Side return with existing kitchen

[TaupePanda]

We plan to extend our galley kitchen within a victorian terrace, into the side return.

This is solely to add a space for a dining table. The shell will have the flooring extended across and some electrics for lights and plugs. But otherwise just be space for a table and some chairs.

As such, we don't want to replace the kitchen. Appreciating there is potential for damage, can we just leave our existing kitchen in situ? We've spoken to builders who basically all say that no one does that and we should consider getting a new kitchen with an island and moving this and that about. But we don't want to. Our kitchen will be brand new - we're renovating am uninhabitable house now and need to move in so we stop paying £2.5k pm in rent. But the build work won't start for almost a year. So timing isn't working in our favour; our previous builder has gone under and there is no way to make this all align.
Has anyone done this? Can a kitchen maybe be partly dismantled to save it from the worst of the dust and stuff?
Thanks

Why don’t you get a temporary kitchen? EBay etc? We had a cheap cooker (£50) a table and a plumbed in sink in the same situation. I can’t see how you can do a side return without risking significant serious damage to your kitchen otherwise, we had to have a whole new floor poured with ours as the extension needed foundations digging in which would have cracked any existing flooring.

We had a small side return extension done a few years ago 5x3mtr purely to widen the dining area part of our kitchen & have a sofa plus a little bit of storage they didn’t touch the kitchen part of the room, they knocked out the wall that had the original back door & window which overlooked the side return same with the dining room window, we added doors from the dining into the new extended bit of the room, French doors going into the garden again that was in the new extension (also have a roof lantern in the new bit so has lots of natural light) the builders didn’t bat an eyelid, in an ideal world we would have continued the extension to run along side the original kitchen but we didn’t have the money & tbh the kitchen really didn’t need replacing it’s bespoke solid wood has a good layout I just really wanted a bit more space for the table & comfortable seating area, I’m probably not explaining it very well but hopefully you get the gist.

The toilet waste stack was boxed in via the kitchen and has leaked waste everywhere. It's one of the reasons we can't live there - it's basically a condemned building. There's also asbestos that needs out and will leave us without a ceiling. So we have to quite a lot of work to it before even considering a temp kitchen. Frankly at that stage, we will have done all the drains and pipework plus electrics a d plumbing first fix and may as well add the kitchen!

I think part of the problem will be builders will need access to work, and the bit where it joins will not be just straight line where the old house ends and the new bit begins, there is an element of bashing into the old bit. Even with just electrics, those additional cables might need to be chased into the walls in the existing kitchen. Even just having room to swing their sledgehammers to demolish a wall is going to be tricky if there's a brand new kitchen inches away.
If a builder had to work around a brand new kitchen, they'd have to work much more slowly - with you paying for that extra time. But you're also asking them to take on a huge risk, if something DID get damaged, you're going to blame the builder, potentially tell him he needs to fix it, replace bits of your new kitchen etc. I would imagine most builders just wouldn't want to take a job like that.

Agree with poster above, just plumb in a sink, get a few standalone appliances and do a temporary functional kitchen until the extension is finished.

@dontcallmelen do you have any pictures/floorplans of your layout/extension that you managed to achieve. It sounds very similar to our situation, just want a small side extension to achieve more dining space, with a possibility of making the conservatory into an extension also to get open plan living space.

I just sold a kitchen on ebay for £50. I used half of it in my 'new' kitchen. I would definitely do something cheap, not properly fitted, just some cabinets and a sink/ cheap cooker/ micro and then do a kitchen to work with the extension, making the most of the space. Building work is so filthy and messy, it will really spoil a brand new kitchen. Plus you will be able to really make the most of the new space. Kitchens are soooooo expensive. Wait and do it properly.

@lstedham i can take some photos a bit later.

We had a side return and I can't see how we could have done this keeping am existing kitchen in situ. The flooring won't be even and they had to put in two large metal beams for support. Agree with others - don't invest in a new kitchen until you've had the extension. Likely you'll love the new space and want to move things around anyhow.

Thanks all. Some useful thoughts

No, I think it will be virtually impossible to do that without either hugely adding to the cost or the kitchen looking a bit shit.

A side return is a massive structural job, not a minor reno. When we did ours absolutely everything on the ground floor that we hadn’t moved out was trashed with brick dust/ bashed about/ dirty etc. Even if you cover it then there’ll be so much stuff flying about it’s bound to get damaged. If you tell the builders to be super careful, the job will take twice as long and cost more.

Plus the builders will have to re-do the floor and electrics, plus re-plaster- it will be very difficult to do that with half a kitchen in situ.

Far better to get something really cheap now- freestanding cooker, dresser, maybe one wall of super basic units with a sink in (you can get good second hand kitchens online) and save your money. Ikea do a sort of free standing mini kitchen you can sell on to others doing renovations when you’ve finished with it.