Postby FLH03 » Thu Mar 10, 2016 8:52 pm
Hi, I had this same issue, quite a few years ago, and couldn't/didn't find a good answer. Same thing - none of the loft conversion companies were interested.
The loft extension we inherited in the house was just one big room, and I did find an "old school" plumber who would have put an ensuite bathroom in there for us, he was very handy with carpentry and plastering skills, now sadly retired and happily living in Devon! Electrics would have been a separate job, as would adding or replacing velux-style windows, and we would have needed to redo an existing juliet style balcony and doors, (to put the services in the right place) it became too big a job for him, and the costs added up for all the separate bits/specialist areas became ridiculous. A bathroom specialist could probably do putting in a bathroom but wouldn't do a staircase for you. A
I came to the conclusion that either 1) I needed a good small local builder like my parents had growing up outside London, but couldn't find any, or any where the cost was even remotely feasible, any builder with all the relevant skills needs a big enough job to make it worthwhile, or 2) lump together any other house renovation jobs (e.g cellar tanking for a utility room, do another bathroom, side return) and find a larger all in one company who would add on the loft work to the other stuff, but........ that's really expensive.
In the end it went into the too difficult pile, and years later we moved. That sounds a bit negative and not much help to you, so I think if I was doing it again then it would just require loads of phonecalls to the renovation type companies (proper ones, more than handymen companies) with emails with photos, and try the companies that advertise regularly in all the free quality local mags, like SW Journal, The Resident, and the estate agents' publications, and ask for recommendations, references, look at Check a Trade, Trusted Trader.
So far so good......
