The Bearded Property Co carries out loft conversions across Uxbridge UB8, Hillingdon UB10 and Hayes UB3/UB4, covering Velux, dormer, hip-to-gable and mansard formats. Every project is fully compliant with Building Regulations for fire escape, staircase access and insulation, with a written quote agreed before any work begins.
The London Borough of Hillingdon covers a wide mix of housing stock, and a loft conversion that works in one part of the borough is not always straightforward in another. Around the historic core of Uxbridge, near Windsor Street, the High Street and St Margaret's Church, you find fifteenth to eighteenth century timber framed and listed buildings giving way to Victorian and Edwardian terraces, many with a rear outrigger that suits an L-shaped dormer. Away from the old town, Uxbridge and the wider UB8 and UB10 postcodes are dominated by 1930s semi-detached houses with generous hipped roofs, which respond well to a hip-to-gable conversion.
Streets closer to Hillingdon underground station and the Western Avenue, including Long Lane, Hercies Road and Judge Heath Lane, carry a denser stock of 1930s terraced and semi-detached homes on narrower plots. On these properties, a hip-to-gable conversion combined with a rear dormer is the standard sequence, since it recovers the headroom and floor space that the original hipped roof does not provide. In Ickenham, the housing is lower density, with more detached and semi-detached family homes, some period, some inter-war and post-war, and some modern executive-style builds.
Hayes has its own character, with 1930s semis and terraces, older Victorian and Edwardian housing near the town centre often referred to locally as Old Hayes, ex-council estates, and newer developments around the Old Vinyl Factory site beside the Grand Union Canal. A loft conversion in Hayes needs a different approach depending on which of these you are working with, and conservation area status changes the answer in several pockets of the borough.
Every project is managed end to end with a single point of contact, a written programme and a quote agreed before any work starts.
A simple conversion using rooflights rather than a full dormer, usually the fastest route to an extra room where headroom already allows it.
A rear dormer adds full standing headroom and floor space, the most requested conversion for terraces and semis across Uxbridge.
Converts a hipped roof end into a vertical gable wall, ideal for the 1930s semis common across Ickenham and Hillingdon.
The largest usable space of the three roof formats, with a near vertical rear wall set at around 70 degrees.
A full double bedroom with an ensuite bathroom built into the converted loft, plumbing and waste extended as required.
Loft rooms converted to a licensable HMO standard, including fire doors, alarms and an escape window for landlords.
A proper loft conversion starts with a site assessment that checks the existing head height, roof structure and whether the project falls under permitted development or needs a full planning application. Most conversions stay within the permitted development volume allowance, which is 40 cubic metres of added roof volume for a terraced house and 50 cubic metres for a semi-detached or detached house, provided the roof extension does not exceed the height of the existing roof and any rear dormer is set back at least 20 centimetres from the eaves.
Once the design is confirmed, structural calculations are prepared for the new floor joists, staircase opening and any roof steels, and these are submitted alongside the Building Regulations application. The build itself covers strengthening the floor, forming the roof structure or dormer, fitting insulation to current standards, and installing a fixed staircase with the correct headroom. Fire safety is built in throughout, including a protected escape route, fire doors on rooms opening onto that route, mains powered interlinked alarms and an emergency escape window in the loft itself.
Every project follows the same clear four stage process. Nothing starts until you have a written quote and a programme you have agreed to.
Contact us on 020 8050 9389 or WhatsApp. Describe the loft and what you want from it. We will arrange a site visit at a time that works for you.
We measure headroom, assess the roof structure, confirm whether planning permission is needed, and provide a written quote with a programme.
Structural calculations, Building Regulations submission, party wall notices where needed and any planning application are all managed for you.
Roof structure, insulation, staircase and fire safety works are completed, inspected by building control, and handed over with full documentation.
An extra licensable room in a loft can make a real difference to rental income, provided the finished space meets the floor area, headroom and fire safety standards a licensing inspection will check. The Bearded Property Co has converted loft rooms to a licensable standard for landlords across Hayes and West Drayton, and manages the fire door, alarm and escape window requirements as a standard part of every HMO loft project.
The examples below reflect the same structural, fire safety and finish standard that we bring to every loft conversion across Uxbridge, Hillingdon and Hayes.
Loft converted to a licensable standard with fire doors, mains powered alarms and an escape window fitted to meet the licensing inspection.
Protected escape route and FD30S fire doors installed as part of a loft conversion, meeting Building Regulations Part B in full.
Fixed staircase installed to the required headroom and pitch, replacing a loft ladder to make the space fully habitable.
Full double bedroom converted from an unused loft space, part of our wider portfolio of licensable room conversions for landlords.
A loft conversion that adds a genuinely licensable room is different from a loft that simply looks finished. Landlords across Hillingdon come to The Bearded Property Co because we understand the floor area, headroom and fire safety standard a room is inspected against, and we build to that standard as the baseline from the outset.
For landlords managing multiple properties or a licensed HMO, we offer a coordinated programme approach, sequencing loft conversions and any related refurbishment work to reduce void periods and keep rental income flowing. We work directly with managing agents and can be added to approved contractor lists for licensing related upgrades.
All works are documented with before and after photographs, a written schedule of works completed and any certification required for licensing, insurance or freeholder compliance purposes.
Some properties across Uxbridge, Hillingdon and Hayes need more than a standard dormer to make a loft genuinely usable. A rear outrigger on a Victorian terrace near Uxbridge old town often calls for an L-shaped dormer, wrapping the extension around both the main roof and the outrigger roof to maximise the usable footprint. This is a more complex structural exercise than a straight rear dormer, and needs careful design of the valley junction between the two roof slopes.
For properties within Ickenham Village, Hillingdon Village or the Hayes conservation area boundaries, we manage the full planning application process rather than relying on permitted development, including any heritage statement the council requires. Where an existing loft has restricted head height and raising the ridge is not an option, we assess whether a hip-to-gable or mansard format can recover enough headroom without a full roof rebuild.
Images below will show completed loft conversion projects carried out by The Bearded Property Co across Uxbridge, Hillingdon and Hayes.
Every project is delivered against a written programme with a single point of contact. When we say a loft conversion starts on Monday, it starts on Monday. We check permitted development and conservation area status on every property before quoting, so you know exactly what route the project needs from day one.
Three projects that show this in practice. We completed a hip-to-gable and rear dormer conversion on a 1930s semi near Hercies Road in UB10, adding a full double bedroom and ensuite within an eight week programme. In Uxbridge old town, we identified that a property sat just inside the Windsor Street conservation area boundary before design work began, saving the client a wasted permitted development application. In Hayes, we converted a loft to a licensable HMO standard for a landlord, sequencing the fire safety upgrades so the rest of the property stayed occupied throughout.
The Bearded Property Co. Registered address: 85 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London, W5 5BW. Email: info@mrplumbsingh.co.uk.
The Bearded Property Co is based at 85 Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 5BW, a short drive along the Uxbridge Road corridor into Hillingdon. Our team are local West London tradespeople, not a franchise operation dispatching contractors from across the M25.
We cover loft conversion, dormer, hip-to-gable and mansard projects across Uxbridge UB8, Hillingdon UB10, Hayes UB3 and UB4, Ickenham, Cowley, West Drayton, Yiewsley and Harefield. Contact 020 8050 9389 to arrange an assessment visit.
The Bearded Property Co covers all of the following areas directly for loft conversion, dormer, hip-to-gable and mansard projects.
Answers to the most common questions from homeowners and landlords across Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Hayes and the surrounding areas.
Most loft conversions fall under permitted development and do not need planning permission, provided the added roof volume stays within 40 cubic metres for a terraced house or 50 cubic metres for a semi-detached or detached house, the roof extension does not exceed the height of the existing roof, and any rear dormer is set back at least 20 centimetres from the eaves. Properties inside a conservation area, such as the Windsor Street core of old Uxbridge, Hillingdon Village, Ickenham Village or the Hayes Village conservation area, usually lose some of these rights and need a full planning application even for a standard dormer. We check this against the property's exact location before any design work starts.
Every habitable loft conversion needs Building Regulations approval covering structural strength of the new floor, fire safety, insulation and staircase access. This includes a protected 30 minute fire escape route from the loft to the final exit, FD30S fire doors on rooms opening onto that route, a mains powered interlinked smoke alarm system, and an emergency escape window in the loft with a clear opening of at least 450mm by 450mm. The new staircase must be fixed, not a loft ladder, and needs a minimum headroom of 1900mm to 2000mm depending on where it is measured.
Almost every loft conversion on a semi-detached or terraced property in Uxbridge, Hillingdon or Hayes needs a party wall agreement, because the work usually involves inserting new structural beams into or against the party wall shared with your neighbour. Written notice must be served at least two months before that part of the work starts, and your neighbour then has 14 days to consent or dissent. If they do not respond, dissent is assumed and the matter moves to a surveyor. We manage this process as part of every loft conversion we quote.
A dormer conversion adds a boxy vertical extension to the rear roof slope and is the most common and usually the most cost effective option. A hip to gable conversion turns a sloped hip end, common on 1930s semis across Ickenham and Hillingdon, into a vertical gable wall, adding significant extra headroom and floor space. A mansard conversion replaces most of the rear roof slope with a near vertical wall set at around 70 degrees, giving the largest usable space of the three but is more likely to need full planning permission, particularly in a conservation area.
Building control generally wants at least 2.2 to 2.3 metres of head height from the ceiling joist to the ridge before a loft is considered viable for conversion without raising the roof structure. If your existing headroom falls short, a dormer or hip to gable extension can usually recover the shortfall by extending the roof outward rather than raising the ridge. We measure this on every site visit before confirming which conversion type is achievable.
Yes, and it is one of the most common projects we carry out across UB10. The dominant 1930s semi-detached housing stock along Long Lane, Hercies Road, Judge Heath Lane and the surrounding streets typically has a hipped roof that suits a hip to gable conversion combined with a rear dormer, giving a full double bedroom with an ensuite where the layout allows it.
Yes. Ickenham Village conservation area around St Giles Church and Austin's Lane, Hillingdon Village conservation area around St John the Baptist Church on the Uxbridge Road and Royal Lane axis, the Windsor Street and High Street core of old Uxbridge, and the Hayes Village and Old Vinyl Factory conservation areas all carry tighter controls. Permitted development rights for roof alterations are commonly removed within these boundaries, meaning a full planning application is needed even for a conversion that would otherwise be permitted development elsewhere in the borough.
Yes. Structural calculations are required for the new floor joists, any steel beams supporting the roof structure, and the strengthening needed where a staircase opening is formed. We coordinate the structural engineer as part of the project so the calculations are submitted alongside the Building Regulations application without you needing to find and manage a separate consultant.
Scaffolding is needed for the roof works stage on almost every loft conversion, and this typically stays up for several weeks while the roof structure is altered and made weathertight. The lower floors of the house generally stay usable throughout, since most of the structural work happens above the existing ceiling line. We sequence deliveries and skip placement to minimise disruption to the household and neighbouring properties on narrower Uxbridge and Hayes streets.
Yes, provided the finished room meets the minimum floor area and ceiling height set out in HMO licensing standards, along with the fire safety upgrades required for a habitable loft room. We have converted loft rooms to a licensable standard for landlords across Hayes and West Drayton, including the fire doors, mains powered interlinked alarms and escape window that a licensing inspection will check for.
The Bearded Property Co provides written quotes before work begins, checks planning and conservation area status on every property, and is available Monday to Saturday.
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The Bearded Property Co. 85 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London, W5 5BW. Tel: 020 8050 9389. Email: info@mrplumbsingh.co.uk. Covering Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Hayes, Ickenham, Cowley, West Drayton and the London Borough of Hillingdon.
