Lowering ceilings for loft conversion

[winnie80]

Hi, does anyone have any experience of this? It's been suggested that this is our only option due to low loft head space, but we're reluctant to proceed due to the disruption ( we have a 19 month old little girl), the mess, expense etc.

We're in a pretty standard Edwardian terrace. If anyone has any knowledge/experience, please feel free to put our minds at ease/confirm our fears as appropriate.

Many thanks!

[monniemae]

Hello, no direct experience, but I would get more than one opinion - our friends were told by two companies they'd have to lower the ceilings but the third, Classic Lofts, did it without.

Sadly I spoke to Kieran at Classic Lofts and they can't do anything for us, as we're in a conservation area, but worth a try if you haven't already rung around a few people

Good luck

[CocoC]

Hi Winnie. We've just had a loft conversion done with Classic Lofts actually - we needed to lower our ceilings in our old room (we've now moved into the loft) and the spare room - we have a 19 month old little girl too (!) and like you I was very worried about the disruption. Now - I won't mislead you - it was pretty grim at times (we turned our living room into a bedsit) and OMG THE DUST, but it was perfectly doable and we're delighted with the results. PM me if you want further details/ tips if you do take the plunge!

[dreamaholic]

We are considering loft conversion too as would quite like an extra room. like your case, we would need to lower the ceiling of the floor below, as can't raise the roof as we are in a conservation area. How high is your ceiling after you lowered it and did you find it ok? We would need to lower the first floor to just over 2m and wonder if that would be too low. And even if we increased the loft height ever so slightly the loft would only be 2m high at the highest point, so we are debating whether it's worth all the money and all the trouble.

Would love to hear others experience. Thanks in advance.

[cheekychicken]

Hello. Same issue with me - need to lower the ceilings on the 1st floor really. CocoC, you mention dust. We were planning to get new carpets on our 1st floor with a view to doing the loft in about 3 years. If we lower the ceilings will those carpets be trashed? Thanks.

[CocoC]

Hi cheekychicken. No, the carpets won't be trashed but they will need a thorough (professional) clean afterwards. Much of the damage was contained by putting plastic over the carpets to protect them from the dust above. However, as both rooms on the first floor needed a full re-decoration once the ceiling had come down, be prepared to protect the carpets well during that stage as well - e.g. we had to repaint our skirting boards to match the cornicing which was all new, and bear in mind that any wallpaper is likely to need replacing too.

[cheekychicken]

Thanks Coco. I think in that case I will hold off and get it all done in one go!

[JanetWil5on]

I think you need to have 2.2 or 2.4m head height? We had to drop our ceiling on the first floor which was a bit of a nightmare to say the least, and you can not live there if you do it all at once. We did a refurb on the first floor beforehand so we dropped the ceilings initially and did the loft at a later stage as we could't afford to move out. You don't have to do it all at once if you don't want to. It makes more sense to or do the loft first but we did it the other way round and it worked out fine.

I used Lenny @ Hamilton Walters for mine, he was great and I'm 100% sure he would be more than happy to speak to you about this as he has always been my "go to" if I have any queries at all.

You can speak to either Harley in the office:

[email protected]

or you could call Lenny direct on 077 8000 4007

I'm sure he will help you here.

[CocoC]

We lived in our property while the ceilings were lowered and the loft converted. It was fine! We turned our living/dining room into a rudimentary bedsit, putting stuff from our room and the spare room (daughter's room was unaffected) in storage. The dust was manageable. So it is possible to do it all at the same time if you don't want to move out.