Loft Conversion Article

The Only Way Is Up

Loft Conversions - The Only Way Is Up
By Harwood E Woodpecker

When we are younger and we buy our dream home with our partner we normally envisage staying there for many long years to come and not having to move until we have a family and we out go the space available in the house.

This has probably been the plan for many couples all over the country and has been the way things are for many years, it is what our parents and our grandparents did.

But then an unforeseen situation comes along like we are seeing now where mortgages are becoming ever harder to get hold of as banks and lenders are feeling the full affect of the credit crunch and are passing it on down the line to the people who need to borrow the money in order to move to bigger homes.

Unless you have the money in the bank, which in many cases is very unlikely, you are not going to be able to move to a bigger home for a while. Couple with this the fact that house prices are dropping all over the country leaving many people in a negative equity situation, where the house is worth less than they initially paid to buy it. It is a very difficult situation for buyers and sellers alike. So what options do you have open to you other than squashing your family into a home that is getting to small to accommodate you all.

The answer is probably to extend your home to add more practical living space for the whole family. By this I mean add space that people can live in and space that will enable the family to spread out, perhaps creating a couple of extra bedrooms and bathrooms. Anyone who has teenage children will understand what I mean when I say that it appears that each year that they grow older they seem to take up twice the living space of the year before, this can put a real strain on the whole family.

When extending the family home you have two options open to you, you can either go outwards from the house or you can go upwards. Depending on the size of your home, going outwards would probably create more living space but this type of extension is more expensive to achieve as well as being more disruptive to daily life, walls need taking down and virtually every room in the house is affected in one way or another. If you can work the plans out correctly so that you will have enough extra space made available to you by going upwards then maybe a loft conversion would be the answer to your problems.

Loft conversions are cheaper than a normal extension but they are still not cheap. The beauty of a loft conversion is that with a little studying you should be able to carry out many of the smaller jobs yourself and save paying money out to a professional builder. Unless you are raising the height of the roof the overall job is pretty simple, other than raising the roof the only other complications come in if you start needing to run water to the loft.

The main work in a loft conversion is ensuring that all of the walls and floors are insulated and boarded out correctly and meet all safety and fire regulations.

To access the loft conversion you will probably need a specially made loft staircase rather than a folding ladder if people are going to be using the room for any period of time. Overall a loft conversion could be the answer to the problem to overcrowding in your home and may be the most cost effective solution available to you.

A loft conversion will add value to your property should the day ever come when you feel you have to sell up.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harwood_E_Woodpecker
http://EzineArticles.com/?Loft-Conversions---The-Only-Way-Is-Up&id=1131970

For more info see the related pages below or complete the form at the bottom of the page for a free no obligation quote from tradesmen near you for your loft conversion project...

More Loft Conversion Article

Loft Conversion Guide

Loft Conversion Ideas

Loft Conversion Prices

Adding A Dormer

Skylight Windows

Loft Conversion