Open plan kitchen/dining but with steel column in middle

[MrsBlondie]

We are just starting with plans for a downstairs extension to knock through kitchen/dining room and extend them.
However, architect has just told us (not impressed, he should surely have known this from day 1) that we will need to have a steel column right in the middle.
He suggests incorporating this into our kitchen island. BUT we don't have kitchen designs yet or any clue where this will go.
Anyone else had similar and does it work.

Sounds like to have one steel involves major work with foundations and our ceilings.

The fun begins!!!

Is he sure you need one in the middle? Have you spoken to a structural engineer? We have knocked a kitchen diner and are extending out. We have had a box frame put in - large steel the full width of the house in ceiling and floor, attached to two column steels in the walls. I think we then also have a steel travelling where the kitchen wall used to be. And there will be more steels in the extended bit.

Obviously every build is different, but worth sense checking what he says.

Yes agree, we are avoiding a steel pillar in the middle by having a box frame (and then another steel joining the box frame in a T where the wall between kitchen and dining room was). More expensive than having a steel pillar though, I believe.

What is your total width going to be? Ours will be about 7.5m. I have seen larger houses where they have a pillar in their open plan, so perhaps there is a certain width where you need a pillar and a box frame won't be strong enough?

Oh and yes having the box frame does involve major works at floor and ceiling level (and possibly below floor too not sure).

We have a brick column because it was a lot cheaper than a steel one. We used a feature brick and it looks quite nice, as well as functioning as a room divider.

When we revamped our kitchen we took out a brick pillar and put a beam in instead. It made the room look much bigger without the pillar even though it hadn’t changed size at all. I would avoid having one if at all possible, it will constrain your kitchen design and just be generally annoying.

i would avoid having one if at all possible - I would spend the extra on a T steel and go for a cheaper finish elsewhere (floor, kitchen, whatever) because the column will really annoy you and constrain the design of your kitchen and use of the space.

If you must have one I prefer the feature brick ones., or a metal one in the island.

I don't think he would have known from day one, as this should be coming from a structural engineer. He is probably trying to keep the costs down. You can only ask what work would be needed so that you didn't have a column.

Thanks for all the replies. Lots to think about.

We have a steel pole, built cabinets and counter to around it (gave the carpenter a bit of fun).

I painted it copper with Craig and Rose paint, and we've had a lot of compliments on it.

We had planned on having the pole/column there from day one though, so I can understand you not being happy.

Sorry, should say counter top not counter to

Agree. Box frame here too. Architect drew a column in (partly because it was supporting extension above as well) and builder confirmed with structural engineer that we didn't have to have one. Think our dimensions are roughly 7m x 7.5m.

We were faced with this even with goal like steels. I've moved it to 6.5m across a 10m opening so that it marks where the living area begins. It will be boxed in and have sockets on it that will be useful to plug floor lamps in etc. it will work a lot better for us than where they wanted to site it (central to the seating end of the island). We're already spending £7k on steels (not fitted!) and the size of steel needed to make it without a post was so huge that we would not have had enough ceiling height. We are tall and don't have an endless pot of money so have made the pillar work for us

We were faced with this even with goal like steels. I've moved it to 6.5m across a 10m opening so that it marks where the living area begins. It will be boxed in and have sockets on it that will be useful to plug floor lamps in etc. it will work a lot better for us than where they wanted to site it (central to the seating end of the island). We're already spending £7k on steels (not fitted!) and the size of steel needed to make it without a post was so huge that we would not have had enough ceiling height. We are tall and don't have an endless pot of money so have made the pillar work for us

Thanks all.
Architect coming around again to talk it all through with us.

4yearsnosleep - how do you know where your kitchen island will be? We don't have any kitchen plans until the extension shell is in?!

It's best to have thought a little bit about kitchen layout before you finalise the building plans. Otherwise you could end up with eg not enough kitchen space or nowhere to run an extractor duct.

We're working on kitchen extension plans at the moment and I've had to work out roughly where the island will go so that I know where to put a skylight, how much space we can chop off for a utility, where the extractor will go (I want hob on island), and make sure the extension is long enough overall to allow decent island plus space around it

I agree with Minipie. We'd also planned (not down to the last cm, but quite accurately) where the kitchen would go as soon as we got drawings. Meant we knew where window would go and certainly builder needed to know quite early on where island would be and what we were having in it (dishwasher, sink etc) so he could sort electrics and plumbing to island before concrete was laid in extension.

We've made our kitchen plans for things mentioned above. I needed them for accurate quotes. I've gone off measurements of the drawings. I can change the design up until 3 weeks before it's delivered

Yep, this happened to me just two weeks ago. I was fuming as nobody seemed to think it would be an issue there would be a whacking great pole in the middle of the open plan kitchen/living/dining.

Turned out the kitchen company was able to work with it and incorporate it into the island. I initially threw my toys out of the pram about it, but now having seen the actual mock-up it doesn't look so bad and isn't actually going to change much. We're using the pole to put our electrical plugs on, which is handy as I think the outlets in the island itself are a pain to clean. If you want a pic of the design, I can post the rendering done by the kitchen people.

Thanks all. We are happier now as got a 3d mock up from the architect and can do as you say Linguaphile and incorporate into the Island.
Pic attached.

That looks good. You can also put an electricity cable down your pillar and make it an extra place where you can charge phones or use electric kitchen equipment.

Regarding beams, get the Architect to talk to a structural enginer who can find soutions to tricky problems! DH is a structural Engineer and we have taken the whole corner of our house away to build outwards. There are now beams supporting the bedroom above where the walls used to be. What is the width of that span where the column is?

Ah that looks great MrsBlondie! Glad you worked out a solution.