Change in the living room layout

[ric1982]

Hi,

We are thinking of having bedroom/office room space in the house. The only less expensive way of doing this at the down strais living room.

The current layout is as follows (the image is borrowed from the interweb but the layout and dimentions are very close):

Layout

So the Dining room in the layout is the current living room (sofa and tv on the wall). The lounge is the lounge space (the dining is in the kitchen which is saperate). The current lounge is not doing much which is the reason to covert it to a 4th bed room (not officially but in practice) . The idea is to create the stud wall in the middle and create a new saperate door. (I think this was the original layout of the house so I would be just restoring it).

Do you think 11 x 12 living room is too small? (espec. when we come to sell)? Would this new layout have any negative effect on the property value ?

PS We did thought about having french door instead of wall but it would not be appropriate for the proper bed room which we are trying to create. So

We have been quoated 2.5K for the job, does it sounds reasonable (outside london)

Thanks

I think you will need to not count the downstairs room as a bedroom when you’re selling, and to be prepared to stage it as a living room for viewings. Obviously, if it works for you to treat it as a bedroom/office for now, do that, but see it as temporary.

Thanks. The intention is not to improve property value but just have a bed room space. My question was more about does it have a negative effect when selling the house.

Having the additional door into the room from the hall is unlikely to detract from the value.
The studwork in the opening would be easily removable if a new purchaser wanted it more open.

Maybe take "Estate Agent" type pictures of how it is now to be able to show potential purchasers how it was/could be if it was open.

One more question about the wall itself. Should we go for stud wall with soundproof insulation and plasterboard or should we opt for brick wall? (Brickwall has better sound insulation but more expensive to build)

Stud, much easier to remove in future - for you if your needs change, or anyone else.