Swopping ends of an open plan kitchen/lounge?

[KatyMac]

So we have a smallish (for MN) lounge/dining room/kitchen

The hall end is a 3.2 by 3.6 lounge the garden end is 3.6 by 5m kitchen area separated by a breakfast bar

Along the right hand side is the water/drains from the understairs loo to the sink/drain at the furthest end of the kitchen with gas pipes on that side too

The kitchen has amazing French doors onto the covered deck/garden

I'd like to swop it so the kitchen is off the hall and the lounge has direct access to outside

Is moving the water/gas towards the source/hall be easy(ish) as its moving closer?

What else can go wrong?

I think it depends where your drains and pipes are. Where are the bathrooms? Anything above the location of the new space for the kitchen?

The water meter and the stopcock are on the left with a soil pipe

But the current wc sink, kitchen sink and drain all run down the right and exit at the end of the kitchen - in a low box for both water and drains

post a floorplan if you want detailed advice. it is hard to tell from the description.

This is sort of where I am now

The Red is water, the Blue gas (roughly)

This might be better

Where do your external drains run and are you attached to any neighbours on any of the walls?

We moved our kitchen, the plumbers sorted the drain / water, and we decided to go for an electric hob to save moving the gas

There is a drain by the sink and one outside on the wall by the small window/door combination

The long wall with the pipes on is next door to about the breakfast bar

The floor is concrete but we could dig it up and put pipes in - we are talking about insulating the walls inside anyway

The gas hob would be closer to the meter than it is now and it would just mean shortening the pipe I think

The main issue is the waste pipes for the sink/dishwasher/washing machine. They will nee to connect into the existing drains and need to have enough drop to have a slope to the pipes before they connect. It will be difficult to get past where the door on the right of your pic. They might be able to do it by digging a pipe into the ground which runs round the outside of your house?

If you are thinking about digging the floor up then it would be a good time to put wet underfloor heating in.

I don't think this would be a problem as there are existing gas and water lines and a soil pipe, which is the main concern. You may struggle to fit the kitchen units in the smaller end due to the position of the door.

I dont think we can afford wet underfloor heating, even if our (quite old) boiler could power it

The door to the hall could become a pocket door I think which would help and its about 3.2 by 3.6 so not too small

Does this look viable?

I would be worried about having drainage pipes buried in concrete running under the living room. If there is a leak you will have to take the whole floor up.

I also think it could be quite expensive for them to be fitted. If your current concrete floor has a damp proof membrane in then I am guessing they might have to take the whole floor up to reinstate it?

Pretty much anything is possible, just sometimes so expensive that it isn't worth doing.

Could you move the sink, dw and wm to the run near the soil pipe? That would make it a lot cheaper to sort out and no drainage pipes in the floor.

I might be able to put the washing machine in the conservatory (which is through the door by the small window, I wonder if DH would go for the dishwasher out there too? Possibly not

Hadn't thought of DPC - Damn

But if that isn't a problem then maybe a channel in the floor with a cap over so if there is a problem its easier access?

Hmm on the short wall, maybe let me play

If you are happy to dig up your concrete floor, everything can be done. If you are happy for electric cooker and hob, it will be even easier. We just had concrete channels dug across half of the groundfloor to get water, new electrics and drains into a room that previously has been a reception room and not a kitchen. It was dusty buy in itself not a big deal (took maybe 2 half days for 1 builder). But it's loud and VERY dusty. It's costly in do far as you have to make good, get new floor covering etc. So not a major problem if you want a new kitchen anyway, incl new floors and decoration, but not a good idea if you expect it to be all done and dusted in 1 week.

We did similar, only with electric oven, so no clue on gas. The sink drain pipe now runs along the outside wall, so didn't dig up concrete floor. It's gone from draining directly into sewer pipe to shallow incline, so does clog more easily. I don't regret anything though as the layout flows much better. Just bought a decent plunger and moan whe it happens.

The gas and water pipes run in an extra wide skirting board so I think that bit is easy

There is usually reasons why floor plans are the way they are, OP.

We applied for PP for a new build and were told by the architect that the beds would have to be at the back, lounge at the front, so not to cause nuisance to neighbours by “noisy” rooms near neighbouring bedrooms, we wanted it the other way round too, for easier garden access.

The plumber we use, always says anything is possible, but it comes at a price.

Probably @Roselilly36

But it was an extension to make a dining kitchen with a lounge elsewhere when we bought it

The kitchen would have been where I'm putting it before the extension was built by a previous owner, I'm swopping it round as I use the previous lounge as a downstairs bedroom

I dunno the other option is to make a much smaller kitchen at the far end but that makes the patio doors useless

A huge kitchen/small lounge doesn't fit with how the house is used currently

Whatever you do don’t have a washing machine in an open plan room like that. We have a similar layout (to your planned layout) & have created a separate utility for the washer & tumble. Our DW is almost silent but I would like a boiling water tap one day as when the kettle boils you can’t hear the TV!!

We've done similar, the builder had to dig up the concrete floors to put pipes in. I went for a gas hob as I prefer to induction and the boiler had to be moved anyway. It wasn't too expensive and well worth the cost to us.

We also put pipes under the concrete slab (water) but opted for an induction hob. I cannot believe how fast it is, and I loved gas!

two quick comments

• the space by WM (red arrow) is narrow & will be used all the time as a major corridor. people will keep tripping over things etc. Can you make this wider?
• where does the door with the blue ? go to? can you remove this door? that would give you a better space for the WM and then everything else can be wider.

if you can get the washing machine out of the open plan kitchen altogether, that would be best.