more work. Modern trussed roofs have W-shaped webs through the middle of the space, so the structure has to be replaced with new beams and floor joists before the room exists. It is routine, it just costs more than a traditional cut roof with a clear void.