A floorplan question - removing load bearing wall

[QueenFool]

Hi, any wise mumsnetters out there who can help?

We're thinking about removing the dining room wall, see the attached plans. Making the sun room and dining room into a kitchen diner.

Putting french doors between the existing living/dining room to separate the living room off and using the existing kitchen as a utility.

I will ask a surveyor to advise about the wall as I believe it is holding up the house and we'll need a rsj. But can anyone forsee any other problems? I'm new to this, it's making me nervous!

I would have maybe knocked the kitchen too, but don't have the money for too many alterations.

Removing a load bearing wall automatically pushes up the price - so do explore all options prior to agreeing. Make sure you definitely are getting your money’s worth with your existing design - utility rooms are cheap to make in terms of space, and you can even have one in a cupboard, so I wouldn’t be splashing the cash if that’s all I was getting out of it.

Thank you @Ozanj.

The main outcome we would like is a bigger kitchen.

Knocking that wall down seemed like the most logical way to do it. But I'm open to ideas.

I'll try again

Move the kitchen into the living room, then make the sun room your living room and the old kitchen a utility.

How big is the garden? The place you could really add value is to extend the sun room out to the level of the outer wall of the office.

Make the sun room + extension into a kitchen diner. Then the dining + living room into a double living room. Put the office where the existing kitchen is and turn the office into a utility room.

To take your question at face value - in the circumstance you describe it's not really worth spending the money getting rid of the dining room wall. You could just push the doorway out as far as you can without needing an RSJ. That will leave some wall on either side but it will be cheaper.

The downstairs toilet / shower is more of a problem. Do you have an upstairs bathroom?

Yes we've got an upstairs bathroom.

Yes that's good idea about keeping the wall in and opening the doorway instead Something to consider definitely!

Is the sun room a proper insulated room with double glazing etc? if so, I'd put a new kitchen in the sun room, and put a small utility with lots of cupboards in the current kitchen (keep the same sink & plumbing to save money). Then you don't need to knock down any walls and you get a new big kitchen.

I suspect that wall will be load bearing op xx

There will be three doors in your utility room. Can you remove one or two (leave the one adjoining the new kitchen/ diner)? This will help get all the gadgets and storage etc you need into your utility and reduce the space used up by having doors opening into the room.

If you have access down the right hand side of the house, an external door into the utility might be very useful (if you’re outdoorsy). For me, that would be far more useful than the internal door to access dining room and hallway.

I believe that modern day building regs require two doors between a toilet and a food prep area. Not sure how it works during alterations but if you move the kitchen, you might need to re-jig things somehow for your wc. I might be wrong here but it is just something you might want to check.

Make sure you think about the heating system if you go knocking down walls. You may need to add radiator(s).

Otherwise I think your plans sound wonderful.

Another option for layout might be to put up a stud wall to reduce the size of the kitchen when it becomes the utility. Then you could retain access from the hallway to your new open plan space.
Personally I love a separate living room (handy for cold winter evenings as the large open space may be difficult to heat)) and it might make laying out the kitchen easier as it won't be a corridor and you'd have more walls for cabinets etc.

I will be wise to check the requirements relating to a wc being off a kitchen dining area.

I would make the downstairs bathroom the utility. The sun room the kitchen opening into the dining room. The current kitchen would become the bathroom. I'd extend the hallway so the dining room and bathroom would have a door off of it. Also rebuild living room wall to have separate snug space.

Sounds like a lot but not really I think.

Sorry to sound like a party pooper but before I did anything as @parietal said I'd be looking at the insulation levels and the way that the sun room has been constructed. The doors may well be there to meet building regs which would be a problem getting work signed off (which you need if you're removing structural walls) and if you come to sell in the future.

The rules about a loo straight off a kitchen changed yonks ago.

I'd fully block off lounge. Double doors make furniture placement really tricky.

If the sun room has a glass roof you may want to consider that it will be cold in winter and hot in summer. Conservatories/sun rooms etc are not ideal for siting kitchens without some rebuilding.

The regs for locating a loo off a kitchen is that you can with the following caveats - that it has a door, a basin between the loo and the door, that there is a window and/or ventilation.

Thanks for the ideas everyone. So much to consider that it makes my head hurt!

The sun room is a normal, brick constructed extension and a pitched tile roof, I'm not sure why it's called a sunroom really.

I think I'm heading towards the most simple solution, which would be to install a kitchen in the sunroom and maybe widen the dining room entrance to the sunroom rather than knock out any walls. Leaving the kitchen as it is for now, but use as a laundry room.

Alternatively maybe make an opening between the kitchen and dining room, to install a kitchen diner. But having no windows in those rooms puts me off a little

So it's not really a sunroom it's a solid extension with big windows. That's ideal for a kitchen. It would be nice to have French windows along the back wall opening onto the garden.

If you're new to this keep it simple. Sunroom = kitchen, old kitchen = utility room, widen to the opening from sunroom to dining room.

Won't cost a huge amount.

Don't get a Wren kitchen though. Ever.

@tatianabis
Thanks for the advice. Yes we didn't realise til we went to view, but I think it's an ideal kitchen space. The windows are huge and we could put a new sliding door to the garden in.

The idea that we don't just knock a wall down, we can widen the doorway as much as possible is brilliant, hadn't even crossed my mind before. I'm very new to this!

There's a lot of really good suggestions here. I am concious of our limited funds when we do move though, so we're treading carefully.

Bifold doors would be the thing if you’re planning to sell at some point as they’re very popular. But not the horrid black ones. You can get bifold doors which look like French windows - not quite so stark.