Loft conversions
Loft Conversions in Sidcup
Hip to gable and rear dormer loft conversions across Sidcup, built by our own team. Ten minutes from where we are based, on streets where the same roof repeats for half a mile.
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Working in DA14 and DA15
The roofs
around here
Sidcup is where we build more hip to gable conversions than anywhere else. Foots Cray, Blackfen, Lamorbey, Longlands and Halfway Street are full of nineteen thirties semis with hipped roofs, and a hipped roof is the one shape that costs you real floor area before you start.
The hip slopes in from both the side and the back, so the usable part of the loft ends up as a narrow strip along the ridge. Rebuilding that hipped end square is what turns it into a floor. Add a dormer across the back and you have a double bedroom with a shower room, rather than a room with a bed pushed against the only wall you can stand next to.
The roofs themselves are cooperative. Cut on site rather than factory trussed, with purlins and struts that can be reworked instead of ripped out, and generally enough height at the ridge to take a floor and a lined ceiling without the room feeling squashed.
Because these streets repeat, what we found on the last one usually applies to yours. Roof pitch, purlin position, where the stairs will land and what the water tank is doing all tend to be the same three doors down, and that makes for a more accurate price up front.
Types of conversion
Which conversion
your roof will take
Almost every loft we convert in Sidcup is one of these six. There is more on all of them on the main loft conversions page.
Hip to gable with rear dormer
The standard Sidcup conversion and the one we build most. The hipped end is rebuilt as a gable, a flat roof dormer runs across the back, and the two together give you a full width room with standing height across nearly all of it.
Hip to gable
Squaring off the hip on its own. Worth pricing where the back of the roof is better left alone, or where a full dormer would sit awkwardly against next door. Less floor than the combined job, and noticeably less than people expect.
Rear dormer
On the DA14 terraces and the semis that already gable at the side, the rear dormer does all of the work by itself. Full width where the house allows, and flat roofed rather than pitched, because a pitched dormer roof eats the head height it was built to create.
Rooflight conversion
Insulate, board, add a staircase and roof windows, leave the roof shape alone. Only possible where the height is already there. On a hipped Sidcup semi it rarely is, but it costs nothing to measure and it is much the cheapest answer when it works.
Mansard
The rear roof rebuilt near vertical with a shallow top, giving more floor than any other conversion. Almost always a full application and rarely the right answer on a nineteen thirties semi, but it belongs on the list.
Bungalow loft conversions
Chalet style houses appear across Sidcup and the roof work on one is a bigger job than a standard loft. If that is what you own, the chalet conversions page describes what is actually involved.
Recent loft conversions
Completed Projects
Typical loft conversion £60,000 to £85,000, eight to twelve weeks on site
What it costs
Straight answers
on price
- £60,000 to £85,000Loft conversions
- 8 to 12 weeksOn site, start to handover
- No depositBilled in arrears, free survey and itemised quote
A rear dormer on a straightforward cut roof sits near the bottom of that range. A hip to gable with a dormer, a shower room, a rebuilt heating system and a staircase that needs the floor below reworking sits at the top. What the roof is made of moves it more than the size of the room does, which is why nobody can price your loft in Sidcup over the phone. We come and look at it first. More on costs
Local detail
What we find
in Sidcup lofts
Four things that come up often enough on these roofs to be worth saying before you ask.
A hipped roof costs you floor before you start
On a hipped DA15 semi the standing area is a strip along the ridge and very little else. That is why the quote for a hip to gable looks higher than a plain dormer and why it usually still represents better value. You are buying floor, not roof.
Where the staircase lands decides the layout
On most Sidcup semis the only sensible position is over the existing flight, which takes the box room or a slice of the landing. That decision is made at survey and it shapes everything upstairs, so it is worth getting right before drawings rather than after.
Scaffold, and the side alley
A dormer needs scaffold across the back and usually down the side alley. On the tighter streets that means agreeing access with the neighbour before the job starts. We ask early because a scaffold that cannot go up stops the entire programme.
Chimney breasts in the way
Plenty of these roofs have a stack running straight through the middle of the new room. It can stay and be built around, or come out with the flue capped and the brickwork supported properly. Both are fine. Neither is free, and it is decided at survey.
We also build house extensions, garage conversions and whole house renovations in Sidcup. For everything we do in the town, see builder in Sidcup.
Next step
Find out what
your loft will give you
Send us the details and we will come to the house in Sidcup, get up into the roof, measure the height properly and tell you what it will take. The survey is free, the quote is itemised, and no deposit is taken at any point.
Or call 020 3576 5639 or 07766 161063, or message us on WhatsApp.