All good designs should achieve what you need whilst being buildable in accordance with the Building Regulations and your budget. To help put that into context, some of the most common key areas to consider are:

• Height is a major factor in making these rooms work as the roof pitch will generally pitch down to the floor.
• We recommend that you have a minimum of 2.4 Meters (8 foot) from the top of the ceiling joist to underside of the rafters.
• Staircases need 2M headroom over at least half of the tread. The new stairs will also have to form part of the escape route which needs to be protected from fire for a period of 30 minutes.
• Windows can be put in the roof using Velux’s, gable ends or built into a new dormer.

If you are putting a bathroom in the roof you need to think about the waste as it can be difficult to get new pipework through the floor. On 2nd floors or rooms with a finished floor over 4.5 but under 7.5 meters you need a sealed/protected landing top or bottom.

When you have determined the best position for the stairs, landing, and structural elements, you can then begin to design the rooms. Sloping roofs can be hard to work around, but with the correct layout, they create a nice feature.

It is best to work with the shapes you have and let each room get the full triangular profile where possible. Adding a dormer can create extra space and add features to the external roof too. Be careful when choosing the material finish outside as sometimes the small dormer side/cheeks will not look good if you try matching the tiles.

The dormer is different, and you cannot always blend it in. Choose finishes that enhance the angles and make if prominent and purposeful. Velux windows are the most obvious way to light the room.

Other options are building up the gable, forming hip dormers, and in some situations putting a new roof on. Depending on the planning limitation due to the surrounding properties it may well best to put a new roof on, this can be designed around what you really want and surprisingly not much more to the build if you use attic trusses.

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