Whether to remove hall or keep ??

cityworker

I have a small terrace house - Space is issue. I have a entrance hall which is approx quarter of the size of my small narrow galley style kitchen and runs along the kitchen wall(Kitchen to the front of house)

Was thinking of knocking out the hall - making a small porch and absorbing the extra space.

Would love to sell house in a few years (but in negative ) my friend estate agent advised not to knock out hall as it would be very hard to sell house in a few years if we did.

Would a house with no hall be a put off for potential buyers - we still would have small porch !! What do u think ??

paddy147

cityworker wrote: »

I have a small terrace house - Space is issue. I have a entrance hall which is approx quarter of the size of my small narrow galley style kitchen and runs along the kitchen wall(Kitchen to the front of house)

Was thinking of knocking out the hall - making a small porch and absorbing the extra space.

Would love to sell house in a few years (but in negative ) my friend estate agent advised not to knock out hall as it would be very hard to sell house in a few years if we did.

Would a house with no hall be a put off for potential buyers - we still would have small porch !! What do u think ??

Why dont you build a front porch.

You can build 2 x 2 meter front porch on your house front with no need for planning permission.

Anything bigger needs FPP.:)


You could then do an open plan style,...but this may not appeal to everyone,if the actual house size is small or narrow.

Sometimes a hall can be very benificial in a situation like this.

I demolished my hallway and went with full open plan...but thats my house for life....Happy where I am now and will be for the rest of my life.

cityworker

Thanks for reply paddy.
Building a porch outside of my existing hall door is not an option I live in one of those new build housing estates governed by management company where u are not allowed alter the outside of your house otherwise I would do that.

When u walk through my hall door you would walk into a little porch with my kitchen door on the right hand side. You would need to walk through kitchen to get to living room at the back of the house.

paddy147

cityworker wrote: »

Thanks for reply paddy.
Building a porch outside of my existing hall door is not an option I live in one of those new build housing estates governed by management company where u are not allowed alter the outside of your house otherwise I would do that.

When u walk through my hall door you would walk into a little porch with my kitchen door on the right hand side. You would need to walk through kitchen to get to living room at the back of the house.

Thats sounds nice...living room out back where there may be a bit more peace and quiet and cosiness.:)

Mine is all open plan downstairs...porch,,then into living room and all open plan leading into kitchen dinning area.

Its a far cry nowadays from the absolute skip of a house that it was when I 1st bought it.

Bad enough that I couldnt/wouldnt live in it...very bad leaking plumbing/gas boiler and buzzing electrical cables and switches.:eek:





But I must say that I like the sound of the living room out back in your house.:)

MisseyB

If you're not bothered about having a hall i'm sure that others will feel likewise and if it does turn out to be a problem you can always reconstruct one. Should'nt cost too much.

I may be misinterpreting your post but the only issue i can think of fire safety. You must seperate your escape route, (stairs) from you living accomodation in case of fire. Your local fire station or county council should be able to discuss this with you over the telephone.

Ayla

MisseyB wrote: »

You must seperate your escape route, (stairs) from you living accomodation in case of fire.

Curious about this. Could you provide some links to verify this? If that's the case then our totally open-floor house w/ loft & stairway exposed in centre of the living room shouldn't have been designed by an architect or passed planning & regs?

MisseyB

Hi Ayla
I'm sure your house design is fine. Fire safety is more about strategy than hard and fast rules. The government outlines the law and the Technical Guidance Documents provide detail on some of the ways to comply with that law. But as we all know there is more than one way to skin a cat and a skilled professional is able to provide alternative solutions that may not follow the TGD's exactly but comply with the spirit of the law.

If someone is not using a person experienced in fire safety i would always suggest that they follow the guidelines set out in the TGD's. That way there is less room for error and misinterpretation.

Just so you know planning is totally separate to building regulations. A planner doesn't check to see if a building is designed in accordance with the building regulations. And in this country we don't have building control inspectors and instead rely on self-certification, which means that architects and designers certified that they've complied with the letter of the law when designing a building but no one actually checks that they have.

i've copied and pasted the section of Part B of the TGD's for you. If you go to this link and go to page 53 you can find it yourself. This text applies to house with no floors more than 4.5metres off the ground.

An open-plan arrangement, where the stairway rises directly from the ground storey accommodation is less preferable than the arrangement at (ii) above and is only acceptable where:
- the stairway discharges to within 4.5 m of a door at the ground storey leading directly to the open air;
- the stairway does not discharge into a kitchen and either:
• any ground storey kitchen is enclosed in storey height construction which need not be fire resisting or;
• where the stairway passes within 3 m of the kitchen, the stairway should be enclosed in storey-height construction which need not be fire-resisting;
- a fire detection and alarm system is provided, in accordance with 1.5.5;
- all habitable rooms at the upper storey are provided with windows for escape or rescue in accordance with 1.5.6; and - the design meets the general provisions for dwelling houses, outlined in 1.5.8.

http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/FileDownLoad,1640,en.pdf

paddy147

I had the stair case ripped out and a new one isntalled,but it was moved back into the house 1 meter to allow for propper access in the event of an emergencey.When the staircase was 1st installed,we realized that it was too close to the facing wall and front door of the house,so we made the decision to take it out and go back into the house by another meter.

Theres was a good bit of structural work and rejigging of original floor plans involved allright,but it turned out very well in the end.



We also have a fire escape plan so that everyone knows what to do in the event of an emergencey and we also have fire extinguishers and fire blankets installed upstairs and downstairs aswell.

House has a mains wired fire/smoke alarm system and also CO monitors and alarms aswell.

cityworker

Thanks for all the replys - have decided to keep the hall for two reasons - fire safety . We have a 3 story house so now I'm concerned about the fire safety - thanks Missey B for your input. Our kitchen is to the front of the house so would have to pass that to get to front door.

2 if we got rid of the hall our Toilet under the stairs would be in the kitchen - might out future buyers off the house !! Not sure what people would think if that. I'm guessing it would put people off .

Ayla

Thanks MisseyB for that. I suppose in our case our stairwell ends just over a metre away from a back door & the kitchen is on the other side of the open-space living room. Not that the kitchen's contained or anything. The main entry door is actually underneath the upstairs landing (if that makes any sense). In any case, in the event of a fire there are three external doors scattered about & all windows are tilt/turn.

Just as well that was all clarified. We truly regretted hiring the architect we did & would hate to have one more reason to hold a grudge.

Sorry OP to have dragged your query offtopic. For what it's worth have you ever watched any of the programs (i.e.: Room to Improve, etc) where they take seemingly small spaces and completely transform them?