Hip to Gable Loft Conversion Wimbledon

Here at Merton Loft Conversion, we recently completed a relatively large hip to gable loft conversion within Wimbledon. The loft conversion itself was very interesting both because of what a hip to gable loft conversion entails, and the customer’s specific needs being so uncommon for Wimbledon. Now, if you live within the Wimbledon area then you would be aware of how large the average home is compared to other areas both in London and around Wimbledon such as Croydon, Mitcham and so on. Since the average Wimbledon home has such as large amount of square foot space in comparison, it is surprising to consider a hip to gable conversion being the small option when in a Wimbledon home it can almost be the size of someone else’s first floor! This loft conversion however is unique in both the design of the room and the work completed.

Pet loft!

​The home owner wanted a room dedicated towards all their pets within the loft that would be both easily accessible and a suitable climate for all. The interesting part of this, is the different pets they had. The most important process during this loft conversion was the large aquarium fish tank we fitted into the room. We built a large partition halfway through the loft conversion to separate the room from the actual pet-allocated space to the filtration room for the fish tank. With a large mini-aquarium within the wall, you need a filtration system that can match the needs of the fish tank. This means we should dedicate just under half of the loft conversion to the filtration system. This was really exciting for me personally since they had over 50 different species of fish.

The main issue with fish are the different genetic makeups and the different needs each fish has. It’s something small for a loft conversion company to consider, but everything must be perfect for each fish. The tank itself needs to be 95-100% purified to lower the death rate of the fish, and the tank needs to stay at a constant set temperature to ensure that the fish are comfortable and within their natural climates. The temperature and purification of the fish tank isn’t something we had to personally worry about ourselves, but we did have to make sure the filtration system was properly installed and housed within the loft. If the filtration system was broken or not working at optimal performance for any possible reason, then we can endanger many of the fish’s lives. This can hurt the animals, the home owner and our reputation simultaneously.

Additional information regarding hip to gable loft conversions in Wimbledon

​Another interesting thing about the construction process itself is also making sure that the rest of the pet-allocated room was optimal for other animals. The home owner also owns a turtle, a hamster, a cat, two dogs and a reptile. These are many different animals that obviously clash, but even more worrying is finding the right balance between the animals and the loft itself. We installed a few different items for the pets around the loft itself such as a mini turtle penthouse (which I want after installing), a mini dog house for the dogs to eat food and sleep in and even a mini kitten penthouse that doesn’t fall. The actual room itself was fun to build and the loft conversion ended up being one of the most original in Wimbledon, but once I had finished I had a few questions that I kept to myself.

I’m not sure that with so many different animals such as the reptile and the turtle being in the same room under ergonomic conditions is good. Just like the fish, turtles and reptiles have their own optimized “climates”. 1 in 1,000 turtles die during their first year alive, and the effect the environment has on those chances must be large. It also seems as if there should have been more installed within the room such as a secondary Velux window for natural sunlight or other sources of environmental change. Either way, the customer was indeed happy with the result.

Here at Merton Loft Conversion we create many new types of loft conversions. If you are in Wimbledon and are looking for a loft conversion, I would suggest coming to us! Also please check out our recent blog post about loft conversions in Wimbledon if you have the time!