Dormer Loft Conversion, Kilmarnock

About this project

This traditional slate roofed house in Kilmarnock had rooms in the roof with sloping ceilings and little standing height. The answer was a full width dormer across the back of the house, giving far more usable space upstairs without the upheaval of moving.

The dormer lifts the rear of the roof to give full headroom, more floor space and far more daylight. Upstairs has been reworked around it, with new partitions for the bedrooms, changes to the hallway and a new bathroom with a shower.

The work started in late August 2026. Before a single slate came off, we put a full temporary roof, the tin lid, over the whole house. It is a scaffold roof with its own sheeted cover, so the old roof could be opened right up while the house below stayed dry, and the team could keep working through wind and rain without losing days. On a loft conversion in the west of Scotland it makes all the difference. With the house covered, the rear slope was stripped, the existing roof supported, and new steelwork put in to carry the dormer to the structural engineer's design.

The dormer itself is timber framed, sheathed, wrapped and insulated, then finished in Cedral cladding, our go to low maintenance cladding for dormers. The flat dormer roof is a Sikalastic RoofPro liquid applied system, and where the dormer meets the main roof, lead flashings were dressed in and the slates made good to match the existing roof. New powder coated aluminium windows complete the outside. The steel has fire protection and the new partitions are built to the fire and sound requirements of the building warrant.

As of late October 2026 the dormer is complete and clad in Cedral, the windows are in, the tin lid has come off, the rooms are boarded and the shower floor is prepared. Next comes plastering, tiling, joinery and decoration. You can follow it on our YouTube channel as the Kilmarnock loft conversion, and we will keep adding to this page until handover.