House Extensions, Loft Conversions & Roofing

Most of the extensions we build around Calcot and Tilehurst are rear or side returns that turn a closed-off kitchen into a single open living space, or two-storey additions that add a bedroom above and a family room below. The photograph on this page is a finished rear extension: a level-threshold bi-fold opening, recessed lighting through a dropped ceiling and large-format porcelain running unbroken from the old house into the new.

We start from your approved drawings and the structural engineer's calculations, set out the foundations, and book the building control inspections at each stage — footings, damp-proof course, steels, insulation and completion. If you have not appointed a designer yet, we can point you towards local practices who know how West Berkshire handles applications.

Typical scope

Foundations and groundworks, blockwork and brickwork, steel beams, roofing, windows and doors, first and second fix, plastering and decoration

Structure

Built to your engineer's calculations, with steels sized and installed to the approved drawings

Building control

Inspections booked and attended at every stage through to sign-off

Finishes

Plastering, flooring, kitchen fitting, electrics and decoration, or handed over at plaster stage if you would rather finish it yourself

Which conversion suits your house depends almost entirely on the roof you already have. A straightforward room-in-roof with roof lights is the quickest and least disruptive option where there is already good head height. Where there is not, a rear dormer squares off the space and creates the headroom for a fixed staircase and a full-height en-suite; a hip-to-gable does the same job on a semi or an end-terrace by squaring up the sloping side of the roof.

The en-suite pictured here sits inside a converted loft — fully tiled, thermostatic shower, heated towel rail and the window reframed into the new dormer cheek. Getting a bathroom into a loft is mostly a plumbing and structural question: new floor joists carrying the load down to the walls, and soil and supply runs planned before the plasterboard goes up.

Conversion types

Rear dormer, L-shaped dormer, hip-to-gable, room-in-roof and roof-light

Structure

New floor joists and steels installed to the engineer's design before the roof is opened up

Access

A fixed staircase built to current building regulations, not a loft ladder

Fire and insulation

Protected escape route, mains-linked alarms and insulation to current Part L standards

The roof in this photograph was built as part of a two-storey extension and dormer: new rafters and battens, breathable membrane, interlocking tiles carried across from the original roofline, and a dry ridge and verge system so there is no mortar to crack and drop out in a few winters. New fascias, soffits and a black rainwater system finish it off.

We also take on standalone roofing across Calcot and Reading — full re-roofs where a tiled or slated roof has come to the end of its life, flat roofs in EPDM rubber or GRP fibreglass over extensions and garages, lead flashings and valleys, and the repairs that follow a bad storm.

Pitched roofs

Re-roofing, new tiled and slated roofs, dry ridge and verge, breathable membrane and re-battening

Flat roofs

EPDM rubber and GRP fibreglass to extensions, dormers, garages and porches

Details

Lead flashings, valleys, chimney work, fascias, soffits and guttering

Repairs

Slipped and broken tiles, leaks, storm damage and failed flat roof coverings