While loft conversions are becoming a more and more common sight to see in London, and by extension Wimbledon, there’s one particular type of loft conversion that’s been outperforming all the others – Dormer loft conversions! These conversions have a tell-tale look about them and you’ve almost certainly seen them around, with their flat wall and windows carved out of the roof of a terraced or semi-detached house! There are four main reasons for their increasing popularity, which we’ll go into in this blog post!
The benefits of a dormer loft conversion
Relatively cheap
When it comes to dormer conversions, they’re a much cheaper bang for your buck than going for Mansard, due to the simpler process than the engineering of a Mansard, or an extension or basement conversion due to the added construction needed for those. While Dormers aren’t as cheap as Velux conversions, they give you much more room and adaptability for your loft!
Flat walls & natural light
Flat walls mean that you get an even space in your room and don’t have to deal with awkward angles, and losing half the room because your roof slopes to less than a few feet at the edges of your room. This means lots of useable room for your furniture, such as bookcases, shelves, beds and the like. While a velux loft conversion may seem like a good idea at the time, you don’t actually get much useable space from them as the angled walls of the room stop you from putting any furniture there. You can even put seating or a bay window in place if you like with a Dormer, as well as double-windows that open outwards!
Headroom
Dormers provide great headroom due to the flat walls created by them. Depending on your height, you may have to slouch to get anywhere in a velux, but you don’t have that problem with a dormer! This means you can also have big screen TVs and wardrobes in your dormer conversion to fit with the increased headroom! As your ceiling will also be flat, it will be easier to find conventional lights and perhaps a ceiling fan to install into it.
Unlikely to require planing permission
Finally, while Mansard and Hip to Gable loft conversions will almost always require planning permission before you can start them, Dormers don’t in most cases! This is because dormer loft conversions come under permitted development status (this depends on whether certain rules are met, but it’s worth checking before making a final decision), even though they require some construction and re-building of the roof. This will save you a fair bit of time, money and effort as you won’t have to go through the process of applying and waiting for the go-ahead for works!
We hope this blog has helped give you some idea of why Dormer conversions are so popular in Wimbledon! If you want to discuss your dream loft conversion with us, then get in touch with us by filling in the form on our site or visiting the contact us page for some more ways to contact us!
