Product Description

Loft conversions are a great way to add valuable living space to your home and significantly boost your property's value. But creating new rooms in your roof can mean making major structural alterations, and raises important questions. How can you tell if your loft is suitable for conversion? How much of the project can you do yourself? Expert guidance is now available in the "Loft Conversion Manual", which explains the whole process in plain English and step-by-step colour photographs. From designing layouts and finding the right contractors right through to snagging and completion, this guide will make converting your home a smooth and successful process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5852 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From the Publisher
Here you will find clear professional advice covering:-

* How to design your loft room * Does it need planning consent? * How to select the right contractors * Making structural alterations * Building dormers and installing roof windows * Scheduling the works to minimise disturbance * How to avoid cost overruns and delays *Saving money by employing specialist trades * Step-by-step roof window installation *Step-by-step insulation photo feature

PLUS - get started with free downloads from the book's website - sample plans & documents used by the professionals, span tables, help with the Party Wall Act, and the full Building Regulations.
This is, quite simply, the most comprehensive loft conversion guide available to the general public today - don't start work without it

About the Author
Ian Alistair Rock is an experienced chartered surveyor and author of best-selling Haynes Home Extension, Victorian House and 1930s House Manuals. Ian designed and built one of the loft conversion projects featured in this book. He is director of a chartered surveying consultancy and a well known speaker at property conferences around the country.

Customer Reviews

The perfect book for anyone thinking of undertaking a loft conversion.
Buying this book saved us a great deal of money and stress. It gives you an excellent insight into what to expect. It gives information in a clear way and we found the large number of photos showing a huge variety of styles and designs really useful for getting ideas at the design stage.
We looked at 2 other books - one was far too simple, and the other was very academic and printed on cheap paper for advanced PHD level engineering students - they also ignored important stuff like complying with insulation, which is now a major part of the job. Haynes seem to have got the balance about right. You can spend a good hour or so just browsing through it, but there's a good amount of in depth technical advice should you need it, and illustrations, for each step of a conversion.
It gives you all the information you need with regards to stages, management, involving planning and building control, as well as excellent pictures and diagrams showing all stages of work, from design to final fix. I would say its one of the best book I've ever bought.

Excellent advice for the layman
If, like me, you are about to go down the route of pushing skywards with a loft conversion then you would be well advised to read this book.

Simply written with the 'lay person' in mind if covers all aspects of the loft conversion and gives helpful, up to date, advice whether you intend to get in a specialilst company to do all the work, get a part conversion carried out or intend to totally go it alone the book covers the many pitfalls along the way and taking the time to read this book could save you a lot of money in the course of the conversion. Definitely recommended!!

good start on insulation
I looked at several books on loft conversions and this one is one of the best books. It is the only one that really starts to deal with insulation. But it is unfortunately not complete and I would have liked more `good practice' on the subject. If you ask your builder to do exactly the same as in the pictures on page 197-201 and make sure he does it, you're OK - ish (read also the other pages!). A good place to look for good practice is on the planning portal of the government and look for the `accredited construction details'. There is a Scottish version too.
Don't trust your builder, even if he is (or pretends to be) a `specialist'. Ask lots of questions and keep asking and make sure you keep a close eye on the construction. In the vast majority of cases you need 2 layers of insulation: a lot of builders and architects get it wrong. I would certainly recommend this book over the other ones.