Velux loft conversion drawings in Tower Hamlets

A borough of flats, with a few terraces

Only 12 per cent of households live in a house or bungalow, and just 23.1 per cent own their home. The loft owner is a minority here, usually in a terrace in the older streets, and often the owner of the whole building.

That matters for design. A terrace roof is shallow, the chimney breasts are close, and a Velux conversion has to respect the neighbours on both sides. We measure the roof section before offering a layout, because a few centimetres of ridge height decide whether the bed fits.

If the house is split into flats, the roof usually belongs to the freeholder, so the first question is who may build. We can draw a scheme for the freeholder to put to the leaseholders. A party wall notice is normally needed where the new floor bears on a neighbour's wall, and our party wall notices service covers that step.

Heritage that touches the roof

Historic England lists 916 entries in the borough, with 21 at Grade I and 39 on the Heritage at Risk Register. The borough also contains 2 World Heritage Sites.

A listed house needs consent for almost any roof work, and a conservation-area house usually needs a flush, low-profile unit on the rear slope. Where the front is visible from the street, we show you the effect in an elevation before you decide.

The national rules the drawings must meet

The projection rule is: Roof alterations (e.g. rooflights) may not protrude more than 0.15 m beyond the roof plane. Side slope windows must also follow this: Side roof-slope windows obscure-glazed and non-opening below 1.7 m.

Stairs in a narrow terrace are tight, and the allowance is: Loft conversions where 2.0 m cannot be achieved: 1.9 m at the centre of the stair, 1.8 m at the side (half width). Higher conversions need protection too: New storey above 4.5 m by loft conversion: protect the full escape route with fire-resisting doors (min E 20) and partitions (min REI 30). These all go into the building regulations drawings in Tower Hamlets.

How the council has treated householder schemes

The council decided 191 householder applications in its latest year and granted 92.7 per cent, with 95.8 per cent decided in time. The number of decisions is small beside the 972 of all types, which tells you householder work is a minor part of the caseload here.

What we draw and the cost

Expect existing and proposed plans, the section with the rooflights and the stair, and elevations, plus location and block plans. The price starts at £695, VAT included, and is fixed before you commit.

A second chartered technologist reads each sheet before it leaves, and council-requested changes are redrawn free until approval. For a roof with no room under the slope, dormer loft conversion drawings in Tower Hamlets show the next step up, and architectural drawings in Tower Hamlets covers the borough as a whole. Newham and Hackney sit next door.

Work starts with a measured survey of the house on one datum, so the ridge, the chimney breasts and the party walls are drawn where they really are. Every plan, section and elevation comes from one model of that survey, which keeps the headroom figure on the section consistent with the floor plan.