Wait For Loft Conversion Job?

[Silverity]

Up here in Edinburgh, it was always a favoured option to extend or modify the house rather than face the cost of moving and taking on the heated up market (at that time).

So I have this medium sized job up in the loft requiring joiners, etc. With the current downturn should I put off the job expecting these guys to start cutting their prices as the customers disappear?

Thanks for any advice,

Silverity.

[juvenal]

Up here in Edinburgh, it was always a favoured option to extend or modify the house rather than face the cost of moving and taking on the heated up market (at that time).

So I have this medium sized job up in the loft requiring joiners, etc. With the current downturn should I put off the job expecting these guys to start cutting their prices as the customers disappear?

Thanks for any advice,

Silverity.

It's hard to see any circumstances coming where demand for the building trades will increase. Thus supply and demand suggests putting the job off for a while will make the eventual labour cost less.

The one factor that we can't forecast is how many families needing to upsize will settle for a loft conversion when they decide selling isn't viable. This will increase demand for loft work specialists. But how much of this type of work will there be?

One tip from a past loft converter. If the house is old, there's many decades of fine black dust up there. Do the most meticulous loft vacuuming job you can before any work starts, and take every step that you can to protect every carpet on the floor below - full plastic sheets taped at edges to skirtings etc.

[expatowner]

One tip from a past loft converter. If the house is old, there's many decades of fine black dust up there. Do the most meticulous loft vacuuming job you can before any work starts, and take every step that you can to protect every carpet on the floor below - full plastic sheets taped at edges to skirtings etc.

Good advice.

also..........

when / if you are in the loft walk on the sticky-up wooden bits NOT on the flat plasterboard bits inbetween the sticky-up wooden bits!

[Timil]

Up here in Edinburgh, it was always a favoured option to extend or modify the house rather than face the cost of moving and taking on the heated up market (at that time).

So I have this medium sized job up in the loft requiring joiners, etc. With the current downturn should I put off the job expecting these guys to start cutting their prices as the customers disappear?

Thanks for any advice,

Silverity.

Two years ago I got a quote from a joiner for loft extension price suggested he was havin a giraffe thought I'd bide ma time another few months I'm going to call him back and tell him what the price is going to be.

I did the same thing circa 1992 with another joker who's initial price was a joke, its going to be a service buyers market now in the building trade.

[look to the past]

Last crash – I got quotes for a rear extension to my 3 bed semi – I did not find it any cheaper (it was near the end of the crash) – in the end I did it my self as they wanted 10 grand for a 3m x6m room – so my advise would be get the timing right – do it when times are really bad – before they have had to thin employee’s !

As a note the builders around here are still very busy – just had them in to remove 2 walls (£4000) – and they quoted £60000 (ish) for the loft conversion for this place – I am going to wait at least 2 years – before getting another quote

[crash 2005]

What the Lay person tends not to know is that there are several areas to be checked before even thinking of going up:

1. Whether the existing window lintels can carry the extra dead and imposed loads from the new floor, if not the lintels will need upgrading.

2. Whether the foundations and soil beneath can also carry the additional load, (a building regs. requirement.) otherwise might require underpinning.

3. Building regs requires far more insulation material than ever before, (in the floor, ashlar walls, within and under the rafters reducing the useable room size.

4. Once all the collars and struts have been removed how do you think the roof is supported?, will need a structural appraisal.

5. Internal walls will need to be checked to see if they are load-bearing. 9 times out of 10 they are simply stud or block partitions built off the floor slab with no foundation beneath.

6. And the obvious one is that you can't simply put down a floor on the existing ceiling joists, instead new floor joists have to be placed between.

Loft conversions need a heck of a lot of input not just from Architects but probably more so from the Structural engineer who has to check and design the whole thing.

Therefore it is not as simply or as cheap as some people are led to believe by all these makeover progs.

[Brian Potter]

My advice FWIW.

Get a minimum of 3 Quotes.

Form a list of options and/or items not included.

Ask to see references - better still the address of happy customers.

Make sure all building regs requirements are the builders responsibility.

Do not pay for for whole job before its complete.

Research history of company.

Guarantees are only as good as the company - beware.

Make sure building control are in receipt of the design submitted by the builder.

Just a few points from someone who learned the hard way. Some convincing (and knowlegable) people for some reason insist on being scumbags.

Check national press/internet for any bad press on your prospective builder.

Good tradesmen are hard to find and IMO are worth the extra cash if you find them.

[crash 2005]

My advice FWIW.

Get a minimum of 3 Quotes.

Form a list of options and/or items not included.

Ask to see references - better still the address of happy customers.

Make sure all building regs requirements are the builders responsibility.

Do not pay for for whole job before its complete.

Research history of company.

Guarantees are only as good as the company - beware.

Make sure building control are in receipt of the design submitted by the builder.

Just a few points from someone who learned the hard way. Some convincing (and knowlegable) people for some reason insist on being scumbags.

Check national press/internet for any bad press on your prospective builder.

Good tradesmen are hard to find and IMO are worth the extra cash if you find them.

Agree and disagree.

The best way to get a price nailed down and to protect yourself from no hidden extras is to get an architect or building designer to scheme up the proposal, a structural engineer to check and design out all of the above points in my previous post.

Get it all submitted and through building regs, and approved, then go out for pricing with all the information and drawings supplied by the architect/structural engineer.

this way, the builders are all pricing on the same required work, that is laid down in black and white, and that has already been checked and approved.

To get the builder to deal with building regs with a fag packet design is asking for trouble. You would extras coming out of your ears, and no control.

Sorry mate we've just discovered that building control are'nt happy with those old lintels and the foundations are not adequate for carrying the new load. That will be £1000 per linear metre for the underpinning and we need to replace all the window lintels below.

Also this way you would'nt have building control on your back every five minutes, as it has been professionally thought and designed, and more importantly there will be no hidden extras.

Edited June 16, 2008 by crash 2005

[Letsdance]

Up here in Edinburgh, it was always a favoured option to extend or modify the house rather than face the cost of moving and taking on the heated up market (at that time).

So I have this medium sized job up in the loft requiring joiners, etc. With the current downturn should I put off the job expecting these guys to start cutting their prices as the customers disappear?

Thanks for any advice,

Silverity.

I was going to wait doing mine, but another problem

Inflation is pushing up the costs of building materials. One week to the next price changes. The steel work for my raft foundation jumped 100% in 12 months. Copper is going up (wires), bricks, sand and dolomite on the increase with extraction and haulage costs relating to fuel. Getting very expensive!!

[Silverity]

Thanks for feedback.

It is an existing 20-30 year old conversion we wish to repartition into two equal rooms (currently big room and bathroom). Regulaitons now require it is insulated.

The worst regulation that adds to the cost is because we want to convert from 1 to 2 bedrooms, we have to widen the staircase by 9 inches! That adds thousands for a start...

I can see a housing downturn making people just extend their existing house so it could add to the trade business but I suspect that would be more than offset by recessionary forces. The only way to really know is how trade fared during the 1990s house crash + recession.