HOMES AND GARDENS
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•Types of conversion.
All loft conversions are different and will
largely depend on the type of roof you have.
Rooflight conversion: This is the most costeffective as it involves converting just the existing
loft space with no additions and there is very little
alteration to the roof space apart from the addition
of roof windows set into the slope of the roof,
insulation and strengthening of the floor etc.
Dormer conversion: This is the most common
type of loft conversion. Dormer windows are added
to increase the volume of the roofspace with full
headroom. Dormer windows are usually added to
the rear, side or both.
Gable-to-gable conversion: This is a variant of
the dormer roof conversion where the dormer
window stretches the full width of the house, from
gable end to gable end and tends to look more
sympathetic than a very large ‘box dormer’.
Sometimes it involves building up the gable end
walls to ‘bookend’ the new space at either side.
Hip-to-gable conversion: This involves one or
more of the hips (where the roof slopes in from the
side(s) as well as front and back) being replaced
with a gable wall. The roof is then extended over
these gables to add extra space with full headroom.
Mansard conversion: This involves one or both
slopes of the roof being replaced with a new
structure with very steep sloping sides (almost as
steep as the walls) with an almost flat roof over the
top. This design is used where the original roof had
little or no headroom and creates sufficient volume
for an additional storey.
• Floor joists
The floor of your new loft conversion will have
previously been the ceiling for the storey below and
so will need to be strengthened to take the
additional weight. The alterations to the roof
structure will also need to be calculated to ensure
the roof remains strong enough to withstand all
weather conditions. You will need a structural
engineer to design this detail and produce drawings
and calculations to comply with the building
regulations.
• Stairs
A space efficient staircase design is key to
making a loft conversion work. A single room loft
conversion can have a loft ladder or space saver
staircase, but larger conversions with more than one
room require a full staircase. The minimum
ceiling height above the stairs is set at 1.9
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