After seeing quite a few builders we chose South London Lofts. They were clear about the process, answered all our questions and they offered a good price. What sealed it for us was seeing a few of the jobs they had already done. One was done a good while back, which we wanted to see so we could see how the quality of the work stood up over time, and the other had just been finished a few days earlier and is a couple of streets from us. The people there told us how they had had very positive experiences of their build, and we could see ourselves the quality of everything.
We have a mid-terrace 1930’s house now with a dormer loft conversion that gives us a very large bedroom, off which is a good sized shower room and toilet. We also made sure we had decent sized under eaves storage area for all the stuff like camping gear and Christmas stuff etc. It has a lovely wide and light stair up to it that just looks like a continuation of the original stair to the first floor, it matches it perfectly. 3 velux windows and French windows/doors at the back. There is a very high quality of finish all round and we are very happy with it all.
I work from home, so I got to see a lot of the work as it progressed. The builders were always polite and considerate over things like minimising the dust that might come down into the house, which only happened once the stair hole was made. When they made the hole they put down protection for the stair below and hung drapes and neatly contained the mess. After that as there was some people traffic up through the house to the loft they put down protective plastic on the carpets up to the loft which when it was taken up revealed the carpets in the same condition they were in before the work began.
We asked, during the build, for some extra work to be done – for instance I could see, when I went up and looked out the new Velux windows, that the parapet of the party wall, above the level of the tiled roof, between ourselves and our neighbour was in a bad state. The bricks looked like very bad tooth decay and not going to last, so I had that fixed and I had the front bays very tired roof felt redone. Both were done again to very high standard, the wall looks great, and the price was very fair. Any extra things we wanted were always very reasonably priced and it was always given very straight-forwardly, which I liked. This extended to things like a number of extra sockets, aerial sockets and deciding to have downlights in the 1st floor landing and bathroom below. The electricians were great both they and the plumber/bathroom fitters took the time to check and double check we were getting what we wanted, exactly where we wanted it. The plumbers handled the fittings we’d bought with the utmost care, careful not to scratch or mark anything - they were very sweet guys.
We had an occasion when it looked like, because of the way the roof was constructed in one place, we might not be able to have the size of window in the stairwell we wanted, and that it might not be lined up how we wished. The lead first-fix carpenter was great, he said to leave it with him and then he came the next day with a solution and he was able to position it perfectly central between the stair well walls. Other things they took in their stride included how we wanted the Velux windows fitted, with a narrow engineered wooden bar that Velux provide, so windows could be close together and you maximise head height. The plasterer deserves a mention too, as he made these beautiful curves in the bedroom ceiling where the flat ceiling curves down to the sloping one. And he did this lovely curve of plaster work under the new stair, that you pass under when you go down to the ground floor. The roofers too did a great job, with real attention to detail with the flashings, everything.
I’ve attached some pictures, so you can see something of what they did for us.
