What to do with this floor plan?

Gunner276

My wife and I are interested in this 4 bed house, it needs a lot of modernisation but the biggest issue we have is the current floor plan. You have to go through the utility to get the the kitchen. What would you do with this floor plan?

I have attached a few ideas below to get the ball rolling. If we want to extend into the garage we would have to move the toilet. The upstairs bathroom is currently above the utility room.



All suggestions welcome!

Section62

Gunner276 said:

My wife and I are interested in this 4 bed house, it needs a lot of modernisation but the biggest issue we have is the current floor plan. You have to go through the utility to get the the kitchen. What would you do with this floor plan?

I have attached a few ideas below to get the ball rolling. If we want to extend into the garage we would have to move the toilet. The upstairs bathroom is currently above the utility room.

The feasibility of knocking walls down depends in part on the type of property - can you share an external picture of the property so we can get a better idea about construction type, or else describe it as accurately as you can?

The layout with the utility between the kitchen and the rest of the house is unusual - which to me suggests either the house has been altered by someone with different needs to the majority of the population, or it had to be designed that way because the two parallel walls running front-to-back are essential to the structural stability of the property.  I.e. the layout is dictated by the structural requirements.

Was the WC an original feature of the house, or has this been added later?  If original, are you sure the EA plans are correct as it looks like the garage couldn't be used with the WC in that location.

Before looking into layouts which involve conversion of the garage you'll need to find out whether there is a planning restriction on using the garage for anything other than parking a car.

Gunner276

I was meant to add a link to the post: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135359606#/?channel=RES_BUY
There is definitely a lot of work needed!

I think the downstairs toilet was added later, but my dad thinks it is original. The house opposite is the same design and has converted the garage.

Section62

Gunner276 said:

I was meant to add a link to the post: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135359606#/?channel=RES_BUY
There is definitely a lot of work needed!

I think the downstairs toilet was added later, but my dad thinks it is original. The house opposite is the same design and has converted the garage.

I'd say the kitchen and garage are part of a two-storey side extension. And the utility is probably where the kitchen was originally.  So the wall between the utility and kitchen was previously an external wall.  If so, you'd need to get advice from a structrual engineer about the feasibility of removing this wall whilst maintaining lateral support to the rear wall.  Generally there's usually a structural solution to most problems, the issue is typically the cost and whether the alterations provide enough benefit to justify the outlay.

Subject to planning consent, it may be more economic to add a rear extension as the kitchen with that linking direct to the dining area, then move the utility to the existing kitchen area, and have some of the remaining space set up for a home office.  (A rear extension could also overcome any lateral support issues, then potentially allowing the existing kitchen/utility wall to be removed.)

It seems there were originally six pairs of semi-detached houses all of the same style grouped together at the end of this road.  It would be worth looking at how the other ones have been altered to get ideas for your own plans.  The different layouts I had a quick look at suggest owners have struggled a bit to get a better layout suitable for modern needs.

As far as parking goes, there's plenty of off-street parking potential on the plot, so that shouldn't be a show-stopper, but if the garage was added as part of an extension there is more likely to be some kind of condition requiring it to be used for car parking only.

silvercar

I like your last design. Convert the garage and remove the wall between the kitchen and garage. That gives you an open plan kitchen. move the toilet to the front of the utility room space. You may need to move the door between the kitchen and utility room further down.

ic

Think about light to your kitchen, and outlook.  Do you want bifolds opening to the rear or side for example?  Looking at a map the rear of the house is northeast facing, so would benefit from the morning sun, whilst the side would benefit from sun in to the evening - assuming you remove the lean-to. 

In my mind running the kitchen back to front would make sense, and perhaps move the toilet the utility.  That way you can have windows at the front and back, and perhaps large patio doors to the side for evening sun.  You'd still have the access to the rear via the utility door too.  Doing this would allow you to have say the dining area at the front, and the kitchen area to the rear near to existing water and drains.

I was going to ask about whether you'd need storage - but clearly you've acres of workshop and garage space to choose from!

CSI_Yorkshire

Keep the long room as a double aspect lounge.  Move the toilet to under the stairs (running across the house).  Garage becomes dining area of a kitchen diner, smallish utility space where it is now.


Ends up something like that layout (although I haven't looked at room sizes) and you'd need to adjust the doors into lounge & dining to suit).

RonRamsgate

When i was younger  i preferred open plan dining lounge kitchen areas. so much circulation area for gatherings 
Having a utility room with an external door works as a boot room/pet wash area, also helps keeping the appliances that make the most noise in one area.

Lifestyle is important< make it your way 

FreeBear

RonRamsgate said: Having a utility room with an external door works as a boot room/pet wash area, also helps keeping the appliances that make the most noise in one area.

Yup. I have the washing machine is a separate utility "room" that has an external door and another to the kitchen. Don't have a sink out there though. It certainly reduces the amount of noise, and also frees up valuable space in the kitchen.

I would think long and hard about removing internal walls and consult a structural engineer before doing anything (don't rely on the opinion of a builder, any builder). Putting in steels is going to be expensive and very messy work, and may not add value for the effort involved. On that basis, layout No.3 may well be the most cost effective option. Perhaps using a bit of space in the utility room & under the stairs for a toilet (assuming the consumer unit & electricity meter are not in the way).

Alderbank

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Keep the long room as a double aspect lounge.  Move the toilet to under the stairs (running across the house).  Garage becomes dining area of a kitchen diner, smallish utility space where it is now.


Ends up something like that layout (although I haven't looked at room sizes) and you'd need to adjust the doors into lounge & dining to suit).

I'm impressed by the way you say that so casually!
Moving a sub-ground floor interior (not on an outside wall) waste pipe to different interior location is quite a challenge.

theoretica

Gunner276 said:

My wife and I are interested in this 4 bed house, it needs a lot of modernisation but the biggest issue we have is the current floor plan. You have to go through the utility to get the the kitchen. What would you do with this floor plan?

If you moved the door into the kitchen down as far as it could go, and put a door into the lounge opposite, you could make a bit of the utility into more hallway.  Or depending on how you want to use the utility room, minimal structural work might just be adding a lounge door opposite the kitchen door - and boxing things in the utility room in so it looks nice as a corridor space.