Tell me about knocking through a kitchen and dining room

[Thedogisdrivingmemad]

I am hoping to do this in the house I'm buying and want to know the key considerations and likely cost.
Some background:
-The flooring in the two rooms doesn't match.

• There's a radiator on the wall in the kitchen (possibly in the dining room too - not sure).
• I would knock through to create double doors and have these made in white panelled wood to match the style of the house, Or would it be better to have a larger opening and folding door?
• I want the dining area to feel quite open to the kitchen so that if I am cooking and people are sat at the dining table, I don't feel too cut off from them. How can I best achieve this - does that mean just double doors would not be a large enough opening?
• does this create a weird sort of no-man's land space in the area between the two rooms under the doors and either side?

Is it a supporting wall?

That will make the biggest difference to how you can do this/how much it will cost.

Double doors are really old fashioned. Why not just have the opening? I’d make the opening the width of the rooms and hopefully get it designed so the ceiling is flush, if the structural steelwork can be put in void above (assuming separating wall is structural).

I don't think it is as supporting wall but will find out properly and thoroughly. Useful to know that determines cost the most.

I definitely want some sort of doors as I want to be able to close the room off as an option occasionally.

You can get 'room divider' doors which are like internal bi-folds. We used them to separate the playroom from the kitchen/diner. They're glazed and can be fully folded back if you want to open the space up.

As for cost of the project it totally depends on whether an RSJ is needed. An RSJ, including fitting, can add £3k+ depending on how big you need.

I wanted ours through.
Dh didn't.
I had casually mentioned it to rather huge sized builder neighbour.
Who turned up one night equipped with rather huge sized mallet.
Asked where I wanted the doors and got started on the hole.
Dh's face was a bloody picture!!
Doors looked fab!!

We took half the wall out ( original kitchen was longer than dining room so removing external wall was complex). Just needed an RSJ and was under £5000 as I remember for the building. Kitchen radiator was removed but still warm enough with dining room one. Keeping half a wall means you can keep some of the pots and pans out of sight while you chat to guests.

That looks nice Halulat but I just want large doyble doors rather than totally open.

ok think I am going to go with it!

We knocked through our kitchen and dining room but as there was already an opening between the lounge and dining room, we chose double fully glazed doors the separate the lounge and diner, so we kept the open plan look while still having the ability to close off the kitchen when cooking etc. We chose something like this. Pocket doors might be an option for you.

Yes I have seen some nice pocket doors online and they do seem a good solution.

A question for you all: did you leave both existing doors from the hallway to the two separate rooms in place?

Also I am trying to work out if I can fit a sofa or armchair in the dining area as well as the table - the room is 4.5 x 3.7 and the dining table is 2m x 1m. There needs obviously to be space for the chairs and to walk around it. Thoughts? It is a house I'm buying so I can't just do measuring up/ putting paper down to map it out.

Have you exchanged, or are you very close to it? There is nothing wrong with asking to go and do some measuring so you can do an accurate plan.

On the question of doors, we blocked off the original one into the dining room and created a new one that made more sense for the new configuration, giving us more usable wall space.

yes very close to exchange.