Advice: want to make a bedroom bigger

Euripides19

Hello,
I hope that everyone is keeping safe and well during these unprecedented times.
I am looking for any knowledgeable or useful input in solving an issue I have. I'd like to maximise the space in the third bedroom, but I cannot figure out the most sensible way of doing it and was looking for some input before having tradesmen offer their suggestions in the future. The floorplan is below:

Here are pictures of the top of the stairs and the entrance into the bedroom:

And turning right from the picture above

Ideally, I was hoping that I may be able to incorporate the landing space to the right of the stairs into the bedroom itself. But the three stairs leading to the room on the right and the hallway to the left means that this is not possible.
What would be some ways of potentially achieving this? Or is this a non-starter? Currently I'd thought about moving the staircase forward slightly at the bottom, adding additional steps so that the landing became level and removing the three steps on either side, so that the landing above could be levelled, then a door to the right that opens inwards leading off the top of the stairs. Would this meet building regs? Would there be sufficient clearage at the bottom of the stairs to do this? (see below). 

Any other suggestions, ideas or thoughts will be greatly received!
Thanks in advance

ic

You could do what you were thinking - but have a door at the top of the stairs, essentially where it is now but 90 degrees from the existing opening.  Downside is you'll lose the daylight to your stairs (perhaps you could put in a sun tube?), and in the bedroom itself you'd have a window in the alcove - that would otherwise have been a useful space for say a wardrobe.

Rural_Puppy

Would you consider swapping the bathroom with bedroom 4? Take down wall between existing bathroom and bed 3. Might not be possible depending on drainage runs. And might be expensive. Could you then create a cupboard accessed from the landing or ensuite out of the addition "leg" on bedroom 3? 

Rural_Puppy

Alternatively, could you make bedroom 1 bigger instead by removing the wall between it and bedroom 4?

theoretica

Putting a door at the top of the stairs might be a falling down stairs hazard - I wonder if there is some form of door that could go at the bottom of the stairs - a sliding door  or concertina or something  and then have the stairs in the bedroom?

Or - it would probably make the bathroom too small, but you could take away the right hand stairs completely and have entrance to bedroom 3 by turning a bit of the bathroom into a corridor with a door into the new bathroom and into bedroom 3.  You could possibly steal a little width from bedroom 2 to add to the bathroom if you want to move lots of walls.

Euripides19

ic said:

You could do what you were thinking - but have a door at the top of the stairs, essentially where it is now but 90 degrees from the existing opening.  Downside is you'll lose the daylight to your stairs (perhaps you could put in a sun tube?), and in the bedroom itself you'd have a window in the alcove - that would otherwise have been a useful space for say a wardrobe.

Good news. Thank you! Any idea as to how much it may cost to move the staircase forward at the bottom slightly, add three steps to the top and flatten the landing? Are we talking several thousand?
It will be used as a guest room until one of my girls gets a little older, and there's space for a single wardrobe to the left of the window so not too fussed about it eating potential space there.
Thanks.

Euripides19

Rural_Puppy said:

Would you consider swapping the bathroom with bedroom 4? Take down wall between existing bathroom and bed 3. Might not be possible depending on drainage runs. And might be expensive. Could you then create a cupboard accessed from the landing or ensuite out of the addition "leg" on bedroom 3? 

Hi,
Thank you for your input. I did consider this, but need the box room at the front as a small office. Might be something to consider if working needs change though.

Doozergirl

There's a website called Stairbox that will help
you design and purchase a new set of stairs.  It looks to be like you can do what you want to, but the website should be able to tell you how far forward the new stairs will come.

I think it would be easier, structurally, to buy a whole new flight, as it will make the stairs themselves far easier to fit.  It's only about £350 for a straight flight, iirc.  

The trade off is having to refit the spindles and handrail etc but I think that's less work than trying to prop half a staircase, do all the necessary calcs to get new stairs to match and still need a new handrail and a load of spindles.  

I don't think it would be several thousand, maybe a couple if you employ the carpenter direct and use stairbox.  
 

Euripides19

Doozergirl said:

There's a website called Stairbox that will help
you design and purchase a new set of stairs.  It looks to be like you can do what you want to, but the website should be able to tell you how far forward the new stairs will come.

I think it would be easier, structurally, to buy a whole new flight, as it will make the stairs themselves far easier to fit.  It's only about £350 for a straight flight, iirc.  

The trade off is having to refit the spindles and handrail etc but I think that's less work than trying to prop half a staircase, do all the necessary calcs to get new stairs to match and still need a new handrail and a load of spindles.  

I don't think it would be several thousand, maybe a couple if you employ the carpenter direct and use stairbox.  
 

Thank you. I'll take a good look this evening. Cheers!

Brought someone to look at the proposal. They said it might not work, as there could be insufficient headroom if the staircase was brought forwards at the bottom and extended at the top (see pic):

But they did suggest that, if we wanted to make it a double room, we remove the bathroom wall at the top of the stairs and replace it with a bannister, and push the bathroom wall back enough so that a door could be put at the end. Makes the bathroom smaller, but workable for us and similar to other properties in the area (that I can see). Seems like a good suggestion to me at is gives my second daughter a decent size room too. Thoughts? (forgive my MS Paint skills - the bit in blue becomes a bannister)

The bathroom needs a complete renovation anyway, so was factored into our budget.
Does this sound better?

Doozergirl

If the bathroom is still acceptable, go for it. It won't add much to the budget if the plan was to replace.   What size room are you left with? 2.1 by 1.8?   The door would need to move to the middle, as you've drawn, planned to fit the bath immediately to one side of the architrave.  

Four winders in the space of that landing won't work though, you'll have to buy the space of one stair from somewhere.  

You can also potentially put a bulkhead into the box room to create the required headheight.  

Euripides19

Doozergirl said:

If the bathroom is still acceptable, go for it. It won't add much to the budget if the plan was to replace.   What size room are you left with? 2.1 by 1.8?   The door would need to move to the middle, as you've drawn, planned to fit the bath immediately to one side of the architrave.  

Four winders in the space of that landing won't work though, you'll have to buy the space of one stair from somewhere.  

You can also potentially put a bulkhead into the box room to create the required headheight.  

You're spot on - it would be 2.1 by 1.8.
Apologies, we wouldn't need winders although my (poorly done) floorplan clearly shows them. There's currently a small landing with an additional three steps to the left already there. This pic should make it a little clearer:

What's a bulkhead?
Thanks again.