Advice on living through a loft conversion

[devsdev]

I turn again to the trusty forum for words of wisdom.

We're having a loft conversion that would ideally be starting next month. I would love any advice from people who have been through this on what to expect and, more importantly, how to prepare/deal with it.

- I'm assuming I should put dust cloths on everything and try to "seal" all doors on the first floor (unfortunately our doors are rather wonky!)? Where can I buy dust-cloths - or will normal sheets do?

- Should I expect to hoover every evening? I have a LO who's just started crawling so am concerned about how much dust she may be exposed to.

- Should I plan to be out of the house/at friends on most days or are there worse/better phases of the build?

- Any other tips or advice? Is there anything you wish you had known before you had the conversion or anything you wish you had done in hindsight?

Thanks again to everyone - the forum really is such an invaluable resource. Thanks to all who respond!

Dev

[ClareC]

Life as normal until they knock through..... After which very dusty and no amount of sealing doors prevents this.

Packing things away in sealed boxes / storage would have helped in hind site i.e. so the house has minimal things in it to get covered in dust.

[shen]

Hi,

We have just had our loft done by Loft Life. It really was not that bad. I had a pre crawling baby and a 6 year old at the time and we managed without a huge amount of disruption. It can be noisy, especially at the beginning. As far as dust, the builders put down plastic covers over the carpet on the stairs and also sealed up doors on days when they broke through. There was still dust, but it contained most of it. They also hoovered every evening before leaving however I still mopped down as well to keep the dust down. The beginning bit before they break through despite being noisy is the least obtrusive for you as it's all from outside. The end bit is also quite easy, as final fit, and plumbing etc is quite contained in the loft. Obviously the plastering causes dust. However we found it dried quickly and as soon as we got the first undercoat on the walls it stopped the dust.

PM me if want to know anymore.

Good luck. It's great when all done and well worth the hastle!

[katgod]

Ours was fine, we had a baby at the time. On one day the builder said it would be really helpful if you went out all day today- we did, that was the day they knocked through and it was chaotic but then it calmed down again.