Wandsworth, SW18
Rear dormer loft conversion
Two double bedrooms and a bathroom, lit from three directions.
Project type
Planning route
Borough
Loft conversion
Permitted development
Wandsworth
The decision that mattered
An L-shaped dormer conversion on a mid-terrace, adding two double bedrooms and a bathroom on a new top floor.
The lighting strategy is the interesting part
Loft floors are easy to get wrong. The dormer faces one way, so everything on the other side of the plan ends up dependent on borrowed light and the room nobody wants becomes obvious within a week of moving in.
Here the light comes from both pitches. Three Velux windows sit on the front pitch, throwing daylight into the bathroom and the front bedroom — the two spaces a rear dormer does nothing for. Each bedroom then has an additional aluminium window of its own. The result is that no part of the floor relies on light travelling through a doorway.
Front-pitch rooflights are a planning question
Worth knowing before you plan around them: rooflights and dormers on the front of a property are treated more sensitively than those at the rear, particularly in conservation areas, and permitted development rights that cover a rear dormer will not necessarily cover a front-facing alteration. Establish what your address allows before the layout depends on it.
Worth knowing if you are planning the same thing
A loft is the least disruptive way to add bedrooms to a terrace. Your kitchen stays working, your ground floor stays yours, and the scaffold does most of the coming and going. If you are weighing a loft against a ground floor extension and both would work, the loft is usually the easier four months of your life.
Start with a survey, not a guess
If your house is a similar shape, most of the same decisions will apply. We will come and look, and tell you what the building allows before anyone spends anything.
Photographs from this job
