Help! Can I divide this room???

[Unluckykarma]

Family of 6 hoping to move into a 4 bed house… looking at a house that is 2.20mx5.13m and has a front window and back window…

am I able to split this into two smaller rooms so two of my teens can have their own space?
I am aware that besides a stud wall and two doors it also will need to feed another radiator and a separate light and switch too.
I also feel the rooms maybe big enough for a single bed and wardrobe each though they are hoping for a desk each too…

please can anyone help me know if possible?

It’s going to be small
if they have cabin bed a desk might fit under ?

Yes but it would be v small. Would the kids be ok with an informal division by putting two wardrobes in the middle facing opposite ways.

I would not do cabin beds because they make everything seem even smaller. A basic single with drawers under in front of the window would work in each and can double as a sofa/ chill out space.

I think you're going to struggle because you will need to lose space to create a small corridor for the two separate doors to enter the rooms. The current door doesn't appear to be central in the room either so the rooms will be unequal in size.

I'd try and create a partition of some sort from folding screens, curtains etc.

We had a similar issue with not enough rooms for all the children to have separate bedrooms and we ended up building a garden room with electric heating, lighting, internet etc. Not cheap but it did add value to the house.

You’d lose space creating a lobby to house 2 doorways. That would be making one tiny room into 2 minute ones.

Could you do this (sorry about the photo but hopefully you get my idea!). I wouldn't have cabin beds though but I think it should be doable, you'll just have to use your imagination to furnish both room.

If I was splitting the room. I would keep it simple. I would partition across . Put a door in. It would mean having to cut through bedroom 1. But there's no room for a corridor. Then in the room without the light I would use floor lamps and led lights round the ceiling. And an oil filled radiator.

I wouldn’t they will be such small rooms, can you explore other options, like going up into the roof? A house near us has done something similar, splitting bedrooms, they are trying to sell atm and having no luck as the bedrooms are so small.

This is what I'd do too. It won't be hugely expensive and will be easy enough to rip it down if reselling.

You will end up 2 very small box rooms at 5m2, most people wont class anything under 6m2 as a bedroom (usually a child's bedroom).

We are buying a house that has a 5m2 bedroom but we will be stealing nearly 3 meters off the 2nd double (13m2) to make it into a 7m2 room.

Once its 7m2 our teen will fit (he only needs a bed and desk really but will have a tv on a chest or small drawers too) but we could not fit him into the 5m2 room. Given he is huge and needs a big bed that would have took up the whole space alone.

That's not a legal bedroom. A through room can by law not be used as a bedroom (of course they won't raid your house checking but it will not fit building regs and devalue your house and fails fire safe regs).

Could you use sliding doors, maybe save a wee bit of space?

I don't believe that's true. Any habitable room must have means of escape is the only stipulation.

Not sure of the regs on new builds, that may be different.

My understanding is there has to be a window in each side of the room .

All house the bedroom must be reached from a common point access which means a hallway or communal room (living space etc...).

EA cannot list a through room as bedrooms, it would be listed as bedroom with walk in wardrobe or dressing room.

This isn't true at all. Please stop posting about things you obviously don't have a clue about.

It is true here in England, maybe not in German or South Africa or India (but we are usually talking British law as a default, Scotland has some different but usually tighter not more lapsed laws).

Just because you can do things in your own house without them finding out does not mean you can falsify advertisements.

It is the same with attic rooms and basement, if its not compliant the EA can't list it as a bedroom even if the current owner has a bed in it.

EA aren't risking their jobs or facing repercussions so you can wrong list your house.

It isn't true in England. I've seen houses listed before where a bedroom is accessed through a bathroom for a start!

Please link to somewhere that states a room off another room cannot be sold as a bedroom, so long as it has an opening window. If you can fit a bed in a room, you can class it as a bedroom. There are no other legal requirements, bar the escape route which all habitable rooms must have.

The solution @TheQueensCousin proposed means two rooms each with a window, so no one has to go ‘through’ any room. Unless I’m looking at this all wrong. So you could do this OP with your teens.

I think somebody else had posted about a room off a room to avoid losing space, hence those comments. Not much space to be lost with doors on the diagonal though, so yes, definitely the better option.

Yes - dividing wall (red), vestibule (blue) regular opening door to read room, sliding door to front room (green).
Beds would be placed head to head against the new partition wall or across the bedrooms in front of the windows.

so I am wondering if it work to but like a door into each room from an opening which would be the original door and use built in wardrobes to create the divide? Wondering if this would also leave space then for a single bed and desk? Or am I no factoring in floor space ? Drawn a diagram below but I am not a drawer. 😣

I think I know what you mean,
Basically back to back wardrobe/cupboards for storage in the middle of the room, with a small foyer type area where the current door is that open into the rooms?
By my maths (which are dubious!) If you have 2 x 18inc deep wardrobes then each room will be 6'10"x 7'3".
That would fit a single bed on the short wall, but the remaining floor space (assuming a 3ft bed) would be 4'3" x 6"10. Which is roughly the size of a small double bed if that helps visualise it?
If going for that I would def be using a raised up bed of some kind.

Whilst sharing the room with strategic dividers and respect for space would seem a more efficient use of space, when I was a teen I would have rather lived in a windowless box if I could have privacy than a big room shared with my sibling!

I think this is where we would be at with the teens!

I am just unsure who I would need? A joiner? And a plasterer? Or a builder that could do both?

I know I’d need at some point a plumber to put a radiator in one of the rooms and a electrician for the light 🙈🙈

Don't forget the rooms wouldn't be of equal sizes though.

You'd probably find a decent handyman could do the stud wall/cupboards, doors etc. If you're lucky they'll be able to plaster too!