Apex designs and builds loft conversions across Angmering and the wider BN16 area, from the protected properties at the heart of the village to the family housing on the estates around it. Dormer, hip-to-gable, Velux, mansard and L-shape, with architectural support kept in house. Ask us for a free, no-obligation quote.
Thinking about a loft conversion in Angmering? The thing that shapes the design most is not the roof. It is the stairs. Converting a loft turns a two-storey house into a three-storey one, and at three storeys the regulations want a protected route from the top floor down to the front door: a stairway enclosed in fire-resisting construction, fire doors opening onto it, and an alarm system through the house.
On the Angmering estates that is where the interesting work sits, because a good many of those houses have an open plan at the bottom of the stairs. A hall that runs into the living room, or a staircase rising straight out of the lounge, cannot simply be enclosed without changing how the ground floor works. There are recognised ways round it, from a sprinkler system to a fire-resisting glazed screen to routing the escape through a different room, and each one changes the layout and the feel of the house. Settling that early is what stops a conversion stalling later.
We work right across Angmering and the surrounding BN16 area, with Arun District Council as the planning authority. Our in-house architectural support covers layout planning, structural coordination and technical drawings, and our architectural partners can prepare and submit a planning application or Lawful Development Certificate where one is needed. We build to current Building Regulations throughout and coordinate with your Building Control inspector as the job goes on.
Which conversion suits an Angmering home depends on the roof you have, how much of the new floor clears usable head height, and where a compliant staircase can land. Five types come up across BN16. At the protected heart of the village the list narrows quickly; out on the estates the roof is rarely the limiting factor.
The type that returns the most usable floor area for the money, and the common answer on the estates. A dormer projects out from the roof slope to give a flat ceiling and standing room across a useful width. It also tends to be the type that makes a new staircase work, because the flat ceiling supplies headroom exactly where the stair arrives. At the rear it will often fall within permitted development.
Suited to hipped roofs, where the side of the roof slopes inward rather than rising to a flat wall, common across the later Angmering housing. Rebuilding that slope to a full gable recovers the volume the hip takes away and often makes a marginal roof workable. It also widens the floor at the point where a staircase usually has to land, which is frequently the reason it gets specified rather than the extra square footage on its own.
The lightest touch of the five, with rooflights set into the existing slope and nothing changed outside beyond the plane of the glazing. We strengthen the structure, insulate and board the floor out. It is often the realistic answer on the older properties at the heart of the village, where the roofline has to stay as it is, and it still brings the same staircase and fire requirements as any other conversion.
The biggest change of the five, taking a roof slope back to near vertical for maximum floor area and headroom. Full planning permission is almost always needed, and in the protected part of the village it is the hardest of the five to achieve. It belongs to the larger properties away from the old core, and the position is worth testing with Arun District Council before design time goes into it.
Works where a house has a two-storey rear projection to build onto, with a dormer added to both that projection and the main roof to form an L-shaped upstairs. It gives more than a standard dormer without the planning weight of a mansard, and the extra floor area often creates the room a compliant landing and stair arrangement needs. Not every Angmering house has the shape, so we check for it early.
The best conversion is the one your existing structure and your planning position will actually support, so we design around the house rather than from a template. In Angmering that means drawing the staircase and the escape route at the same time as the room rather than after it, because on an open-plan house those two decisions cannot be separated. Better raised at the first visit than discovered once drawings have been paid for.
We are based in Worthing, a short run west along the coast, so a site visit or a call-out mid-build is easy to arrange. We work regularly across the Arun villages and know the general planning picture under Arun District Council, including how differently a job runs at the protected heart of the village compared with the estates around it. You get a local team on site, the same standards from first day to last, and a crew that treats your home as somewhere people are living.
Level floors, plumb walls, clean plaster lines and joinery that fits: our team and specialist partners work to a standard that holds up close to. Where fire doors, a new stairway enclosure or a glazed screen form part of the scheme, they have to read as part of the house rather than as equipment bolted into it, and that comes down to how they are fitted. Everything is built to current Building Regulations, with your Building Control inspector coordinated at the right stages. Completed projects are in the gallery below.
An Angmering loft runs through six stages, first visit to handover. Design and any planning application sit with our in-house architectural support; the building is ours. Two items remain yours and we would rather say so at the start: serving Party Wall notices, and appointing Building Control, whose role is larger on this job than on most.
We come to your Angmering home, measure floor to ridge, look at the roof structure and work out where a staircase could land and what happens at the bottom of it. On an open-plan ground floor we set the escape options out there and then, because that decision shapes everything after it. An honest view first, design later. No cost, no obligation.
Existing drawings can be priced as they stand. Without them, our in-house architectural support works up the layout and the technical drawings any application or certificate calls for. The stair, its enclosure and the fire strategy are drawn as one thing here rather than added to a finished plan. Quote and outline programme come through with the drawings.
If an application or a Lawful Development Certificate is required, our architectural partners handle preparing and submitting it to Arun District Council for you. Plenty of conversions on the estates need neither. Check where your own address stands with the council, and get Party Wall requirements in front of a surveyor or architect before anything starts: those notices sit with you by law and no builder can serve them.
Site work starts once consents, drawings and structural calculations are settled, and the roof is kept weatherproof from the moment it is opened. Programme length follows the conversion type and the property, with an indicative one supplied at quote stage. The stair opening and the fire-resisting work at ground and first floor run alongside the roof work rather than following it.
You appoint Building Control, through the council or an approved inspector, and you book its visits. On a three-storey house the fire and escape strategy is the element they examine hardest, so we agree it with them early rather than presenting it at the end. Each stage is flagged to you well before it is ready to close up.
Once the final inspection is signed off we hand over. Keep the completion certificate and any planning or consent paperwork with your property records. On a three-storey house a buyer's solicitor will ask for it, because the fire and escape provisions are precisely what that certificate confirms.
Finished projects from around West Sussex, spanning different property types, roof shapes and conversion styles. Describe your house and we will point you to the nearest match.
General context for Angmering homeowners, not legal advice. Confirm the position for your property with Arun District Council, and where relevant with an architect, planning consultant or party wall surveyor, before work starts.
Planning authority. Arun District Council handles Angmering addresses.
Conservation area. One covers the historic heart of the village, where permitted development rights are tighter and a full application more likely.
Listed buildings. The village core holds a notable concentration of them, and listed building consent is separate from planning permission.
Permitted development. Across the estates many conversions proceed under it, subject to the usual limits and to any Article 4 Direction, with a Lawful Development Certificate worth holding for your records.
Flood risk. The consideration here is inland rather than coastal, from a watercourse crossing low ground in the village, which rarely touches a loft but can matter for access and ground works.
Building Regulations. A loft makes the house three storeys, bringing a protected stairway, fire doors and an alarm system into scope wherever in the village you are.
Party wall. On semi-detached and terraced homes, serving any Party Wall notice is the homeowner’s legal responsibility and cannot be done by the builder.
Angmering sits well inside our regular working area, alongside the neighbouring Arun villages and the run east into Worthing, which keeps visits easy to book and the build moving once it is under way.
Start with a free site visit. We measure up, assess the roof structure and head height, and work out where a compliant staircase lands and what that means for your ground floor, which here is usually the decisive question. Our in-house architectural support can then take on drawings and any application. Before the build starts you will want your planning position confirmed with Arun District Council.
Apex works on loft conversions across Worthing, Brighton & Hove and the wider West Sussex coast. The pages below give a closer look at
the housing, planning and conversion types we see in each area. If your town or village isn’t listed, we likely still cover it, get in
touch for a quick check.
What Angmering homeowners ask us most often, answered plainly. If yours is not covered, send it through the contact form.
The type of conversion, the property itself and the consents involved all move the timescale. Rooflight jobs finish soonest; dormer, hip-to-gable, L-shape and mansard each take progressively longer. What most often adds time in Angmering is not the roof but the work at ground and first floor to form a protected escape route, which on an open-plan house can be a job in its own right. Our part of the programme comes with the quote as an indicative timeline.
It depends where in the village you are. Out on the estates many conversions fall within permitted development, subject to the national limits on volume, position and window design and to any Article 4 Direction, with a Lawful Development Certificate worth holding as proof. In the conservation area over the historic heart of the village, and on any listed building, rights are usually tighter and a full application to Arun District Council is more likely, with dormer position, materials and window design looked at closely. A mansard normally needs permission wherever it is. Where an application or certificate is needed, our architectural partners can prepare and submit it. Building Regulations apply either way, sit separately from planning, and on a three-storey house are the more demanding of the two.
Most households do. The roof is weatherproofed as soon as it is opened and the bulk of the work happens above the existing ceiling. The stage that touches daily life most here is not the roof at all: forming the protected stairway means work at ground and first floor, and on an open-plan house it means a fire door or a glazed screen appearing where there was an opening before. We plan that phase with you so you know which part of the house is affected and when.
Conversions are generally reckoned among the stronger home improvements for return, though what you see back turns on the property, the standard of finish and the state of the local market when you sell. Angmering is a village families move into and stay in, so the driver is usually practical: another bedroom, or a bedroom with an en suite. Worth knowing that a buyer’s solicitor on a three-storey house will look for the completion certificate, so a properly signed-off conversion carries more weight than an equivalent one without the paperwork.
Roughly 2.2 to 2.3 metres, measured before any work begins from the top of the ceiling joists to the underside of the ridge, since the new floor build-up and the roof lining both take a share. There is a second measurement that matters just as much here: headroom over the new staircase, which has its own minimum and which a marginal roof can fail even where the room itself works. We take both at the free visit.
As a broad steer: out on the estates a hipped roof usually points to a hip-to-gable paired with a rear dormer, and a house that already has a gable end may need only the dormer. On the older properties at the heart of the village rooflights are often the realistic starting point, with an L-shape worth considering where there is a two-storey rear projection. Where the ground floor is open plan, the type that gives most room at the head of the stairs is usually the one we recommend. Confirmed at the free site visit.
Yes, on every conversion, permission or no permission, and in Angmering it is the part of the job that shapes the design most. The regulations cover structural stability, normally steels and strengthened joists; fire safety, meaning the protected stairway, fire doors and alarms; the stair and its headroom; insulation; and sound separation from the rest of the house. Because a loft makes the house three storeys, the fire and escape requirements step up from what applies to a two-storey home, which is why we settle the strategy before the drawings are finished. Booking Building Control and its inspections is down to you, via the council or an approved inspector.
