An attic conversion benefits the homeowners in many ways. However, for most Irish homeowners, an attic conversion allows them to solve perhaps, their most pressing need in the home, which is inadequate space.
If you want to introduce an extra living space in your home, an attic conversion could be the most straightforward solution you can find. Because a well designed and constructed attic room will not only create extra space to free up a clustered household, but it can also be a great option for you to add an extra lounge, bathroom, guest bedroom, game room, studio, library/home office if it is built as habitable living space.
With such a wide range of uses for the attic room, working with your architect or building company, it's then important that the design of the attic room be geared towards any purposes the attic room will be expected to fulfil.
Letting The Light In
No matter the purposes your attic room is going to be used for, how you light up the room is something that’s going to register on you and the architect’s thinking as you design the room.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), we spend a good part of 70% of our lives indoors! That’s an enormous amount of time that's supposed to see us stay away from sunlight. We could possibly read out a long list of the importance of sunlight for healthy growth and development, but did you know that sunlight is a natural antidepressant?
So, when next you or somebody else is feeling moody, we may not be entirely far off if we blame them for not getting enough daylight. Since enough sunlight is needed to control the most basic metabolic processes.
Hence, on that note, what can be termed as a great attic room conversion effort goes beyond a good floor plan or the roof structure. The design also has to have a well thought-out plan of how to let the light in. Hence, the number of windows, their sizes, and the positions must be done to help improve your mood, get you good quality sleep and boost your immunity to infections and diseases.
Windows Options For Your Attic Conversion
One of the beauties of attic conversion is that you don't need extensive alterations to your building to create provisions for natural light. For many reasons, that’s a good thing. For one, fewer alterations may very well mean less expensive. Also, the more drastic and obvious any alterations you make to your home is, the more likely you’ll need planning permission.
Talking about planning permission, it’s not all bad and negative. In fact, depending on your style and purpose for converting the attic, obtaining planning permission can be a very good thing because it affords your architect complete creative freedom. If you choose to place roof windows to the front elevation to gain extra light or to take in preferred views from the house, you will definitely require planning permission. Here at Atticplanning.ie a website owned and run by JEArchitecture, we have many year’s experience of this sort of situation and it is generally guaranteed that this can be obtained if done correctly
Having said that, part of the excitement of creating a brand new living space from an attic conversion comes from seeing it spark to live by bringing light into the room. Not just any light. But natural sunlight. Luckily for you, there are now more options than ever for attic conversion windows, openings, and lighting. You can now select according to your personal tastes or budget thanks to the good varieties of options.
However, before we look at those options more closely, there are a few things to put into consideration before making your choice.
Whether You Need Planning Permission Or Not
Depending on the type of windows you want to be installed, planning permission may need to be sorted out before you can begin construction. However, in many cases, whether you’d need planning permission depends on the type of roof and the attic conversion you desire, the simplest rule of thumb is roof windows to the front or alterations to the existing form of the roof will require planning, straight forward attic conversions will not.
In addition to that, a part may face some restrictions on the placement of the windows. Particularly, you may have to place them in a position where they don’t directly look into neighbouring properties. Available access points that may or may not include the window would also have to satisfy regulations. General building rules and regulations mostly concerning safety will have to be adhered to, also. For instance, fire safety demands that windows be used as exits point in the case of a fire incident. Hence, whether a window offers access to outside space such as a roof terrace is equally important. As with all matters about planning permission and building regulations, you must seek the guidance of a duly registered architect or specialist attic builder to avoid making mistakes that are costly to rectify.
Furthermore, other restrictions may affect your ability to install a certain type of windows or materials used for the window construction. This is mostly the case when your home is part of a conservation area or the property is a listed building. In such cases, you may be restricted to installing only certain types of windows that keep to the overall style and sentiments of the neighbourhood. For example, century styled homes may force you to install Victorian sash windows to match the rest of the building and the overall style of houses in the neighbourhood.
This may all seem like a lot of dos and don’ts but you don’t have to know them all. In fact, you’re not expected to keep tabs on them. Your architect is in the best place to ensure that you're on the right track every step of the way. That's essentially their jobs.
The Scenery From The Attic Room
This is all about your taste and your family lifestyle. The attic conversion type alone says a lot about the kind of windows you can install or would naturally go for. Then, the potential use of the room and how paramount natural light is for that purpose may also place a prominent part in swaying your decision one way or the other.
Below, we have highlighted the thinking processes involved with deciding on everything windows and window placement when you work with a seasoned architectural company.
· Say, you have a small comparatively small attic room. Then, your architect may advise you to incorporate a frameless glass panel for the window. This opens up the otherwise small room to make it look bigger. Also, this improves the views of the attic from outside looking in.
· Say, you opted for vaunted ceilings and conversion, which is a great option for keeping the sentiment of the roof space, such as with gable and beams. In that scenario, casement windows and balconied windows would be one of the most suitable and fitting enhancement options.
· Say, you choose a conversion type that does not increase the volume of the roof space. Perhaps, you find the existing space sufficient enough for the purpose. Then, roof light windows would be your best option to help maintain the character of the attic room as these do not increase the roof space. A dormer window is the polar opposite of roof lights windows in this case
· Say, you had your architect designed a gable to gable conversion which elevates one side of the pitch to create a ceiling height wall reaching up to the ridges of the original roof space. For this type of conversion, windows are naturally added along this side of the construction to make the most of the views and the light coming onto the larger surface area.
· Finally, building regulations and who will make use of the attic room and for what purposes plays a crucial part in the decision making process. Take for instance, ventilation in particular and general safety requirements in general, provisions for a children’s playroom will be different to an adult bedroom. Hence, both will require a different type of window installed to address ventilation, lighting and general safety requirements for each user and use cases.
The Views Inside The Room
So far, we have only talked about the exterior of the attic room and the perception of it from the outside looking in. But the views from inside the room is equally important and the perspective from inside may well be the most important determiner of the type of window that is eventually chosen. The idea of reclining on the bed while having breakfast is cool, but much of that allure is taken away if the view from the bed is of the next door neighbours’ courtyard. Perhaps, a roof light window that allows you to watch the constellations sounds better? Food for thought, that one.
So, Which Window? Which One!
It’s time to consider your base options proper. While they may be some aesthetics variations in the design and development of each window type below, nevertheless, your attic window would be drawn from one of these.
Some of your options include:
· Roof Lights
· Balcony Windows
· Dormer Windows
· Casement Windows
· Mansard Windows
Roof Lights Windows
If you’re big on keeping things easy and simple while still maintaining everything nicely within your budget limits, you won’t find anything as straightforward and simple as a roof light. In their simplest and truest form, roof windows are literally set into the roof of your home. The fact that a roof light requires the smallest amount of structural alterations to achieve makes it very appealing for homeowners. First, it means planning permission will not be even remotely required. Two, fewer alterations translate to less cost.
Roof lights are made in a wide range of sizes and can be blended with other types of attic windows in a conversion. They are quite adaptable and can be used in any sloping roof. The roof light also has a good variety of styles and types to select from. Velux types are particularly popular. A common design is to have a series of roof lights in a grid, thus allowing plenty of sunlight and air into the room. In general, they are very good for supporting ventilation because they allow in a large dose of air. And they are also called sky lights for a reason – the views you can get, especially of the stars at night can be stunning.
Balcony Windows
They are often sash windows with a Juliet balcony, balcony windows are an effective way of opening up the attic room to the vast space outside, promoting excellent ventilation and light. To fulfil better light and safety requirements, the balcony itself could be constructed from a protected glass.
They look very much like a larger version of the roof light when they are closely fitted and aligned in a grid-like arrangement. They are usually set into a sloping roof running from the floor level to just above head height.
The bottom half of the window pane is hinged at the base which makes adjusting the window into a vertical position possible. In contrast, the top half of the window can be pushed into a horizontal position. This means you can check out the views of the surroundings by going outside the room.
As expected, this type of windows allows you to have a much better supply of air and light, with the bonus that you can literally step outside. Basically, it's an improvement on the roof light. One important consideration is that they require specialist knowledge to fit. That makes it not the most cost-effective options available to you. Balcony windows in an attic conversion is generally very difficult to get planning for, so if this is the idea be prepared for an uphill struggle.
Dormer and Gable Windows
The dormer windows are set into the roof slope, which is ideally situated well in from the eaves. Dormer and gable window does not have to spot special features. Installing a dormer or carrying out a gable conversion means the roof construction is changed from a slope to vertical construction. This means traditional windows you used throughout the rest of the house can be easily done for the dormer or gable windows to achieve uniformity.
One of the advantages of Dormer and Gables Conversion is that they create a much bigger floor area, in invariably leads to a bigger volume of usable space within the attic room. A major disadvantage is that they are more expensive than roof lights because there are a lot more alterations done on the roof. That leads to the small matter of planning permission. Because a lot of these types of dormer conversion may fall into your permitted development rights, it’s a well and good. However, the margin for permissibility is rather small. Work with your architect to ensure all developments are carried out within what’s permitted. Gable would always alter the exterior appearance of your home. Hence, planning permission must be acquired before you begin any development work.
Casement Windows
Casement windows are not the most widely used options. But they see frequent applications in places where the windows to be installed have to maintain the style or signature of the rest of the house. Nevertheless, they still offer plenty of air and light when used as an attic window.
There’s not a lot of flexibility when casement windows are duly installed with safety and building regulations in mind.
Mansard Windows
For a mansard window to be possible, a mansard conversion will have to be put in place. This is the most complicated and most expensive options in terms of attic windows because a mansard conversion often requires the entire roof of the building in question to be replaced.
But it makes perfect sense that where you pay the highest price, you gain the biggest rewards. For starters, a mansard conversion gives you the maximum usable space possible of any type of attic conversion.
Because of the almost vertical nature of a typical mansard roof, the window units that can be installed is simply amazing. You can match the type of windows used for the rest of the house or you can take the more traditional attic windows route. You can install mini dormers or look to imitate sloping units which allow you to set in roof light-like windows. The mansard solution will require planning permission.
Do I Involve An Architect In All Of These?
While choosing windows and light options for your attic room represent the thrilling part of creating a new habitable space, There’s a lot of groundwork that has to be done before getting to that stage.
While you can design your attic conversion yourself, there are a plethora of reasons while employing an architect to handle the project for you almost always turn out the safest and the best value for money option.
At JEArchitecture a medium sized architects practice in North Dublin, we specialise in attic planning applications see atticplanning.ie. Get in touch with us now and we can give you the advice and service you need. Contact us now for a quote.
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