Replacing Backdoor In Kitchen With A Window

leodis23

In the process of buying a house, and the kitchen is in need of modernisation. Currently, it's a small-ish galley, but easy enough to knock through to the dining room to make a larger open plan room.

The kitchen currently has the back door between the 2 sets of units, but I'm curious as to how much it would be to brick up the bottom half and put in a window, so I can move the sink there and have a U-shaped kitchen, instead of an L- with a random peninsula (there are tall units behind where the pic was taken)

Silvertabby

Fire exit is the first thing that springs to my mind.

leodis23

Silvertabby said:

Fire exit is the first thing that springs to my mind.

Just inside the dining room (behind the wall on the right, which is coming down) is a patio door which I'm replacing with french doors, so that'd be the escape from the rear of the house - it's only about 1.5m along the same exterior wall.

This is the external view, which probably helps put things into perspective.

Owain_Moneysaver

The work won't be expensive but you must allow for the costs of a Building Regs application and preparing the drawings for that. £2000 maybe? May well come in less if you can get a friendly local builder. 
The most difficult bit will be matching the bricks. Without seeing the rest of the house, I think I would widen the external opening below the side light, then infill with a rectangular rendered infill that is the full width of the window, or tile hanging or pvc cladding if that suits the style of the house. 

Robin9

I think there is a requirement for a boiler flue to be 450 mm ? from an opening window to prevent the gases entering the room. 

leodis23

Owain_Moneysaver said:

The work won't be expensive but you must allow for the costs of a Building Regs application and preparing the drawings for that. £2000 maybe? May well come in less if you can get a friendly local builder. 
The most difficult bit will be matching the bricks. Without seeing the rest of the house, I think I would widen the external opening below the side light, then infill with a rectangular rendered infill that is the full width of the window, or tile hanging or pvc cladding if that suits the style of the house. 

There's a window directly above the door which is the same width as the opening (for the door and slim window), so it should look quite balanced. The house was only built in the mid-1990s so hoping the brick matching won't be too hard, otherwise I may just get it rendered and have some sort of feature there.

Robin9 said:

I think there is a requirement for a boiler flue to be 450 mm ? from an opening window to prevent the gases entering the room. 

Yeah, I think it's a minimum of 30cm for new installs. Hoping to resite the boiler to the airing cupboard as part of the works to avoid this.

FreeBear

You will need to check that any internal walls slated for removal are not load bearing or providing lateral support - There will be a cost involved getting a report from a structural engineer.

Homer_home

Owain_Moneysaver said:

The work won't be expensive but you must allow for the costs of a Building Regs application and preparing the drawings for that. £2000 maybe? May well come in less if you can get a friendly local builder. 
The most difficult bit will be matching the bricks. Without seeing the rest of the house, I think I would widen the external opening below the side light, then infill with a rectangular rendered infill that is the full width of the window, or tile hanging or pvc cladding if that suits the style of the house. 

£2000 to do a half brick up and a new window!!!! Would you seriously pay that if a builder quoted you that??

Rosa_Damascena

Homer_home said:

Owain_Moneysaver said:

The work won't be expensive but you must allow for the costs of a Building Regs application and preparing the drawings for that. £2000 maybe? May well come in less if you can get a friendly local builder. 
The most difficult bit will be matching the bricks. Without seeing the rest of the house, I think I would widen the external opening below the side light, then infill with a rectangular rendered infill that is the full width of the window, or tile hanging or pvc cladding if that suits the style of the house. 

£2000 to do a half brick up and a new window!!!! Would you seriously pay that if a builder quoted you that??

Its not the bricking up that costs, its the professional fees which really shouldn't cost more that £400 for such a small job - can't see why this would be needed in this case though if nothing structural is being tampered with?

I'd allow £300 max for a standard window plus £500 max for the building work - but even that is pricey.

stuart45

I did a very similar job for my daughter last year in her kitchen. Her husband helped with the labouring. It took us most of the day by the time I toothed out the brickwork, picked up the materials, built up both skins, deglazed the window and fitted it etc.
I had to come back and plaster the inner skin, and then again to put the skirting on and tile it.
If you got a small building firm to do a smll job 2 grand does not go far, and that's if they want it.
However if you can find a tradesman to do the work and you are prepared to help then it can work out cheaper.