Roof extensions in steel, put up panel by panel.
The walls and the roof are cut, screwed and insulated as panels in our hall while you live downstairs. They come on a lorry, the old roof comes off, and our crew stands the new storey up on your own walls, panel by panel.
Most brick houses carry it without new footings
What actually happens to your house.
The old roof comes off. On the same walls goes a steel floor, and on that floor the new storey: frame, insulation, windows, cladding and roof, made as panels in our hall and screwed together on your house.
What arrives is a shell you can walk into. Walls closed, windows in, roof watertight, and the opening for the stair cut where the drawing says. Plaster, electrics and floors come after, three to six weeks, and only the new level is a building site.
Houses built from the sixties on usually carry it. We put a ring beam along the top of your walls so the load runs into them evenly, and the footings are left alone in most cases. That is also why an engineer reads your walls before you get a price: 20 cm of hollow block behaves nothing like 30 cm of solid brick.
- You stay in the house. The days the old roof comes off are the loud ones. After that it is the two days we cut the stair opening.
- Nothing gets dug. No new footings in most houses, so the garden, the drive and the fence stay where they are.
- The weight is the whole trick. Around 60 kg per m² finished. The same floor in block and concrete starts at 400.
- One contract. Drawings, structural report, frame, windows, roof, the crew and transport are all on our side.
The same house, eleven weeks apart.
Same street, same hedge, same car at the kerb. Point at any of the three and it opens out.
Four ways to go up.
Which one your house allows comes down to the walls, the pitch of the old roof and what the local office permits on your street. You get that answer at the survey, in writing, before you spend anything.
These four are the ones people ask for most, not a catalogue you have to choose from. Bring a sketch on paper or a plan from your own architect and the frame is cut to it. The steel is made to the millimetre either way.
Send us your drawing
A full new storey
The whole footprint gets a second floor. This is the one that turns a small house into a family house: two or three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a landing at the top of the new stair. The old roof comes off in the morning and the new level is standing by the afternoon.
From the first visit to the first night upstairs.
We come and measure
Two hours at your house. We measure the walls, open a corner of the roof if we have to, and photograph everything. You get a written answer on what your walls carry.
Drawings and a price
Layout, where the stair lands, window sizes, how it reads from the street. When you accept the drawing the price is fixed and you have a date.
The permit
We prepare the drawings and the structural report your office asks for and stay on the case until it is stamped.
Panels made in the hall
Frame cut and screwed, insulation in, windows and cladding on, all as panels. Nothing in this part waits for the weather.
Up on your walls
Old roof off, the floor down, then the panels stood up and screwed together. Covered every evening, watertight in about three days.
Finishing inside
Stair, electrics, plaster, floors. Three to six weeks, and your ground floor keeps working the whole time.
Will the walls carry it?
Usually they will, and the reason is weight.
A steel storey with its insulation, windows and roof lands at roughly 60 kg per square metre. Built the old way, blocks and a concrete slab, the same floor starts at 400. That gap is what decides whether your house needs new footings or not.
None of it counts until somebody checks your house. A structural engineer reads the walls and the footings and writes down what they take. If the answer is no, you hear it at the start, before you have paid for anything.
What a new floor weighs, per square metre
Finished weights with insulation, cladding and roof. The figures your engineer writes for your house are the ones that count.
Three days out of the whole job.
What people ask before they call.
Will my house carry a roof extension?
In most brick and block houses it will. A finished steel storey weighs about 60 kg per square metre against 400 and up for block and concrete, so the extra load on your walls stays small. A structural engineer checks the walls and the footings before you get a price, and you get that answer in writing.
Do we have to move out?
Almost never. The panels are made in our hall while you carry on living downstairs. Your house is open to the sky for the few days the crew is on the roof, and it is covered every evening.
How long does a roof extension take?
Eight to fourteen weeks from signed drawings to the first day on site, with the permit running alongside. The crew is on your roof for about three days. Finishing the inside is another three to six weeks.
Potrebujem stavebné povolenie?
In most places yes, because the height and the volume of the house change. We prepare the drawings and the structural report your office asks for, and at the survey we tell you which procedure your case falls under.
What decides the price?
Square metres first. Then how much of the old roof has to come off, where the stair lands, how many windows you want and the level of finish upstairs. The quote holds the structure, the envelope, the windows, the crew and the transport, so nothing appears at the end.
Where does the staircase go?
Usually over the hall or above a stair that is already there, because that costs the least floor area downstairs. We draw two or three positions on your plan and you pick one before the frame is cut.
Can you build on a flat roof?
Yes, and it is the easiest case we get. Either a full storey, or one room with the rest of the roof left as a terrace.
How warm is it upstairs?
The walls and the roof are insulated in the hall, under cover, so the insulation arrives dry and unbroken. Steel conducts heat, so the frame is separated from the outer skin by a thermal break, and the heating bill upstairs usually comes out lower than the floor below.
Send a photo of your house.
One picture from the street and a sentence about what you want upstairs. We come back with what your walls can take and what it would cost.
