Attic Conversion Broadstone

Attic Conversions in Broadstone

Broadstone sits at the edge of the north inner city, and the housing reflects that. Period terraces, red brick, narrow plots and a mix of scales, from modest artisan houses to larger Victorian properties, some of which have been divided over the years.

That mix means there is no single answer here. What is achievable on one street can be quite different from the next.

The Roofs Are Usually the Easy Part

Housing of this age predates prefabricated roof trusses, which means a traditional cut roof built on site from a small number of substantial timbers, with genuine open space between them.

Structurally that is a better starting point than a modern estate house, where the roof has to be re-engineered before the space is usable at all. In Broadstone the roof is rarely the thing that stops a project.

Stairs, Layout and Subdivided Houses

The constraint here is the floor plan. These houses are narrow, landings are small, and a compliant staircase to an attic room needs run and headroom that a period terrace was never designed to provide. On many properties the honest answer is that the new stairs will cost you part of a room below.

Broadstone has an additional wrinkle. A number of the larger houses have been subdivided into flats or bedsits over the years, sometimes long ago and not always with the layout you would design today. Where that applies, the attic question quickly becomes a whole-building question about circulation, fire safety and, if the property is in multiple occupation, a considerably more demanding set of requirements.

We establish which situation you are in at the survey, because it changes the scope entirely.

Party Walls and Fire Separation

In a terrace, fire separation between your attic and the houses on either side has to be continuous up to the underside of the roof. In buildings of this age it frequently is not, and in a subdivided property the requirements are stricter again.

Putting that right is part of the work rather than an optional extra, and it is one of the first things we look for when we get into the roof space.

Conservation and Protected Structures

Broadstone is in the Dublin City Council area, and parts of the surrounding neighbourhood carry conservation designations. Some individual buildings are protected structures, and the area contains significant period architecture.

A rooflight on a rear slope is a very different proposition to anything visible from the street. Where a property is protected, the bar is higher again. We check the status of your specific address with Dublin City Council before anything is committed to, and we will tell you plainly if what you are picturing is unlikely to be acceptable.

Attic Flooring and Insulation in Broadstone

Where a conversion is not realistic, and in these houses it sometimes is not, boarding the attic properly for storage is genuinely useful. The boards sit on a raised platform above the insulation rather than crushing it, and in buildings of this age we check the existing ceiling joists were ever sized to carry a storage load.

Older properties lose a great deal of heat through the roof, so insulation is frequently the highest-value work available here. In buildings of this age the ventilation and moisture strategy matters as much as the insulation itself. Full detail, including internal wall insulation which suits these houses well, is on our home insulation page.

What You Get From Us

• A free survey covering the roof, the stairs question and the layout below
• An honest view on subdivided properties and what the attic question really involves
• Conservation and protected structure status checked with Dublin City Council
• Party wall fire separation addressed as part of the work
• A fixed written quotation and a dedicated project manager

See also our main attic conversion page.