CD Hood Ltd are experienced in loft conversion work and are used to working with architects and designers, an architect can be asked to prepare plans for your loft conversion if you want. We also suggest that you get more than one quote this will give you a better idea as to which company offers best value for money. But remember cost and value is not the same thing.

CD Hood Ltd like clients to look at previous work and talk to past clients to find out if they were happy with the quality of their jobs and the way in which they were carried out.

The cost of the job will vary depending on its complexity and where you live. A straightforward loft conversion for a three bedroom Victorian house in London might start from £30,000 whereas the same job in Lancashire might be closer to £20,000. If you are investing this much it makes sense to think about insuring the work.   There are several insurance-backed warranty’s that don’t cost the earth on the market and  provide the extra reassurance you might feel you need if something should go wrong while work is in progress.  They often last  for 10 years afterwards.

At CD Hood Ltd we are proud of our work and have lots of satisfied customers, but some are happy to pay a few hundred pounds more for peace of mind. And if they sell their house, the warranty is transferred to the new owner and can work as a selling point.

When designing and constructing good loft conversions especially those that include bathrooms it is vital that good ventilation is incorporated into the design. At this time of year when the temperatures between the inside and outside of the house are most extreme condensation can be at it’s worst.  Condensation can become a problem in loft conversions if ventilation is not properly addressed.

Condensation can cause black mould on walls, furniture, clothes and curtains. The mould looks bad and can even damage your health - medical research has found links between mould, house dust mites and illnesses of the throat and lungs. The damp left by condensation will also damage plasterwork and timber windows.

Condensation  is caused by everyday things like cooking, washing, bathing and even breathing cause moisture, which is released into the air. The air can only hold a certain amount of water vapor - the warmer it is, the more it can hold. If this is cooled by contact with a cold surface such as mirror, a window or even a wall, the water vapor will turn into droplets of water - condensation. This is what happens when the mirrors mists up in the bathroom.  This also happens at the coldest corners of your home, they are the most likely to attract condensation and possibly develop mould.

Cambridge experts in Loft Conversions CD Hood Ltd will do everything possible to make sure you have the right ventilation in any loft conversion bathroom.

If you are trying to plan a staircase to go up into a loft conversion experience Cambridge loft conversion specialists CD Hood Ltd know that the best place to start is in the loft itself this is because you are usually limited to where you can exit the staircase in the loft space due to the head room.

Care needs to be taken as to where you are planning to put your staircase especially when going into loft you need to make sure you stair well opening is big enough at both the top and the bottom. You will also need to consider if you want any door closing off the loft space at the top or the bottom of the stairs. 

If you have a door opening in to the space at the bottom of the staircase you need to be 400mm of space so the door can open.


In many instances of loft conversion experienced Cambridge loft convertors CD Hood Ltd have found that a straight flight of stairs will not fit.  When it comes to corners in stairs you have a number of options the simplest option is a 90º quarter turn landing for this you only need to allow the width of the staircase, the next option is a 3Nº tread kite winder for this you need to allow approximately 900 x 900mm for a standard width staircase (860mm) in the corner, depending on your going and the width of your staircase the size of a 3Nº tread winder changes, a good guide for the minimum size is 750 x 750mm for a 600mm wide staircase, the next option is a 4º tread winder for this you need to allow approximately 960 x 960mm on a standard 860mm wide staircase, again depending on your going and the width of the staircase this size will change. CD Hood Ltd are happy to make sure all the measurements a right for your loft conversion.

When building any extension to your home it is best to include the insulation in the build. It you have maybe tried to insulate your loft yourself you may have discovered a problem with putting 270mm of insulation ( what the government recommends)between the top-floor ceiling joists - most joists are only 100mm (4in) deep, so the insulation stands well proud of the joists, preventing them being boarded-over for storage let alone for building a floor. There is no point compressing the insulation to squash it in, because this removes the air spaces that provide the insulating effect.

CD Hood Ltd reputable local builders who specialise in extensions and renovations have found that if you want thick loft insulation and a boarded loft space as part of your extension, the only realistic solution is to deepen the joists, by adding extra timber on top of them. The depth required however can be reduced by using a more efficient insulating material. But most fibrous insulation products have similar properties to fibreglass.

The most thermally efficient insulation material is polyisocyanurate, or PIR, sold as lightweight rigid foam boards – a 0.16 U-value can be achieved using a PIR board 175mm (6¾in) thick, but being rigid, it has to be cut accurately to fit it between joists or rafters. This is easy enough for CD Hood Ltd to include in a new build or extension, where the joists are likely to be evenly spaced, but in an older property it can be time consuming to cut each piece to fit.