Hip to gable loft conversions – add your extra space

Hip to gable loft conversions allow buildings with space-constricting hipped roofs to add further loft space. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

A hip to gable loft conversion is a viable option for a home with a hipped roof that limits the internal headroom of a loft space, even if it is otherwise large.

The majority of roofs are built in a ‘A’ shape, with two roof slopes joined by a triangular gable end wall. Many homes, particularly semi-detached houses and bungalows built between the 1930s and 1950s, have more intricate pyramid-shaped roofs with additional roof slopes instead of gable end walls.

You can increase the headroom available in accordance with construction regulations and make greater use of the loft’s floor space by converting it to a hip to gable loft conversion.

What is a hip to gable loft conversions?

This style of loft conversion effectively replaces the sloping roof with a vertical wall (the gable) at the end to the same height as the ridge, and fills in the space in between. The extra room can then be utilized for anything you like, though it’s usually big enough for an office, a play area, or an extra sitting area.

Although Building Regulations allow for some flexibility with loft stairs, a clear headroom of 1.9m above the middle of the flight is required to ensure that persons accessing the new loft accommodation do not hit their heads.

The location of the new loft stairs is determined by a variety of criteria, including the arrangement of the floor below; but, in most situations, placing them precisely above the current main flight (typically parallel to a main side wall) can provide the best space-saving solution.

When converting a loft under a hipped roof, there is usually enough headroom in the attic to easily accommodate the steps, but when converting a loft under a traditional dual pitched roof, this may be a difficulty.

A hip to gable conversion, in which the hipped roof part is replaced with a regular gabled roof, is the best alternative if you want to maximize the available internal space. This entails extending the existing end wall to produce a new gable and enclosing the space previously occupied by the roof hip.

New gables are frequently built in masonry to match the original structure, or in lightweight wood frame with traditional weatherboarding or tile-hung cladding.

What Does it Cost to Convert a Hip to Gable Loft?

In terms of both labor and materials, hip to gable loft conversions are labor and material heavy.

Before the timber structure is cut away to entirely remove the original hipped roof slope, the majority of the tiles and underlay must be removed from the roof. The remaining roof slopes are then extended towards the new gable to recapture the whole height gap in between, and the end wall is raised up to form a new gable.

A steel ridge beam will often need to be installed in line with approved designs and structural engineer’s calculations, in addition to installing new rafters, battens, underlay, and matching tiling.

A hip to gable conversion may be more expensive due to the increased complexity, with prices average around £50,000 depending on size and specification.

Estimated costs per square metre vary greatly, but you should expect to pay between £1,600 and £2,500 per square metre for new loft space.

Does a Hip to Gable Loft Conversions Require Planning Permission?

A hip to gable loft conversion is very likely to require planning clearance.

The majority of loft conversions are done under Permitted Development, which means they don’t need to go through the formal planning process. On most occasions, even full-width dormers are permitted.

The majority of loft conversions are done under Permitted Development, which means they don’t need to go through the formal planning process. When it comes to the back of the house, even full-width dormers are usually allowed. When it comes to expanding the front or side elevations in a way that is visually noticeable, anything more than a subtle sprinkling of roof lights would usually require planning permission. Adding side dormer windows (or perhaps a handful of smaller front-facing ones) shouldn’t be too difficult for the planners in most circumstances. It helps that even huge dormers will usually fit within the size restrictions, which dictate that total roof additions must not exceed 50m3 (or 40m3 for a terraced house), including any existing roof expansions.

Conversions from hip to gable lofts, on the other hand, are likely to surpass these constraints. They also have a significant visual impact on the kerb appeal of a home and, if not done properly, can appear bulky.

This is especially true when one of two semi-attached houses is converted, resulting in an unbalanced and awkward appearance (unless both are converted in tandem).

This makes obtaining planning permission more difficult, but a smart designer should be able to come up with some viable hip-to-gable alternatives to reduce bulk.

These are some examples of these designs:

A half-hip style with a little triangular hipped roof erected on top of a new gable wall that is built up to roughly two-thirds height.

The lower roof slope is preserved, but the upper slope is turned into a little gable end wall in this baby gable conversion.

These kind of modified designs have the benefit of preserving some of the original appearance while yet providing a large amount of internal headroom.

Alternatives to Loft Conversions from Hip to Gable

There are alternative options to consider if your available headroom is limited by a hipped roof.

The most obvious answer is to relocate the stairs to a location with more headroom. The problem is that this usually necessitates sacrificing important loft living space as well as repurposing an existing bedroom below.

You can also build a new projecting dormer window to the obstructing roof slope to raise its height. Dormers exist in a variety of shapes and sizes, but enormous “box dormers” are commonly utilized in loft conversions to provide more headroom.

However, while dormers on back elevations are frequently built at the same height as the original roof, dormers on a smaller hipped roof that has not been converted to a gable roof must be made lower or smaller. This is due to the fact that the breadth of Toblerone-shaped hipped roof slopes narrows as they approach the summit.

Of course, the size of the roof area you’re converting will play a big role. In some cases, a small dormer or even a simple roof window may be all that’s required to provide the extra headroom needed, especially if the interior layout allows for a flight of stairs with a quarter turn leading inward to the new space.

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