Utility Rooms

HJandR

Can anybody offer an opinion regarding whether a utility room adds value to a property or not. We are considering remodelling our home and making the kitchen bigger by removing the wall and incorporating the utility room. The walls are standard plaster board - so you can hear the washing machine etc downstairs irrelevant of a utility room - so does not seem to serve any useful purpose (aside from useful dumping ground for assorted junk). However, we are keen to ensure we do not "de value" the house if a utility room is expected. The house is 4 bed detached built approx 15 years ago, the kitchen although a reasonable size, has 2 windows and 2 doors and therefore not much useable space.. would benefit from removing the wall and creating bigger open space to work with. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

LeeSouthEast

Personally, a bigger kitchen wins every time.

skiTTish

Would depend on the buyer ,I would prefere a seperate utility room ,some people dont .
Are you planning on selling the property ? ,if not then why be concerned with 'adding value or devaluing ' ? Surely the only value that should concern you is the value to you in usability?

HJandR

We are not planning on selling in the near future, but did not want to make structural changes that would significantly affect the value in the long term. However, if there is no consensus one way or the other, then you are probably right and we just need to find something that works for us.

Airwolf1

Yes, one buyer may prefer a utility room, 1 more prefer a larger kitchen. As said, do what is better for you whilst you're living in it.

andrew-b

I'd prefer the seperate utility room...so long as the kitchen is of adequate size as is..but of course the kitchen doesn't have to be as big if some of the appliances are in a seperate room! Opinions appear to be divided though so if your not planning on selling in the near future then i guess it comes down to what you want.

I'd also say it depends on if other dining facilities exist..if you cant fit a dining table anywhere else in the house then a kitchen/diner would be better from resale value i would think.

Andy

puddy

its about the useability of the rooms rather than how many. we have exactly the same problem and are waiting for an architect to visit this afteroon to see if they can offer some designs (at a reasonable price) as to what can be done. the kitchen is miniscule, there is a utility room (more like a lean to) on the side of the house. the door to the utility room is from the kitchen and in the corner of the kitchen. there is barely any worktop space because the layout is bad and the door is hampering much useful change of the layout. i get so frustrated when im serving up dinner or juggling hot plates and baking trays theres no where to put them, theres little prep space iether.

so, my plan is either to extend the kitchen into the utility room or get rid of the doorway in the kitchen and put it somewhere else in the house.

its a useful room, dont get me wrong, but seeing as its only used at the moment for washing, i would rather have a more user friendly kitchen at the expense of a 'utility room'. if theres loads of room in your home for both, then fine, but as you say, your kitchen has unused space, so i would choose the bigger kitchen in yoru situation.

27col

Do exactly as you want and ignore other peoples opinions.
I would however make the point that having a separate utility room does give you more wall space for units. We have a kitchen with a utility room alongside it. If the wall between the two rooms was removed, the total length of usable wall for units would be be reduced by at least a total of at least 4mtrs, and also a 1 1/2 mtr long peninsular unit in the kitchen as well. This in total is the loss of a lot of units..