Loft Conversions in Burbage, priced in writing before anything starts.
Lofts in Burbage divide as sharply as everything else here, and in the village core the answer is often disappointing before it is anything else.
The older cottages were not built with generous roofs, and a steep looking roof can still leave you short of two metres along the walking line once the floor build up and insulation are in. We measure at the quotation rather than after, because there is no point designing a conversion that will not have standing room in it.
Where the height is there, the constraint becomes the frontage. A dormer on the roof slope facing the street is not permitted development anywhere, and on a continuous terrace inside a conservation area, where the unbroken run of roofs is part of the character being protected, it is a difficult application. Rear dormers and rooflights are a much easier conversation and are usually where the space wants to go anyway.
On the estate housing around the village the roofs are trussed, which means the structure has to be reworked rather than strengthened. That is routine work for us, and it is not the same job or the same price as a cut roof.
Escape, fire separation and stair position are all Building Regulations matters, and all easier to solve on paper than after the joists are down. Our loft conversion page goes through the structural options.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our loft conversions page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Burbage street to the next.
Continuous terracing means new floor beams almost always bear on a wall shared with a neighbour, which is notifiable under the Party Wall Act and needs serving before anything starts. In the core this applies to nearly every conversion, and the notice periods are fixed.
Steels that will not go up the stairs come in through the roof, needing a lift standing on the carriageway and a part day road closure from the county. On a narrow village street that takes real arranging and it goes in the price rather than appearing later.
Insulating at the eaves is the detail that decides whether a village cottage conversion works. In a shallow roof there is very little depth to play with, and stuffing the eaves full blocks the ventilation path that keeps the timbers dry. We keep a clear air gap and use the build up that fits the depth actually available, rather than the one that would be easiest to specify from an office.
Part of our wider building work in Burbage.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
