i did quite alot of loft conversions a while ago and if your ever thinking about selling the property its well worth sticking to the regs which depending on the local council are not always that bad, if your on a budget it its worth paying for a set of drawings yourself and working out what work you can do without a builder, 90 % of structural timber work is very monkey see monkey do stuff so provided the work you do is inspected its well worth a go