Rung 4
Bedroom and ensuite
A shower room under the eaves, with built-in cupboards where the ceiling is low. Ensuite adds from £5,500.
The room is the reason you are doing this. We plan where the bed goes before we plan the steelwork, so that you do not hit your head getting up in the night.
Most lofts have room for a shower but not a bath; the shower head needs standing height, so it goes under the dormer or on the high side. The toilet can sit under a lower ceiling than you might think, as long as you can stand in front of it. The soil pipe has to reach your stack, and on a terrace that may mean a route across the room or a macerator, which we would rather avoid. We look at this at the survey.
Your boiler has to cope with one more radiator and a shower. A combi may struggle with two showers at once; a stored hot-water system can need replacing. We check rather than guess. Eaves cupboards are built by our own joiners, using the low space nobody can stand in, and they make the room feel twice as large.
What is included
- A drawn furniture layout, before the steelwork
- Shower room, plumbing, waste and extractor
- Tiling and sanitaryware at a stated allowance
- Boiler and radiator capacity checked
- Fitted eaves cupboards by our own joiners
What it costs
An ensuite shower room adds from £5,500 to the conversion, and fitted eaves cupboards from £1,400 a run. Every price is on the lofts page; the checker gives a first answer on your height.
Questions about bedroom and ensuite
Can I have a bath up there?
Sometimes. We have to check the floor and the headroom at the taps. A bath full of water is heavy, but the new joists are designed for it if we know at the start.
Can I have a bathroom instead of a bedroom?
You can have whatever you like. But a loft counts for your house value mainly as a bedroom with a bathroom. We can tell you what estate agents around here say, without making any promises.
Go up with a tape. Then ask us up.
Measure joist to ridge and try the checker. Then book a free survey: Dai or Bethan will tell you what is possible, what it costs, and whether you should leave it alone.