Tips for having a smooth loft conversion project

Following this! I'd love a loft conversion.

n our last house we had a loft conversion, I was warned that I would get plenty of warning when the builders were due to knock through the ceiling as the dust would be considerable. On my way out to the supermarket one morning baby in tow, I was asked by one of the builders "where are you going love and how long are you going to be?" me "I'm off to Sainsburys, about an hour" "make it 2" came the reply "we're knocking through this morning" some warning! As expected, dust everywhere, I think the hoover packed up trying to cope with it. Long time ago now, so can't remember the finer detail. However, once it was done we were very happy, the staircase leading up from the first floor to the new 2nd floor was a perfect match, as if it was always there.

Good luck with your project OP hope it goes smoothly.

I will also follow. We, too are seriously considering this ...

In

We have a bungalow with a loft conversion so we used the existing hallway for the staircase, so no knocking through.
Are you in a house or Bungalow?

I closed all downstairs doors every day, Without fail, brickdust is a real pain to clear up. If you have some rooms that you don’t use, cover the doorways with sheets of plastic and tape them up.
It might sound mean but it was the summer, so we rented a portaloo for the builders. Saved my sanity.
Plenty of tea , coffee and biscuits.
ask them each morning if and when they are switching off power or water and plan accordingly.
If you are in a house you can buy the sticky cling film stuff that goes onto stairs to save your carpets.
We have 2 extra rooms now and an upstairs loo, make sure you get extremely good insulation as, in the Summer, the rooms get extremely hot, fine in winter though.
Good luck

Forgot to say, make sure the builders price is fixed, estimates can go up.

Just a word on encouragement and hope really.
You will get mess and dust but it will be worth it.
I have friends (several) who have done it and they are delighted with the result, it really does give more space without moving house.

Very interested in this as we are just at the start of considering a loft conversion in DS2,'s house (which belongs to us). Oopsadaisy is the new lavatory a macerator or a 'normal' one and is it far from existing plumbing? We would like them to have a loo up there but aren't keen on a macerator.

ruby yes we have a macerator, because we only use the upstairs occasionally it isn’t a problem, it’s nearly 20 yrs old now, if the upstairs rooms were used on a regular basis, we would now get a ‘Proper’ loo, I have a notice pinned to the wall warning people not to flush anything other than paper down there, apart from the obvious of course, it’s quite a funny note ( from Pinterest) .
It does make a brief noise when it flushes or when the washbasin is emptied( if it fills the container.) but it never bothered the Grandchildren.
The loo is directly above the bathroom, we just didn’t have enough of a fall for the out pipe, it’s in the eaves really so we couldn’t raise the height to get the fall.
The only downside is that the fan in the bathroom can be heard in one of the bedrooms , as it’s directly above the shower.
We also used the dead spaces in the eaves to put chests of drawers in and plaster boarded around it, so no lost space there.
All the windows are ‘means of escape windows’

Buy a cheap industrial hoover from Toolstation, Screwfix or the like. They’re under £100 and just big tins that suck up everything.
It’ll save your domestic one being ruined. We now use ours to clean up the garage. It also works outside on the paving.

One of the friends mentioned above had a macerator in the shower room they included in the extension in their dormer bungalow.
While it was useful it was so noisy, really really noisy.
If used in the night it would wake everyone up.

Thank you Oopsadaisy3. We are just at the start of the project and have to meet the architect to see what is possible. They love their little terraced house in a friendly neighbourhood but with a growing family they need more space.

There shouldn’t be any more mess than any other building extension, just be tolerant an keep what you can covered up.

Most importantly make sure you get planning and building regulations and the architect designs it all properly. Skimping on loft conversions is a really bad idea.

I'd suggest having your firm responsible for any subcontractors and that way they are responsible for the whole project and keeping it on track.
Tape up some sheeting over all doorways (if not already covered for the period with pkastic). We masking-taped all gaps in cupboards we could manage without using.
The dust and dirt will travel a long way even if the builder is very careful. We kept one room super clean and used it as our main living space.

Also, if you are at all fussy start now looking at the details such as handles, light fittings, taps or whatever so that you don't end up with cheap and dull by accident. This includes skirting boards!
Good luck.

I think having a macerator for a shower would be incredibly noisy as it would be on for the duration of the shower, I suspect it would burn the motor out fairly quickly. With a loo flush it is only seconds, but still quite noisy, it never woke the GCs up though.
Now we are on our own it rarely gets used nowadays.