To think that open plan "knocked through houses" are a design fault in winter.

[swanthingafteranother]

I've been pining for have a lovely airy light filled downstairs for years. Knocking walls down, open plan kitchen etc. Now I am wondering whether the Victorians didn't know a thing or two about keeping houses warm in winter. Small rooms, with doors. Each room for something particular. Thick curtains. Petticoats and shawls. Waistcoats. Pudding.

Does it cost a lot more to keep an open plan family room warm?

My ground floor is totally open plan

I hate it - there is just no where to escape from everyone else. Do think about that if you intend to have children - open plan rooms, TV in one corner and dinning table doing homework - the two don't mix. And not all the children had homework at the ame time. Nightmare.

But it doesnt cost any more to heat (cavity insulation, loft, and double glazing)

YANBU. I think open plan in newer properties can work because heating can be planned accordingly - underfloor etc.

It's when you knock all the inner walls down in older houses that problems arise I think. Victorian properties were as you say designed to be heated with an open fire in each small room. Take the walls down and the drafts are hellish - especially if you have lovingly restored the original boards as well......

i have no idea about the cost

but i do agree about seperate rooms etc

i dont like open plan,i like a snug front room in the winter

i also like to hide in my kitchen away from my kids and their many mates

also have see many many flats like this with the kitchen with he lounge,horrible

but many do love this design just not for me

I absolutely hate open planned houses. There's no privacy or anywhere to hide. I like rooms with doors. Yanbu.

When the stairs are open to living space then it can become a bit of a waste all the heat rises, so upstairs gets hot and downstairs isn't warm enough.
I think the Victorians were onto something OP you are not BU

YANBU. We live in a 100yo knocked through open plan house. Love the design but cost an arm and a leg to great last winter. Me and DH nearly fell over when we got the gas bill. Used to live in an ultra modern boiling hot penthouse flat so bit of a shock to say the least.

Luckily DH is a pyromaniac so have got a log burner installed for this winter. Remains to be seen if it reduces the gas bill. Our wood bill on the other hand is bloody huge already even though DH assures me we are saving money

YANBU. We live in a 100yo knocked through open plan house. Love the design but cost an arm and a leg to great last winter. Me and DH nearly fell over when we got the gas bill. Used to live in an ultra modern boiling hot penthouse flat so bit of a shock to say the least.

Luckily DH is a pyromaniac so have got a log burner installed for this winter. Remains to be seen if it reduces the gas bill. Our wood bill on the other hand is bloody huge already even though DH assures me we are saving money

I don't really think open plan houses are great to live in. I love the idea they look great - all that space and light. I think they might be great if you children are smaller, or you only have one child.

We have dining room and big kitchen with a table in across back of house, everyone asks us if we are going to knock through to make an open plan family room. But after school we will have some or all of the following going on:

trumpet/piano practice
computer time
tv
radio 4 in the kitchen
homework
kids playing

I really don't get how you can do those things in one room at the same time

Also like lounge ot be able to shut door and have adult space in evening

*heat not great

I'm shivering in my Victorian house ATM. I'd love a light, bright airy, warm, draught-proof open-plan grand design. Grass is greener etc

lived in an open plan flat - couldn't hear the tv over the washing machine, no space, couldn't close the door on the dirty dishes/laundry and forget about it...not to mention cold, and cost to heat!

Our period house was open plan when we moved in. And its all glass at the back of the house too. After the first winter there, we built a false wall between the living and kitchen area, with a massive sliding door which slides into the wall. So we can have it either way now and it is so much warmer now

YANBU I am sitting in my front room in my Victorian Terrace and it is lovely and cosy!

I'm so glad we didn't knock through!

Yes another cosy Victorian terrace. Must remember this next time have house envy

I like to have both types of rooms. {greedy emoticon} A big airy open kitchen/living/dining area and then a cozy more intimate living/TV room.

YANBU:

Also high celings: Victorians are allowed them because they had smokey fires and needed somewhere for the smoke to go. These are no longer acceptable.

Victorian conversions with high ceilings and knock throughs: wrong, wrong, wrong.

You do realise it's only in this fecking country that people put up with such draughty houses? Drives me insane.

We are in a Victorian terrace that has been partially opened up, but crucially we also put in weather stripping, double glazing where we could (wothout compromising period features, of course ),draughts excluders and underfloor heating in the new kitchen and are toasty

Goodking your log burner sounds lovely! Is it one of those cast iron jobs that fits into the fireplace or what?

Older houses need to breathe. If you stop up all the gaps, you end up with condensation and damp. Especially if you put modern render over old brick walls.

I have a mid-terrace which should be toasty and warm but it's a 1970s townhouse - the nadir of building standards in the UK. Downstairs is freezing because the garage is not heated, the front door faces the prevailing winds (we have a letter box thingy but if the postman isn't careful, or the wind is too strong, the flap gets stuck in the brush), and at the back we have a stupid conservatory some idiot previous owner put up, which is freezing in winter. This means the kitchen, in the middle of all this, is freezing as well.

If we got our arses into gear and had some spare time or cash, we could put a proper back door in between the kitchen and conservatory, and get a curtain behind the front door. That would help quite a lot. DH was muttering about putting up a curtain pole behind the front door, but it hasn't happened yet...

YANBU. I grew up in a house where the wall between the dining room and the living room had been removed. It was COLD in the winter. I now live in a very similar house, but with the wall between still intact. So much easier to trap the heat in the room that doesn't open on to the back door. Smaller rooms definitely contain the heat better.

Thick curtains.

Interesting Edam, I didn't know that. Well this is our second winter since the reno's and no damp/condensation yet, but I will certainly keep my eyes open!

YANBU
You need to be able to shut the door on CBBC, before you murder Tracy Beaker by suffocating her with Hacker.

Our living room and dining room are knocked through. We're putting the partition wall back up, but extending off the back to have an open plan kitchen, diner and living room. But we will have the extra room to use as a playroom lock the kids into.

Our house used to cost a fuckload to heat because we had to take up the carpets (filled floorboard gaps, makes a huge difference), our double glazing is shite (put in shutters, omfg, warm and beautiful), our boiler was a death trap (put a new one in), our loft wasn't insulated properly (is now), all our radiators were chucking the heat out the walls (reflective panels) and our front door was single glazed crap (portiere rod). Once we demolish the old conservatory and re-render the outside walls we should be fricking toasty. And we have the obligatory woodburner as well of course.