How we chose
We started from the loft conversion firms the local listings show across Telford. Scheme memberships were sourced from the building-trade registers, each firm's own website and platforms such as Checkatrade and Which? Trusted Traders [6] [7]. Each business must first meet our basic checks: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and anything it must hold by law is in place. One firm met all three. We looked first at what customers say, then qualifications, then whether the firm has traded two years or more and whether its cover is stated, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence is dated early September 2026.
How to hire
Match the conversion to the roof before you fall for a design. A rooflight room keeps the existing shape and suits a loft with headroom to spare, while dormer and hip-to-gable designs carve out floor space at greater cost, and a mansard rebuilds the slope entirely at the top of the market [3]. Roof shape and structure decide more than taste, so invite the opinion before you fix the plan. Walk the loft with a tape and note where you can stand upright.
Most Telford lofts convert without a planning application, under permitted development, but the limits are exact: the added volume must stay within the allowance for your house type, the ridge cannot rise, front dormers facing the road are out, and balconies always need permission [4]. Some streets carry stricter rules, so check with the council planning desk before you sign anything, and keep the answer in an email you can find later [8]. Where the limits are exceeded, a householder application follows instead [4].
Building regulations always apply once the loft becomes a room to live in. They cover the strength of the new floor, the stairs, escape from fire and sound insulation between the conversion and the rooms below, and a building control body, usually the council, inspects the work in stages [5]. On a semi or terrace you must also warn the neighbours under the Party Wall Act before touching a shared wall, which is separate law with its own notices [5]. Name the building control body in your first enquiry.
Loft conversion has no mandatory register, so memberships are voluntary proof rather than licences to trade. The Federation of Master Builders inspects members before they join and runs a check-a-member tool, while TrustMark, the government-endorsed scheme, lets you search its register for your trade [6] [7]. Industry qualifications for the listed firm could not be sourced from any register, website or platform checked, so treat the paper trail as your job: ask for insurance details and two recent local loft jobs you can verify.
Take three quotes on the same written scope so the totals compare like with like [7]. Each quote should split labour, materials and VAT, and name the stairs, electrics, plastering, scaffolding, drawings and building control fees with a start date and payment stages; a deposit for materials is normal, while full payment before the staircase goes in is not. Hold a contingency for what the opened roof reveals, since older timbers often need more strengthening than the first visit suggests [3].
Use a written contract that states the work, the price and the dates, and agree any change in writing as you go [7]. At the end, collect the completion certificate from building control, the structural calculations and any written guarantee, and file them with your house papers for the day you sell. If a fault appears, put it in writing with photos and a deadline before you release the last payment [9].
Telford & Wrekin Council runs both halves of the official route. Its building control team takes full-plans applications, with drawings and structural calculations approved before work starts, and a council surveyor then inspects at key stages before the completion certificate is issued for your house file [12]. On planning, the council offers pre-application advice on loft schemes, and a lawful development certificate settles whether your scheme counts as permitted development [13]. Extra care applies in the borough's eight conservation areas, which include Wellington and the Severn Gorge [10]: inside the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site an Article 4 Direction has removed several permitted development rights since the late nineties, so roof alterations including roof lights and dormers need permission [11].
Allow for the street as well as the roof. Telford blends the market town of Wellington and a number of former townships with newer low-density estates [14], so one quote may assume easy scaffold access while the next street needs parking agreed and materials carried further. That applies from Wellington, Dawley and Madeley through Lawley to Ironbridge: what changes between them is access, parking and how close the neighbours sit, not the checks themselves. Say how your street works in the first enquiry so each quote prices the same reality.
A typical job runs enquiry, visit, drawings, permissions, build, sign-off. You send measurements, roof photos and your address; the firm visits, confirms which types the roof allows and returns a written scope with drawings. Planning and building control applications go in on those drawings, with party wall notices to attached neighbours where needed [5]. The build follows with staged inspections, and the job closes with snagging, the completion certificate and the final payment in that order [9] [12].
A written quote worth comparing splits labour, materials and VAT, names the stairs, electrics, plastering, scaffolding, drawings and building control fees, and ties payment stages to inspected milestones with a start week and a finish week. The closing file holds the completion certificate, the structural calculations, any written guarantees and the full set of invoices, joined by the planning decision or lawful development certificate and any party wall award [5] [12]. Keep that file with the house papers: a buyer or lender will want the certificate most of all [12].
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, national guides put a typical thirty-square-metre conversion at around £27,500 for a Velux rooflight room, £50,000 for a dormer, £60,000 for a hip-to-gable and £65,000 for a mansard, with most homeowners spending in the region of £50,000 [3]. Timings run four to six weeks for the simplest rooms and eight to twelve for dormers and mansards [3]. The listed Telford firm's own bands sit lower, from around £15,000–£20,000 for a Velux through £30,000–£60,000 for a dormer and £40,000–£65,000 for a hip-to-gable to £45,000–£70,000 for a mansard [1].
Structure moves the price most: steelwork, stairs, roof alterations and scaffolding dominate, with electrics, plumbing, plastering, drawings and building control fees behind them [3]. Size, roof shape, an ensuite, the finish you choose and awkward access for the scaffolding all add or subtract. Treat any quote far from both sets of bands as a question about scope, not a bargain.
Treat VAT as a question, not an assumption: published guides differ on whether their figures include it, so check whether your quote holds VAT inside or adds it on top [3]. Firms in this round publish example rates only through the one listed site, so a single fixed price for a conversion with no breakdown is a question rather than an answer. Compare itemised quotes against each other rather than a bare total against a band.
Get the scope into a written document before work starts: which rooms, which stairs, which finishes and making-good are included, which certificates you will receive, and what changes the price if the opened roof hides worse than expected. Agree payment stages tied to inspected milestones, and keep every quote, invoice and certificate together [9].
A rooflight room sits at the foot of the bands where headroom already serves: floor strengthening, the staircase and the number of roof lights drive the bill, and an ensuite lifts it well above the starting figures [1] [3].
A dormer buys floor space with steelwork: the cheeks, roof covering, windows and extra plastering sit on top of stairs and bathroom costs, with wider dormers dearer to frame and finish [3].
A hip-to-gable squares off a hipped end with new gable brickwork and a longer scaffold hire, sharing the stairs, bathroom and finish choices of a dormer [3].
A mansard rebuilds the slope for the largest room at the largest price, with party wall awards on attached homes and the longest programme adding fees and weeks [1] [3] [5].
Red flags
Quotes a conversion without visiting the loft or asking for measurements and photos of the roof structure.
Starts structural work with no building control body named and no staged inspections agreed [5].
Shows no engineer's drawings or calculations for the steelwork carrying the new floor.
Plans work to a shared wall on a semi or terrace with no written word to the neighbours [5].
Gives one fixed price with no split between structure, stairs, electrics, plastering and finishes.
Wants full payment in cash before the staircase goes in, with no written terms [9].
Hands over the room with no completion certificate and no written guarantee to file away.
Asks you to sort the council paperwork or the neighbour notices yourself while setting a start date.
Names no recent local loft job you could drive past or check.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.