Extension/refurbishment woes - hob on kithcen island?

[Artyjools]

I'm continuing with my frenzied attempts to finalise a spec. At the moment I seem to have more questions than answers! Can anyone help me with this one please?

Our hob and ovens are situated on an internal wall which is to be demolished to make a large kitchen diner. Convention would have us place the hob/range cooker against the external wall, which would mean we would lose the window which looks onto a small patio at the side of our house. There won't be a problem with light as there will be plenty of other windows/doors in this room. However, I have been thinking of putting the hob on the kitchen island instead of a second sink. DH is against this idea, largely for safety reasons, but our youngest is nearly 10 and I'm not sure that I can see it being any more dangerous than having it against the wall.

Doing this would save us the expense of having the window removed and chanelling electricity under the floor would probably be cheaper than chanelling water pipes. I also like the idea of facing the main room when I am stood at the hob.

Does anyone have a hob on an island? What about those pop up extractors? Pros and cons please?

I have mine on the island, and like that I am looking out whilst cooking. Don't know about pop out extractors. Would be a shame to lose your window.

I have a hob on an island unit (and an oven underneath) - never considered there would be a safety angle and had it put in when DS was 3!

We have a steel and glass chimney extractor above it, which is piped above the ceiling and vented to the outside wall.

Thank you both. I have seen another thread on this and I am liking the idea more and more.

Pop up extractors have a short vent requirement so your island will need to be fairly close to an outside wall.

Thank you hatchypom. I don't know anything about the technicalities, but I do know they are seriously expensive.

Tbh, we hardly ever use the extractor anyway. I'm wondering whether we can do without.

Do you do a lot of cooking/are you a keen cook? Is it open plan? If it's yes to both (like me), you'll need an extractor. I've chosen to have an extractor/hob on the outside wall and not on an island or peninsula so have opted for functionality over style. The same reason that I would choose a non-porous worktop (quartz in my case) rather than wood or granite. I'm currently dithering over travertine floor tiles and the added expense of having to put sealant on them for potential wet areas. (Goes against my practical voice somewhat!)

these are nice

I do a fair amount of cooking, myron, largely because no-one else will do it! And it will be open plan, so you are right, I shall need one. You have now got me looking at the difference between quartz & granite LOL.

Thanks for the link littlefriends. I followed some of the links in the images and found this www.elica.co.uk/view_products_child.php?id=204. Wow! I know I can't afford it before I even go looking for what it costs.

So I looked anyway......over £3,000!!!!

We considered that with our island but because it is in the middle of the kitchen area, it is too far away from any external walls and the ceiling is too high for an extractor. IMHO it is a must in an open space.

In our case we had plentry of external walls and ideally I did want the island as pure workspace, so all worked out perfectly in the end.

Do you want to post a rough drawing, maybe we could come up with an idea?

We had this in our old house - we cut out a hole for the whole cooker. There was no greater safety issue with kids than if in a side unit. We did not have an extractor (I hate them and never use them).

It was fine and lovely in fact as I could face the family/ guests when I was cooking and felt a little bit Nigella-esque about it. There was lots of space around to put chopping boards/ pans, food processors etc.

The gas pipe ran under the floorboards. The only slight glitch was that the electrician installed the oven main switch (you know the big one that switiches the whole cooker off) in a cupboards which is apparently not really allowed. Also we dropped a few things down the back of the cooker.

That's exactly what i want to do with this place...do you have a link for the other thread?

We have a hob on our island and it works really well. We have an extractor above, which looks OK. It makes cooking much more sociable and pleasant!

How about an induction hob. They heat up and cool down very very quickly. They only work when the pan is on them.

Hi
I'm knocking down a wall between small Kitchen and larger rear sitting room for an open plan l shaped room and will be having a peninsular similar to what yours sounds like.
I've gone with an induction hob as it cools super quick so kiddies won't burn fingers as easily (not that I have any yet) and also a smooth finish, so easy to clean and also easy to use surface for anything from reading, writing etc.
I was thinking of the pop-up extractors, they do look cool, but seem quite expensive.
My neighbour has a recirculating extractor, a little similar to this one www.housetohome.co.uk/product-idea/picture/10-statement-extractor-fans/4
If you found the right one, you could potentially swap out the shade for different styles when it suited you