Rooflight, dormer, hip-to-gable and L-shape conversions, built by a third-generation family firm with 65 years in the trade. An extra bedroom without losing a foot of garden.
A loft is usually the cheapest square metre in the house, because the walls and roof are already there.
Rockshore Building Group is a family business in Worthing, now in its third generation, with over 30 years of combined experience on site. Joe runs the jobs. We carry out the carpentry, structural work, electrics, plumbing, plastering and roofing ourselves, which matters more on a loft than on almost any other job, because the trades have to follow each other through a small space in a tight order.
We work directly with local-authority building inspectors so the conversion meets current building regulations, and we are fully insured. Our tradesmen train regularly on fire safety, insulation, air quality and health and safety, all of which come up in a loft.
Not every roof converts, and you should know that before you pay anyone for drawings. Three things decide it.
We will come out, get in the loft, measure it and tell you straight whether it is worth doing. If it is not, we will say so and talk to you about an extension instead.
The space is already there. What it needs is structure, stairs and light, in that order.
Which one suits you comes down to your roof shape, the space you need and whether you need planning permission.
The simplest and cheapest. The roof shape does not change, windows sit flush in the slope and you gain a room with sloping ceilings. Works where you already have good head height, and it rarely needs planning permission.
A box built out from the rear roof slope to create flat ceiling and full-height wall. It is the most common conversion on semis and terraces around Worthing and Goring, because it turns an unusable roof into a proper double bedroom with room for an en-suite. Rear dormers often fall under permitted development, though not on every property.
Where the roof slopes in on the side, the hip is built up square to form a gable wall. That gains a lot of usable floor area and is often paired with a rear dormer on a detached or semi-detached house.
For houses with an existing back addition. The dormer wraps around the rear return, giving a bedroom plus a separate bathroom or dressing room. The biggest of the four and the one most likely to need planning permission.
The existing ceiling joists were never designed to be a floor. A conversion starts by installing new floor joists, usually carried on steel beams that sit on the load-bearing walls, so the new floor is independent of the ceilings below. Those beams are sized by a structural engineer and inspected by building control before anything is covered up.
The stair is the other structural job. It has to meet the rules on rise, going and headroom, and it usually means taking out part of a wall or a ceiling on the floor below. We build the opening, trim it and fit the stair as part of the job, so you are not left with a hole in a landing waiting on a joiner. Where the work affects a shared wall, we will tell you early if party wall notices are needed. If you are opening up elsewhere in the house at the same time, see structural alterations.
Most of the lofts we build get a shower room or an en-suite. The two things to plan early are where the soil pipe runs and whether the existing boiler and cylinder can carry another bathroom. Both are far cheaper to solve on a drawing than after the plasterboard is on.
We install the plumbing, the waterproofing behind the tiles and the extract ventilation, then tile and finish it. A freestanding bath under a rooflight is a nice thing to have if the floor structure and the head height allow it, and we will tell you honestly whether yours do. Our kitchens & bathrooms page covers the fitting side in more detail.
A loft sits directly under the roof, so it is the room most likely to be freezing in January and unbearable in July if the insulation is done badly. We insulate between and under the rafters with a ventilation path kept above it, so the timbers stay dry and the room holds its temperature.
Fire regulations are the part people do not expect. Adding a third storey normally means fire doors to the rooms off the stairwell, mains-wired interlinked smoke alarms, a protected escape route down the stairs and an escape window in the new room. It is not optional and it is not something to cut corners on. We build it in from the start.
Roof work is done by our own team, from stripping and re-tiling around a new dormer to fitting rooflights and flashings so they do not leak in the first westerly gale off the sea. At the end, building control carries out a final inspection and issues the completion certificate, which you will want when you come to sell.
We work across Goring, Worthing, Rustington and the wider West Sussex area.
If the loft is not the answer, one of these usually is.
Measure from the top of the ceiling joists to the underside of the ridge. Around 2.2m is a sensible starting point, because the new floor structure and the insulation both reduce the finished height. If you have less, a dormer, a hip-to-gable or lowering the ceiling below can sometimes make it work. We will measure it for you and tell you straight.
Many rear dormer and rooflight conversions fall under permitted development, so no full application is needed. Front dormers, larger L-shape dormers, flats, listed buildings and properties in conservation areas usually do need permission. Either way the work always needs building control approval.
Yes, but it is a bigger job. Trussed roofs have webs running through the middle of the space, so the roof has to be supported and restructured with new beams before the trusses can be cut. It is done regularly, it just costs more than converting an older cut roof with purlins.
Adding a storey usually means fire doors to the rooms off the stairwell, mains-wired interlinked smoke alarms, a protected escape route down the stairs and an escape window in the new room. It is a building-regulations requirement, and building control will check it before signing the work off.
In most conversions yes. The two things to check early are where the soil pipe can run and whether your existing hot water system can supply another bathroom. Both are much easier to solve at drawing stage than once the plasterboard is on.
Yes. We work with the local-authority building inspector throughout and book the stage inspections, and building control issues a completion certificate at the end. Keep it safe, because a buyer’s solicitor will ask for it.