Is it worth it? - knocking down wall for open plan living

monstermonster_2

Hi there, my girlfriend and i are in the process of buying a house, hoping to complete at the end of Nov. I am an apprentice joiner and keen to do some work to the house to alter the layout (doing most of what i can to save ££).The property is a standard 1940's semi 2 up 2 down with a single storey extension on the back corner where the kitchen is now located. The extension is divided into 2 'L' shapes - one half you enter via and the other is the kitchen. This means the kitchen is small so my idea is to knock the dividing walls down to create one large kitchen. [seems straight forward as shouldnt be load bearing wall ]

Our next plan was to knock through the old external wall (now internal) between the kitchen and dining but, because of the layout of the kitchen and dimensions of the dining room it doesn't seem we'd gain much extra kitchen space... just a large open dining area next to the kitchen.
.....much better would be to.....
Instead, knock through the dining room into the living room to create one large living space and keep the already improved kitchen separate. The only problem with this is that the wall we knock down adjoins a party wall. This then falls in the remit of the party wall act and building control too. We're already on a tight budget of £3k and are wanting to do the work quickly and get in for christmas (i'm not keen on living in the place whilst work is being done even though the upstairs is livable- i'd prefernot to.
If you've taken the effort to read this essay then:
a) thanks!
b) how much value would such work add - which is the most sought after open plan living space considering we may sell in a few years time and young families are the potential market?
c) how much time does dealing with building control add to the project?

the current room sizes are approx:
Kitchen / enterance lobby 2.9 x 2.9m
Dining room 2.7 x 3.6m
Living room 3.6 x 3.2m

much appreciated !

Imp

I'd say, do what you want, as you are going to be living with the outcome. In terms of adding value by altering houses, remember that you can destroy value as well, so don't just do work for the sake of it.

Are you buying an investment or a home.

£3,000 will go most of the way (but not all the way) towards decorating the house how you want, and buying basic furniture. This is the route I'd tend to go down, rather than turning your home into a building site, and potentially spending over your budget just so that you can move in.

dander

In general I don't think you'd add any value at all by knocking walls down to make living/dining areas open plan. Some people prefer open plan, some prefer separate rooms and it'll all even out.

A bigger kitchen should be a winner though.

vervin

Go for it , enjoy YOUR home,

Dave101t

id say,grass is always greener......
but your house, your rules, live and learn

MiserlyMartin

If you must knock the walls down then make sure you do get all the building control regulations for it because it will be a pain for you when you come to sell it on. I think that knocking down a wall to make more space makes it worse because you then have less wall space to put things next to than you had before and no clear dividing line between rooms. I used to have a house where the previous owners had knocked the front and back rooms together to make one big lounge, but they then decided to put a wall back and have french doors instead. All that work for nothing and it was horrible plasterboard walls, when I sold it on the building regs issues came up......

I wouldn't personally do it. Two rooms are better than one.

wallbash

Go for it , enjoy YOUR home,

A home is for living in ... Now!

keystone

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

If you must knock the walls down then make sure you do get all the building control regulations for it because it will be a pain for you when you come to sell it on.

Lol especially the one that used to be an outside wall but is now an inside wall but will still be holding the upper storey up nevertheless. Otherwise you'll have the pain of a collapsed building never mind trying to sell it.

Cheers

NualaBuala

Please bear in mind I'm not an expert. But I've been thinking about the trend for open plan living. I think it's fine in extremely well-insulated homes with heating with low running costs. But for older properties with poor insulation I'd be wary as it can be very expensive to heat an open plan area especially with fuel costs set to soar.

slummymummyof3

Knocking down any load bearing wall will require building regs - they will require structural calculations - is the size RSJ you are proposing up to the job?? Nightmare if you carry out these works without building regs approval and then come to sell. Building regs shouldn't hold you up very long. Give them a call and ask for timescales.

PWA - is not cheap if you need to involve surveyors - it might be that the neighbour is happy to accept the works you are doing without the need for surveyors. On the other hand, the neighbour may have no idea about the PWA and you could (in theory do the works without it) it cannot be done retrospectively!!! Probably shouldn't say that though!!!

ukmaggie45

The other thing to think about with open plan living is where do you go if you want some quiet time alone? And if kitchen is open plan to the rest of the ground floor you will have cooking smells in your living area. Noise too, if you have washing machine in there - though I guess you could plumb that into the garage if you have one.

I'd quite like to go open plan in the house we're looking at, but OH likes to play loud music when he cooks, so would drive me out of the house - we have rather different taste in music! :rolleyes:

You might like to take a look at a house that went open plan on one of the property !!!!!! shows I saw the other day on More4. Does look great, but you also lose furniture space as you have less walls for it to go against IYSWIM.

Have fun in your house, whatever you decide to do! :j :beer:

Maggie