 I purchased my bungalow around ten years ago with the intention of converting the loft one day. As an architect, I could see the potential. Usually, when you convert a loft, you end up trashing the floor below because you need somewhere to put the stairs. Often people end up losing a room or reducing a room below. I had a big square piece of corridor where a stair could fit. Then if you want to add bathroom plumbing you need somewhere below for water and waste pipes to connect. I don't mind having one bathroom. Bungalows can be more tricky in a way because you don’t have somewhere to take pipes straight down as the roof space is sloping, unless you dormer the new bathroom. A dormer is essentially a pop-out where part of the roof is replaced with a new flat roof and walls with a window to get more head-height. My loft also already had good head height and an open roof structure of rafters instead of trusses which infill the space with structural members. It took me however, ten years to actually execute this project. Why so long…? ….cost and bother. Starting with bother. My house had already given me many problems. There’s the classic issues caused by the previous owners. These included; them having put nails in the electric consumer box because safety is worth less than £1 fuses, not painting windows so that they were riddled with wood worm and had to be replaced, sellotaping curtain rails to the wall. However, the worst issue was subsidence which occurred one year after purchase, caused by unmanaged oak trees and drought. My insurance company monitored the house movement for two years, got planning permission to remove the protected trees and did extensive repairs which meant that we had a bathroom in a trailer on the driveway for a month. I didn’t want any more hassle. And then there’s cost. I got quotes for a simple conversion with no dormers and just two rooms, no bathroom, for around £60k with tax. This did not include electrics which I was planning on doing mostly myself with a qualified electrician plumbing in, or stair railings or balustrades which would not be compliant with building control. It did likely include a lot of ‘fat’ such as management and design fees. I would say that two extra rooms would add around £80k to the value of the house which didn’t therefore make the conversion work financially. But then I got an offer from a contractor to reduce their overheads, do simple welfare and very little management as I had done basic drawings and could engage a building control company myself. They had a spare month in April and needed some work and so the offer was just over half of other companies and I could do the electrics and decorating myself. The conversion could be done under permitted development and didn’t require planning approval. Always check whether approval is required. Once the price had been agreed, I had a few weeks until they started. I had to quickly book in a building control company without any prior check of plans. I settled on doing an open playroom space and one more bedroom. This meant that the stair would receive more natural light than having two closed bedrooms and two bedrooms would ‘over-bedroom’ my house in relation to the one bathroom I have.  The loft before conversion with struts running diagonally and a central tie beam. CREDIT: Amanda Moore So how did it go? Structure They cleared the loft of the existing insulation and started reinforcing the structure. I had already commissioned structural calculations from an engineer who recommended new deeper joists spaced between the existing ceiling joists and tied to them as well as two glulam beams and dwarf walls to replace the existing struts. I would then insulate within the existing rafters and to the inside of the rafters.  Converting a loft is a major structural change and requires professional engineering calculations. The structure turned out better that I had hoped as the existing purlins which ran around the middle of the rafters were able to be removed which gave me even more internal space.  View of one of the glulam beams with dwarf wall sitting on it. An existing purlin running horizontally and strut seen in the image, later removed as not needed. CREDIT: Amanda Moore  The inside started to open up once the central tie beam was removed. CREDIT: Amanda Moore Insulation I worked on the basis that the insulation would only need to comply with building regulations as a 'renovation'. However, when building control completed the first inspection, the officer stated that it counted as a new space even though it’s within an existing roof, so I had to work to a higher standard. I called a thermal foil quilt company who looked at a calculation for me, working with the 50mm of rigid insulation already installed between rafters, (which allowed an air gap below the existing felt to reduce condensation risk), and recommended two layers of their thermal quilt with battens and counter-battens, then a plasterboard with 10mm of insulation on the back to get me to the very low ‘U-value’ calculation required. I ended up spending about £2k extra on the quilt and the labour required to install it, an expensive variation but probably worth it.  'Spaceship mode' with the foil quilt installed. CREDIT: Amanda Moore Stair I decided on a double-winder stair to fit in the space I had below. The contractor recommend a local supplier and I bought the stair kit directly so that they didn’t need to charge me overheads for ordering. The company sent a sketch with dimensions and I purchased softwood, not a combination of softwood and MDF as I wanted to just varnish it. I hate carpet. The stair came in many parts and the contractor installed it in two days, I’m happy with it. The key with stairs is getting a stair which is comfortable to use but not so big that you end up with a large opening in the floor above and loss of space. The opening in the ceiling will occur at about the 3rd step before you hit your head on the ceiling. The stair needs to arrive at the highest point in the roof so you don’t hit your head as you go up.  Stair installed. CREDIT: Amanda Moore Flooring I just left the structural 18mm plywood and varnished it with yacht varnish.  The flooring is not fancy, just varnished structural ply. CREDIT: Amanda Moore Roof lights I went with the smallest number I could to allow in light but reduce cost and maintenance, one in the open living room and two in the closed bedroom for cross-ventilation. One had to be an escape window for fire safety in case people are asleep when a fire starts. I’m not sure what would catch on fire up there but it’s safe. I also bought blackout blinds which have to be installed with special frames to make them work on a sloped wall/roof - and they were ridiculously expensive as I couldn’t get the sizes from a cheaper company, worth checking that your roof light size isn’t bespoke. In terms of other openings, I added a couple of access hatches in the walls. One was to get to my bathroom fan and the other to get into the remaining area of roof to use as a loft for storage. Leaving some of the roof as loft allowed me to retain my brick chimney without knocking it out as it would have been in the way in a new space. Electrics, etc. I didn’t add central heating to save cost. I plan on buying a couple of small ceramic heaters for winter which are cost-effective to buy and run. I reused the existing lighting wires which were in the loft for new spotlights and mains smoke alarms, required by building control. I added to the lighting wiring when the contractor had framed out the internal walls. When they cut the hole in the ceiling for the stair, the existing wiring running across the loft fell down like a spider web which I needed to disentangle and extend around the opening. I also ran a new ring main for sockets behind the dwarf walls with double sockets and USB outlets. I ran the wires to the fuse box downstairs and trunked them in at ground floor ready for a qualified electrician to plumb in. This only cost me an hour of their labour and they issued me with a minor amendments certificate for building control approval. A couple of things which were complicated were getting my wires and joint boxes into one spot where I could access them later and I made a little access hatch to get into it. Another thing was adding two-way switching to be able to turn lights on and off at the top and bottom of the stairs.  Electrical wires previously resting on the ceiling after the stair opening was cut. CREDIT: Amanda Moore  Breaking back into the location of the joint boxes. CREDIT: Amanda Moore Once the contractor finished their work I installed light fittings, sockets and smoke alarms. Something which worked well was buying ceiling lights with a rectangular rose so that they could be fixed to one side of the ceiling ridge, remembering there is no flat ceiling to fix to.  Spotlights with a rectangular rose were installed to one side of the ridge. CREDIT: Amanda Moore Decorations I decorated. Not to a high standard. But I decorated.  And so the plaster sanding began. CREDIT: Amanda Moore I was going to plaster skim all 80 sqm of wall using a pre-mixed product. But instead I actually worked a bit more to sand and flatten the infilled joints the contractor installed between plaster boards. I then primed the walls with a watered-down PVA glue and painted. The paint product was a heritage paint which replicates natural plaster and has a texture. You apply it in different directions and it hides the imperfections. In terms of storage, I bought the IKEA IVAR units and cut them down in half to make dwarf wall storage along 6 metres for under £200.  Low-level storage on a budget. CREDIT: Amanda Moore So what do I think?
The space is great. I have an extra play/TV room and bedroom for about £40k all in which maybe adds £80k to the value of my house. The living room is being used as a movie room and it now houses my son’s drum kit. I can now say ‘I’m going upstairs’, ‘are you downstairs?’. It does get hot in the heatwaves and I will need to add some external shading to the roof lights and install wall fans as AC is expensive to buy and run. The sun, especially the western sun, hits one of the roof lights hard at a 90 degree angle in summer. I will never get that build cost again as things are getting very expensive. Also, my building control officer noted that soon it will become very hard to do a loft conversion without insulating the outside of the roof which is much more expensive with all of the retiling works. This is because of overheating concerns and legislation which will require so much insulation, unless insulation suddenly becomes much thinner, that you won’t have enough head height inside. So my advice would be to go for it now. Check planning restrictions, check with building control, tell your insurer and mortgage provider and don’t do any DIY such as electrics which you aren’t confident about. But it will only get more expensive and more restrictive.
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 CREDIT: Michael Huber Architects You can use softwood plywood to create a finished floor surface. Depending on timber prices, this material can be less expensive than other products such as pre-made timber planks which are specifically made as flooring products. I used plywood in a bedroom and would do it again in other rooms. I wouldn’t install it in a hallway or anywhere with heavy traffic or heavy items being dropped as it will ding and dent.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, installing hardboard insulation, working out the cutting list I started with the subfloor of my 1950s house. You might have a concrete subfloor. I laid a hardboard layer, (the green material), which provides a little insulation, evens out any raised planks to make a flatter surface and is air permeable as I didn’t want to create any condensation issues around my existing subfloor. I removed the skirting boards as the new floor would be higher than the existing laminate which was there. I bought standard 18mm plywood from my local DIY shop which comes in 2440mm x 1220mm standard size. I did a cutting list to try and fit all of the pieces I needed on as few sheets as possible. I wanted squares as the final finish with the grain running in alternate directions and so I divided the width of the room by 3 for the typical square dimension, allowing a few millimetres gap between each plank and 10mm against the wall all the way round. The squares, when laid out onto a sheet of ply, left lots of odd offcuts and so I used CAD software to lay them out as a layer beneath the squares. The squares would be fixed to them to make a more rigid floor a total of 36mm thick.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, floor installed and screw holes filled The small pieces of plywood when cut easily stacked into my car. I countersunk holes in each corner of the top layer of squares and screwed them to the layer below. They were also fully glued and I applied wood glue with a big brush. So essentially, the ply floor is not fixed to the subfloor, it’s a big rigid floor made up of 2 layers of ply sitting on the hardboard layer. The wood tended to have a nice side and then a not so nice side, (knot so nice side), which I laid to the bottom. I then used a high-quality yacht varnish with a satin finish to lacquer the floor, after filling the holes with wood filler in a light colour to match.  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, installing mineral wool and supports for cill  CREDIT: Amanda Moore, fitting the skirting and cill I bought high density fibreboard skirting which was pre-primed. The hardest part was cutting 45 degree mitre cuts for the corners. The adhesive was applied with a caulking gun and I pressed it against the wall with my feet!
There was a gap left against the sliding door. I added support battens and mineral insulation and then made a cill from Red Sapele timber. I’ve built an oak parquet floor in another room which I’ll put in another blog post and the price comparison is very different. The oak ran me £40 per square metre plus glue and hardboard whereas the ply cost around £10 per square metre but per layer, so £20 per square metre and I got away with cheaper glue than the carpenter’s glue I needed for the oak. The whole thing was also done in a day. It's a pretty simple way to make an attractive floor.  CREDIT: Photo: Amanda Moore In this 'Make Stuff by Hand’ series of posts I will share items built using minimal tools. Using your creativity to build things which can be used in your home is incredibly rewarding. However, watching YouTube videos by people with an entire workshop setup can be disheartening. What if all you've got is a drill and a saw? Here I outline the steps in making a plywood storage bench: 1. Measure your spaceThe instructions and cutting list included here will show the design for a 1.5m x 350mm bench to fit the space between two bookcases and create a seat under a window. You may need to adjust these dimensions to work with your particular space. 2. Choose your materialsSpruce plywood has been used for this project and can be purchased at a timber yard or popular DIY store. They should be able to cut it for you. The cutting list here is based on an 18mm material thickness. 3. Draw up your designNot everyone has 3D CAD software but you can download software like Sketchup for free, www.sketchup.com/plans-and-pricing/sketchup-free. You can model your item to scale and then take it apart and lay the pieces out into a cutting list. You want to try and lay out your pieces so that you require as few sheets of plywood as possible. Here I managed to get all of the pieces to fit onto one standard sheet of plywood:    CREDIT: Drawings: Amanda Moore REMEMBER to allow for the saw blade thickness, so you will need a little wastage of material as allowed here. 4. Take your cutting list to a supplierChoose your material and try to get the least cr*ppy pieces. There is often one bad side with standard construction plywood and you could make this the bottom, back or inside. Sorry guys outside of the UK, I only do metric.  CREDIT: Drawing: Amanda Moore 5. Choose either brackets or strip wood to make the jointsThis project used strip wood as it was cheaper. You could use small brackets though. You will also use wood glue to create stronger joints. Make sure that your wood screws are not too long, ie; less than the thickness of the panel material plus the strip wood or bracket thickness. I also used hand clamps to help hold things in place and used strip wood at most joints for strength. You can see the 'bad' side of the timber being situated inside the bench.  6. Hinges and openersYou can use individual hinges or continuous piano hinge which can be cut to size. I also decided to cut out four slots to allow you to open the lids. This involved drilling good-sized holes to create each curved corner and simply cutting with a saw and chiselling out.  7. FinishingLightly sand any sharp edges and varnish the bench to show off the natural wood grains. I chose to paint the interior of the bench in a chalk paint by Rustoleum, www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/chalked/. I also added restrictor hinges for child safety, and to stop the lids hitting the wall, plus sticky felt pads to the underside to allow the bench to be moved around without scuffing the floor. Finally I decided to sew two cushions from wool felt with wadding inside and fitted them with velcro, but this isn't necessary.  Good Luck!
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AuthorWhat am I doing here? I'm collecting sea water to fill 1,000 bottles and hang them from a scaffold inside an old ruin. Why? Why not? Archives
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