Where do i start? Do i need planning permission?

[muttmad]

We want to improve our house and have attached two photos of what the ground floor existing lay out is and what we want to do!..... thats as far as we have got! I do not have a clue on how to proceed.
Do we need planning permission to change the garage door for a window? (I know building regs are needed but not how to go about it!)
Ideally we would like to keep the cost down by employing local firms but would a conversion specialist be better seeing as we are completely clueless!

Cannot understand why you would go to the expense of moving the kitchen so far away from the dining area. Would it not be better to open the area up and move the utility. Depending where you live it’s normally building regs required.

The diagram is not to true scale, the existing kitchen is very small, whilst the garage is over three times the size, the garage is integral and about a 3 second walk from the dining room.

I think I would be inclined to turn your separate kitchen and diner into a combined space, so that part of the house would be kitchen/diner and utility. I don't like the loo where you have positioned it, and it seems very large! I would prefer it off the utility, but I'm not sure where your windows are. A playroom or study is more useful than a dining room I think.

The kitchen is directly below the bathroom so it does make sense to place the toilet there, we did toy with placing the loo in the garage and putting in a door from the hallway but it would apparently require a saniflow system there which we would like to avoid.
We wanted to make the cloakroom quite large to accommodate storage for coats and shoes as the house is small and always looks cluttered, with little storage.
Ive attached the second plan of option two although my hearts set on option 1.
Also with option 1, there really isn't that much building to do and can be done with minimal disruption! we don't really want to be knocking through walls etc.

The utility is tricky as it is attached to next doors house, when we moved in there was no planning permission for it and eventually the solicitors got official permission for it so its legal but due to the house being linked detached apart from proposing to add a proper flat roof instead of the existing pvc one we would prefer to leave alone!

Is the utility quite big? Could you use some of that space for storage?
And are you planning to have a door from the hall to the kitchen? Trudging all the way round the house with heavy shopping/bin bags gets old...
I'd say the best next step is to get some builders in for quotes and advice. Ideally ones your friends have used before!

Yes the utility is big, it has a sofa etc out there. It is more of a solid conservatory really atm but we have the fridge freezer, washing machine and tumble dryer out there as the kitchen is too small for them. The back is all glass windows and the projecting bit on the side is a door so not really suitable for storage cupboards.

No there would be no access to the hall from the kitchen but the proposed new kitchen door is literally 2 strides from the old kitchen so not really any different from the distance to the bin already! (Maybe an extra 2 seconds?)

Is it likely to be a nightmare getting water and drainage to your proposed new kitchen? Remember part of this may include a new manhole. Only a Architect/Builder could tell you for sure.

I don't think you'll need planning permission as you're not adding floor space (check with council), but building regs are a definite.

Im really not sure! The sewer is at the back of the property behind the existing kitchen hence why a saniflow toilet would be required if we followed option 2. Id assume water and ordinary drainage would be easier?

So currently you have to walk through the living room to access other rooms? I think you need to start by sorting this out. I’d ask a good architect technician to have a look. Much cheaper than an architect and can still advise on drains etc

You'll probably need to take up floors for new pipework then, which will add to the cost. The only difference with a toilet is the diameter of the waste pipe.

A builder is your friend here, preferably a recommended one. They'll be able to advise on the easiest way to get the waste water out of the house and into the main drain.

Yes access to all downstairs rooms is through the living room! Im assuming they will want to raise the floor in the garage anyway so hopefully pipe work can be sorted. There is a small drain outside the garage door I'm assuming for rain soakaway but maybe suitable for waste kitchen water too? 🤞🏽

You may need PP. There was a period of time (70's - 90's), when it was common for Councils to put conditions on PPs for new houses/garages preventing them from being converted. You need to check the original PP for the house (or garage if a later addition) to see if such a condition exists. If it does you will need to apply to get the condition removed.

I would do your idea BUT I would put utility room and kitchen round other way so that coats, wellie boots, shoes, umbrellas, school bags, and general stuff go straight into utility room as the 1st room without using other rooms as corridors

Also, if you keep it as your 1st choice picture put the toilet door off the utility room so that if you are eating etc and someone goes in toilet sounds/smells etc aren't near dining room

Are you friends with your neighbours?

Do you live on an estate with similar houses?

If so, walk around estate and look at other peoples frontages

If they have had work done either pop round or put a note thru door to ask who did work depending if they are friends etc

Look on rightmove to see floor plans and photos of houses that have sold on your estate or neighbourhood

Or put a door between dining room to the corridor - toilet/cloakroom and utility room

Sort of at edge of toilet wall so that dining room is a simple rectangle

Look into LIGHT TUNNELS

There is door between dinning room and current kitchen so we would keep this to create a buffer if people don't VIPOO when we are eating 😂
Next door but 1 (row of identical linked detached) are doing work atm they did get planning permission but their extension is going the whole length of the house not just the garage and they are not replacing the garage door with a window by the look of the plans submitted but are keeping the front as a store.
I will have a word when i see him next!

There is a-lot of building work going on with surrounding houses but no changes to frontages!

You will probably need planning permission for changing the garage door to a window. Walk around your local area to see if anyone else has done it because it may be a no-no (especially if all the houses in your road look the same)

It's hard to assess your plan because of lack of scale but everything being accessed via the living room is a bad idea (assuming you ever want to sell it).

I would turn the storage area into a downstairs loo. That way you can keep the garage door). Extend the hallway as per your option 2. So you can access the toilet from there. Knock the study/playroom into the utility and turn it into a kitchen diner which could also be accessed from the hall
I would then knock the dinning room and existing kitchen into one which should give you space for a formal dining table and a sofa....this would be accessed via the kitchen (personally I would just have it open plan to the kitchen).
I would leave the living room as is but block of the door to the dining room (or reinstate the wall if it's a through room).

That would give you a quiet place to retreat (living room) and open plan for the rest. This wouldn't need planning permission.

The biggest issue you have is drainage. You can pipe water to anywhere within a house but the drains have to connect to the current foul water drain system somehow.

Gutters feed into rain water drains, kitchens feed into grey water/foul water drains.

As a link detached you are stuck with any new drain runs being put on one side of the property which is the other side to your proposed kitchen. It is all about fall - ie the drop of the pipe to the drain.

We had a kitchen extension done so had to move the drains back by 3m but we are detached and already in place. You are talking about moving it entirely to the front of the house.

I would knock through from the kitchen into the current utility and look at putting a small WC in but run storage along one wall of the study/playroom. Kitchen units are great but think taller, we have wardrobes (4m run) in the playroom that holds a lot of stuff including coats and shoes. That way you haven't got coats hung up near some child having a poo.

You could put a door in from the hall and all coats/shoes go in there rather than walking all the way through the house with dripping wet coats.

Thank you so much for all your advice, the waste water issue will need looking in to properly for either option and by googling the whole process sounds a bit daunting!
I think we need to speak to a builder but when we phoned round they wanted to see the plans first, so i guess we need to find a design planner first, at least they should have a good idea about planning regulations, building regs and of course the sewer problem!

Have you had a look at floorplans of sold houses on the street on Rightmove? I'm willing to bet someone has made the living room wider by knocking the original hall through to it. Having to walk through other rooms to get to somewhere is one of my pet hates - dining room off a kitchen or utility off a kitchen is fine, but otherwise I'd avoid. I'd look at extending at the back in line with the utility room and making that room a proper roofed extension instead of a slightly shoddy conservatory/lean to which is what it sounds like.

I hate garage conversions to. Although hardly anyone seems to park a car in a garage these days, they are great for storage and if you convert them to something else, you then need to use chunks of your garden for sheds, etc.

Too, not to. Meant to say that floorplans of similar houses can be great for ideas.