Dormer, hip-to-gable, mansard or Velux — we build them all across Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset. Real prices, proper building control sign-off, and a straight answer on whether your loft is worth converting.
There is no single price for a loft conversion. These are real ranges from jobs we have quoted and completed across Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch over the past five years.
The most affordable route. No change to the roof shape, just skylights let into the existing slope. Ideal where you already have the headroom. Fastest to build and least disruptive.
The most popular choice by a distance. A box extension off the roof slope gives full standing height and proper usable floor space, and almost always fits an en-suite. Usually permitted development.
Two dormers joined across the main roof and the rear outrigger. Common on Victorian and Edwardian terraces around Bournemouth. Gives you a double bedroom plus a bathroom rather than one room.
Made for the semi-detached and chalet homes all over Poole and Broadstone. The sloping hip end is rebuilt as a vertical gable wall, which transforms the floor area. Often paired with a rear dormer.
The highest-spec option, usually on period property. The rear wall goes almost vertical under a shallow-pitch roof for maximum space. Nearly always needs planning permission.
Every one of these depends on your roof, your access and your spec. We come out, measure up and give you a fixed price — never a guess over the phone. Read the full cost breakdown →
Real jobs, not stock photography. A rooflight is the quickest way to turn a dark loft into a room you’d actually use.
We add photographs as jobs finish. Ask and we’ll show you something close to what you’re planning.
It's the question we get asked most, and the honest answer is that it depends on what you're short of.
You already have the roof, the walls and the foundations. You're converting space you own rather than building new. On a like-for-like bedroom, a loft is very often the cheaper route — and it doesn't cost you any garden.
If what you actually want is a bigger kitchen or a family room, a loft can't give you that. Bedrooms and bathrooms go up; living space goes out. We'll say so even though the loft is usually the smaller job.
Plenty of Poole homes end up doing a rear extension and a loft in the same programme. Doing them together shares the scaffold, the skip and the building control application — which is cheaper than two separate projects two years apart.
Generally yes — an extra bedroom and bathroom is the single most valuable thing you can add to a family home. But there are two honest caveats worth hearing before you commit.
A converted loft only counts as a bedroom if it meets building regs — fire escape, stair headroom, floor strength. A boarded attic with a ladder adds storage, not value, and a surveyor will say so.
Spending £60,000 on a mansard in a road where nothing sells above a certain figure won't return what you put in. We'd rather tell you that at the estimate than after. If you're building to sell, ask a local agent what a fourth bedroom is actually worth on your road first.
The things homeowners in Poole and Bournemouth ask us most often.
Most loft conversions in Poole and Bournemouth fall under permitted development, so no planning application is needed. Mansards, anything on a listed building, and properties in a conservation area usually do need permission. We tell you which camp you're in before you spend a penny.
A Velux conversion is typically four to six weeks. A dormer runs six to eight. A mansard can be ten to twelve. Weather and building control sign-off move those figures, and we'd rather give you a realistic date than an optimistic one.
Almost never. Most of the work happens above your ceiling, and the staircase opening is usually left until late in the build. Expect noise and dust for a few days when the opening goes in — not months of it.
Yes, every loft conversion does, regardless of planning. That covers fire escape, floor strength, insulation and stair headroom. We handle the building control side and the sign-off comes to you at the end.
As a rule of thumb you want around 2.2 metres from floor joist to ridge before conversion. Less than that and a dormer or hip-to-gable may still work by changing the roof shape. It's a five-minute check with a tape measure — call and we'll tell you straight.
Based in Poole, working across the BH and DT postcodes.
Also looking at brickwork? See our bricklaying and brickwork page.
Free estimate, no obligation. We'll come out, look at the job, and give you a straight price.