Does a loft conversion add value to your home?

Posted by Bob Bulmer on Wed 13th August 2008 at 06:00 AM, Filed in ConstructionDIY Adding Value Tips

Everybody thinks that by adding any sort of space to your home - it will add value. Well sorry to disappoint, but that’s not always the case.

Done well, loft conversions can yield vast amounts of space and add value to boot. Done badly, they can cost serious money and add negligible if any value.

Here are some things to bear in mind:

1. Make sure you allow enough clearance for proper head room.

2. Ensure that you have proper insulation retained and also proper ventilation.

3. Getting sufficient light into an attic room is very important. Make sure you get plenty of sky lights in.

4. Ask yourself the question - am I going to get enough useable space to make this worthwhile. If all your doing is creating glorified storage space forget about it and find some where else to put your hard earned money….

READER COMMENTS:

Yes, very good points. I’ve seen a loft conversion where they loft half of an existing bedroom for the stairs and the loft room had too little headroom and only one velux. In short it was dreadfull, the build quality was very poor and I reckon it detracted value from the house. However, if done properly they can create a great room and add value equal to the cost of the work. Sometimes going for cheap is a false ecomony. As a personal interest I run a website about loft conversions, please feel to take a look at it aboutloftconversions.co.uk - I built the site becuase I found there wasn’t much info about conversions on the web, it’s a work in progress and I’m adding new stuff all the time.

Posted by John  on Wed 20th August 2008 at 11:44 AM | #

I choose the DIY approach to my loft conversion all the way through planning and building. It’s a difficult way to go but with material costs under £7000 I think I’ve added about 20K to the value of the house. I’ve covered my experiance on a blog roomuptop.blogspot.com/

Posted by Andy  on Mon 8th December 2008 at 03:20 PM | #

POST A COMMENT:

Please feel free to submit relevant comments to this entry but note: inappropriate or purely promotional comments may be removed as will be personal abuse and defamatory remarks. Reasoned debate and substantiated critique on the topic in hand is encouraged and welcomed. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

Name:

Email address is required but will not appear publicly:

Add your comments below:

Remember my personal information for next time

Submit the word you see below: