Can the stairs be partially moved to give the dining room more privacy as a 2nd lounge?

[ameliajohns]

Hi all, like this house but position of stairs in dining room make the room not really usable. I really wanted this as a second lounge but it doesn't afford any privacy. Any thoughts on re-routing the start of the stairs into the rear of the house where the large fridge is or any other thoughts? It ticks most other boxes:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/168823889#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

Thanks in advance!

Might be easier turning the garage into a second living space, opening up the staircase into the kitchen diner and blocking off the dining room to form storage space. You have the space for an external door to the outside for bikes etc.

One of the issues I suspect you would have ( because I also have it) is that it has presumably been converted from a bungalow hence slopey cellings upstairs and likely no loft space, and therefore it can be hard to find “clearance” to move the stairs because you don’t have the headroom in that many places. There are also really strict building regulations about how shallow stairs can be so you can’t just make them longer and box them in ( ie have them start further back and come up in same place). I honestly can’t see how this could work because the stairs have to come up onto that landing really. Sorry. Hopefully someone with more imagination will be along soon!!

I suppose you might be able to lose the downstairs loo ( move into boot room) and put them there but that would lose you valuable storage.

I think it should be very easy to move the wall at the bottom of the stairs and close up the current entrance. Unless you need steels.

Two options, convert the garage. This would be a change of use on planning and you would need building regs. It might be considered over development of the site so pay £10 or whatever it is and talk to someone in planning at the council.

Or assuming you want full privacy get rid of the glass doors that connect the dining room to the kitchen and erect a wall instead. Box in the staircase and extend the wall to exit into the kitchen. It would mean every time you wanted to go upstairs you would have to walk through the kitchen. You may also need a steel.

Moving the staircase would be problematic due to head height clearance as this was a bungalow to begin with. Plus you would be coming up inside a bedroom so you would have to reconfigure the upstairs too.

Given the above I would look to convert the garage punching through a door from the hall. There is certainly enough parking which the council do take into account even if you cannot physically fit a car into said garage.

I expect it would be cheaper to move the doors for the dining room to the left, put a wall to to the ceiling at the side of the stairs so people going up cant see into the dining room and a door into the dining room at the bottom of the stairs? If that doesn't make sense I will try and draw it out but am not great at that. It will likely cost way more than you expect to move the stairs and then impact on your downstairs loo and the size of the main bedroom.

It is v hard because where would the stairs go at the top? You’d have to rearrange every upstairs room.

This in a nutshell.

It’s not a simple reconfiguration and I suspect the stairs are placed where they are for a specific reason in meeting building regs.

I can’t see how to achieve this without some pretty major works.

Not sure what you mean about lack of privacy? We have a vaguely similar layout, do you want to use it as a bedroom or something?

I presume she doesn’t want people having to use the room as a thoroughfare to the upstairs.

For example if it was a study for WTH it would impractical if the room needed to be accessed every time they went upstairs.

You can see the issue more clearly looking at the upper floor plan. The landing area is small and central and that’s your only “target” for the stairs to hit irrespective of what you do downstairs.

To hit that spot you start messing with the downstairs toilet (and plumbing costs).

Potentially you may be able to move the stairs to the downstairs toilet and enclose them to access from the kitchen and build a new downstairs toilet by losing some of the back if the garage. But it won’t be cheap.

Ok, rubbish try at editing the photo, but I wonder if you could ( shown in blue) put in a spiral type staircase, but a square one and not round spiral so it sits on the footprint of the current staircase end position?
Then you could build a wall (shown in red) across between the kitchen and that current little, slightly useless looking area, take out the double doors and make that into a separate living space, with access through a doorway from the kitchen? Maybe a cupboard next to the stairs with storage from the new room, or even left as a corridor with access from the current living room.

Thanks, JL92, I also thought about opening the stairs entrance into the back of the kitchen diner, i.e. pretty much to the left of the large fridge but such a position would seem pretty odd if reselling, I thought.

Thanks, AllJoy, it's a good point, though I was thinking to just move the start of the stairs and to have it start at the rear of the house to the left of the large fridge, but that may not be realistic as space to turn into it would be a bit tight and kitchen would probably need to be blocked off to get approval.

Thanks, longtom, that's very inventive - I like your thinking!

@ameliajohns I love playing with floor plans to see how they could be changed to suit our family. I found this photo which is closest to what I mean, so I think it is doable but trying to find the correct terminology is tricky. I looked up a 180 winder with four flights but I think the search would need to have 3 landings added too

Last pic/link. This is exactly what I was thinking. This link even gives dimensions & a 3d model

https://www.dimensions.com/element/three-quarter-turn-straight-stairs

Yes, that's the exact issue BIC, I was trying to avoid.

Helpful advice re the council - you're right in at least discussing any proposal to see if it would be rejected - thanks for getting back

Thanks for all the advice - very kind of you! Will give it some thought.

Thanks, SD - yes, it would probably be too much of a compromise.

The problem with winder stairs is getting furniture up and down them. I have lived in several houses including ones with dog leg stairs. The tightness of the turn can make it hard to navigate furniture especially mattresses so worth a thought too.

I still think having to walk through the kitchen to get to the stairs is problematic not to mention it might contravene building regs. The stairs are the escape route in a fire. It might mean extra fire alarms, fire doors and escape windows in the bedrooms to comply so you would need to look into that too.

What about flipping the stairs 180 so they start at the front of the house in the hallway and end at the same place. It would mean losing some space from the current living room, but maybe a 90° turn part way down could minimise that. It would be worth speaking with an architect who would have a good eye and experience about what is possible and what not.