Creating a 4th bedroom

samg1410

Hi all. 

We bought our house in 2017 as a family of 4 and was perfect.  We are now a family of 5 due to a surprise 3rd baby in 2019!  We’ve been looking into moving into a 4 bed.  But a lot of the 4 beds in our budget have either the same or less square footage than what we already have.  So we are looking at potentially working with what we have got!  Any suggestions on how to add a 4th bedroom? Try and split room 2 or sacrifice the large en-suite?? We are mid terrace so are limited with extending. (A single storey extension is ok the cards). 

Thank you!

markin

If bed 3 is large enough then splitting bed 2 should be ok.


How wide is the house? 4.5 m should just about work. 

 

samg1410

Yes the house is around 4.5 wide.  The third bedroom fits a single bedroom suite in fine.  Other than the windows and electrics my husband could do the rest himself (he’s a carpenter) so may be a lot more cost effective than moving.

tizerbelle

or you could split the master bedroom  in the same way as that seems to have a window for each room already in place and then the en-suite becomes a shared bath for the 2 rooms on that floor

markin

tizerbelle said:

or you could split the master bedroom  in the same way as that seems to have a window for each room already in place and then the en-suite becomes a shared bath for the 2 rooms on that floor

The extra corridors would mean the rooms being 3.5m long rather than 4.5m, If they are square and 4.5 long.

EDIT...... The room may only be 3.5m long as the area is marked as 27sq vs the 35.8sq below it

diystarter7

OP, have you considered cowboy-style doors in at least one of the rooms ie door cut in the middle and hung both sides - ideal for narrow rooms if needs must.

They look a loot better than concertina doors and these doors reduce the clear opening width where as cowboy doors do not. Sliding doors to reduce clear opening width and often make a lot of noise and easily take 4 inches of depth

Bendy_House

The master bedroom already has two windows.

I know it'll be a sacrifice to lose that room, but the biggest cost in splitting bedroom two will surely be the new windows?

Section62

diystarter7 said:

OP, have you considered cowboy-style doors in at least one of the rooms ie door cut in the middle and hung both sides - ideal for narrow rooms if needs must.

The house is three-storey, therefore it is important to have suitable doors on the rooms to help prevent the spread of fire/smoke into the escape route.

Unfortunately "cowboy-style" doors aren't suitable.  So not "ideal" in this case.

Doozergirl

In the same situation I think I'd look at the children sharing and building a garden room that can hold toys, be a playroom or just be a flexible extra living space. 

It's not a massive house.  I'd want to enjoy more separate living space options during the day.  Bedrooms are for sleep when kids are small.  

diystarter7

Doozergirl said:

In the same situation I think I'd look at the children sharing and building a garden room that can hold toys, be a playroom or just be a flexible extra living space. 

It's not a massive house.  I'd want to enjoy more separate living space options during the day.  Bedrooms are for sleep when kids are small.  

Depends how big the garden is as you dont want it too far away and will need heating etc and garden is small you want to keep the garden
Better to make a storage loft conversion where kids could play and then use as study/storage as they grow up and adds good valume often more than you spent is the house is of an average size ie not massive house.

Section62

diystarter7 said:

Better to make a storage loft conversion where kids could play and then use as study/storage as they grow up and adds good valume often more than you spent is the house is of an average size ie not massive house.

The house is already three-storey, and is mid-terrace.

The odds are that there won't be enough space in the loft to make it a worthwhile habitable room, and the cost of conversion will be significant if alterations to the roof structure are required.  There's a good chance the second floor already occupies most of the 'loft' space.

To provide access to this potential third floor, the layout of the second floor would require substantial alteration - meaning a reduction in size of the master bedroom, loss of the dressing area, and probable loss of the ensuite, in fact possibly a loss of any form of bathroom on that floor without the additional expense of re-working the (probable dormer) window.

Before advising this as a "Better" approach than the one Doozergirl suggested there are quite a few facts you needed to find out and consider.  Adding space by a complex loft conversion project is unlikely to be better value than adding space by means of a garden room. There's no certainty that a loft conversion (if possible) would add more value to the house than it costs - and in this case there is a real risk of devaluing the property through poorly planned alterations.