Knocking through to semi next door

thomasm

Looking for a bit of advice. We were looking to build an extension on the back of our house which is a 3 bed semi. Needed bigger kitchen and wanted play room for the kids.

The option has now come up to buy the neighbours house. If we go ahead do we have any planning issues with knocking through and basically doubling our current floor space. The intention would be to do this as a temporary fix to a space problem for 4-5 years and then seal up the opening and sell both.

What issues would we be looking at from a planning and construction viewpoint.

sunnysoutheast

Funnily enough a work colleague was looking at doing this exact same thing with two houses in Manchester a couple of years ago. In the end it wasn't feasible because he'd have to spend a lot of $£€ on structural and fire reinforcement to the party wall and its foundations. Rather than doing this he bought the other house and then planned to join them via a new single storey extension spanning both houses at the back, which would then be much easier to re-partition when he was selling. In the event he decided to rent both houses out separately so didn't proceed.

SSE

thomasm

Thanks SSE, must look into those points

sydthebeat

first off, you require planning permission to do this.

secondly you would need to ensure that whatever work you do now, it doesn't hider the reinstatement in the future, from a fire and structural point of view. Its possible, depending on the age of the building, that what currentl yexists doenst comply with current building standards while still being acceptable. however, in the future when you sub divide back into two dwellings, you will be required to comply with whatever regs are standard at that time... so you could be looking at doing extra work that currently doesnt exist.

thomasm

sydthebeat wrote: »

first off, you require planning permission to do this.

secondly you would need to ensure that whatever work you do now, it doesn't hider the reinstatement in the future, from a fire and structural point of view. Its possible, depending on the age of the building, that what currentl yexists doenst comply with current building standards while still being acceptable. however, in the future when you sub divide back into two dwellings, you will be required to comply with whatever regs are standard at that time... so you could be looking at doing extra work that currently doesnt exist.

Thanks Syd, Spoke to local planning office today and they reckon I don't need permission for any internal work but knocking down the dividing wall between gardens will need planning approval. Have sit down with them next week so hopefully they can give me all I need then.

Mellor

thomasm wrote: »

Thanks Syd, Spoke to local planning office today and they reckon I don't need permission for any internal work but knocking down the dividing wall between gardens will need planning approval. Have sit down with them next week so hopefully they can give me all I need then.

I'm afraid that isn't true. Internal work in exempt. But that means work internal to the one dwelling. Knocking from one dwelling to another isn't internal.

Either you took them up wrong,
They took you up wrong, prehaps think you refered to knocking your kitchen wall
Or your were speaking to a clerical officer who gave you the wrong advice.

But eitherway, you need planning to combine the two houses. The same applies when knocking garden walls outside.

thomasm

Mellor wrote: »

thomasm wrote: »

Thanks Syd, Spoke to local planning office today and they reckon I don't need permission for any internal work but knocking down the dividing wall between gardens will need planning approval. Have sit down with them next week so hopefully they can give me all I need then.

I'm afraid that isn't true. Internal work in exempt. But that means work internal to the one dwelling. Knocking from one dwelling to another isn't internal.

Either you took them up wrong,
They took you up wrong, prehaps think you refered to knocking your kitchen wall
Or your were speaking to a clerical officer who gave you the wrong advice.

But eitherway, you need planning to combine the two houses. The same applies when knocking garden walls outside.

Thanks Mellor, hopefully it will be cleared up next week then

dub50

A family in dundalk combined 2 houses into 1 on the rte show, Room to Improve with the architect Dermot Bannon,

They done significantly more work than you would be planning, as in they created one house from two with no ability to revert back to 2 houses at a later date, though would be worth a look for some ideas anyway

thomasm

dub50 wrote: »

A family in dundalk combined 2 houses into 1 on the rte show, Room to Improve with the architect Dermot Bannon,

They done significantly more work than you would be planning, as in they created one house from two with no ability to revert back to 2 houses at a later date, though would be worth a look for some ideas anyway

Thanks dub50, was that a recent show. Wonder if I may still get it on rte player