Ideas for adding a bedroom to ground floor semi detached house.

jusvi2001

Hi folks

I am living in a semi detached house with all bedrooms upstairs. only rear extension possible. i was thinking to get the kitchen area converted to a ensuite bedroom and new rear extension as kitchen. any other ideas? floor plan is attached with this post.


your thoughts are much appreciated.

Calahonda52

How would the access to kitchen work without going through bedroom?
Is the floor concrete?

GerardKeating

Calahonda52 wrote: »

How would the access to kitchen work without going through bedroom?

Presumabilly part of the existing Kitchen would be a corridor and a continuation of the hall.

Might make more sense convert the living room to Bedroom, and extend the kitchen out back.

Gumbo

jusvi2001 wrote: »

Hi folks

I am living in a semi detached house with all bedrooms upstairs. only rear extension possible. i was thinking to get the kitchen area converted to a ensuite bedroom and new rear extension as kitchen. any other ideas? floor plan is attached with this post.


your thoughts are much appreciated.

Think about fire escape.
1. Door to hallway.
2. Alternative which is a window.

Then you have a smaller kitchen and dining area. Think of some to carry out these duties in such a small space.

Spanish Eyes

Light and ventilation? I suppose you could ensure that the new extension leaves enough room to instal a small window in the new bedroom/former kitchen somehow.

sydthebeat

any room in the attic?

dubrov

Just sell your house and buy a bigger one. It will be a cheaper option and you'll end up with a much better layout

looksee

I would not go with turning the kitchen into a bedroom for all the above reasons.

Those are decent sized bedrooms, if you need another bedroom the rest of the house space is a bit unbalanced - one living room and a kitchen diner for what number of people in the house?

Another thing to bear in mind is that an estate semi will have a definite limit on its value, you may not add the same value to the house as it costs to do the alterations.

Markcheese

GerardKeating wrote: »

Presumabilly part of the existing Kitchen would be a corridor and a continuation of the hall.

Might make more sense convert the living room to Bedroom, and extend the kitchen out back.

I think I'd be on a similar line ... convert the current living room to a bedroom...
Put a new living room out the back , and depending on the space you have out back ,some really nice paving and planting with as much glass as practical in the back wall...
.

jmBuildExt

+1 on converting the living room

Also... living room is too big for a bedroom so steal some space from it for a utility room (you could interleave that with a bedroom ensuite - so the plumbing is all going to one general area).
Move your kitchen over to that vicinity off the new utility room, then island (with built in cooker or sink... whichever side of the debate you fall on), then dining area, then new living area into the new extension.

If you're not a fan of open plan, you can close off the living area with a partition.

(above is almost exactly what i did with my house - although i didn't convert the living room to a bedroom. But that is exactly what i will do if i need an extra bedroom - as that living room is never used)

jusvi2001

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Light and ventilation? I suppose you could ensure that the new extension leaves enough room to instal a small window in the new bedroom/former kitchen somehow.

Sure windows are much needed. thanks

sydthebeat wrote: »

any room in the attic?

No. i don't want any more bedrooms on the upper floor just need one in ground floor.

dubrov wrote: »

Just sell your house and buy a bigger one. It will be a cheaper option and you'll end up with a much better layout

I bought this house in good deal as it was first lot of few houses when they start building in 2016. I love the area and don't have houses in front of my house.

Calahonda52 wrote: »

How would the access to kitchen work without going through bedroom?
Is the floor concrete?

Through the existing living room.

jusvi2001

jmBuildExt wrote: »

+1 on converting the living room

Also... living room is too big for a bedroom so steal some space from it for a utility room (you could interleave that with a bedroom ensuite - so the plumbing is all going to one general area).
Move your kitchen over to that vicinity off the new utility room, then island (with built in cooker or sink... whichever side of the debate you fall on), then dining area, then new living area into the new extension.

If you're not a fan of open plan, you can close off the living area with a partition.

(above is almost exactly what i did with my house - although i didn't convert the living room to a bedroom. But that is exactly what i will do if i need an extra bedroom - as that living room is never used)

sounds like a good plan. few fellow boardies also suggested converting the the exisiting living room to bedroom instead of kitchen. Any chance you can share few pictures of your new extension and living room and kitchen. really appreciate if you could pm few pics. thanks

JimmyMW

jusvi2001 wrote: »

Hi folks

I am living in a semi detached house with all bedrooms upstairs. only rear extension possible. i was thinking to get the kitchen area converted to a ensuite bedroom and new rear extension as kitchen. any other ideas? floor plan is attached with this post.


your thoughts are much appreciated.

best get to an architect with a brief

db

Extend out the back of the kitchen knocking the wall there and move the kitchen into the extended part with the dining area in the existing kitchen. Put a partition wall between the kitchen / diner and the bedroom with a door. Block off the opening from the living room. If you wanted an ensuite with the bedroom you could extend all the way across the back of the house and put the ensuite between living room and bedroom.

looksee

Its beginning to sound as though a room downstairs is needed for someone with mobility issues, which puts a slightly different complexion on things. I would agree with changing the sitting room to a bedroom in that case.

jusvi2001

looksee wrote: »

Its beginning to sound as though a room downstairs is needed for someone with mobility issues, which puts a slightly different complexion on things. I would agree with changing the sitting room to a bedroom in that case.

Exactly. i am just anticipating the need in future. I have seen people stuck in hospital as they don't have a bedroom and wheel chair accessible toilet downstairs. This one thing stopping them from going to the comfort of their homes.

JimmyMW

jusvi2001 wrote: »

Exactly. i am just anticipating the need in future. I have seen people stuck in hospital as they don't have a bedroom and wheel chair accessible toilet downstairs. This one thing stopping them from going to the comfort of their homes.

Sorry for the shaky lines

JimmyMW

jusvi2001 wrote: »

Exactly. i am just anticipating the need in future. I have seen people stuck in hospital as they don't have a bedroom and wheel chair accessible toilet downstairs. This one thing stopping them from going to the comfort of their homes.

Or maybe this

looksee

Would you not consider re-dividing the sitting room to put an extra bit on the sitting room, you would also then have a wall to put a bed on facing the window and space for a chair beside the window, and a (existing) door into the sitting room just off the hall.

jmBuildExt

jusvi2001 wrote: »

sounds like a good plan. few fellow boardies also suggested converting the the exisiting living room to bedroom instead of kitchen. Any chance you can share few pictures of your new extension and living room and kitchen. really appreciate if you could pm few pics. thanks

will do

Gumbo

jusvi2001 wrote: »

Through the existing living room.

There are building regulations around this.
You need to redesign the ground floor basically.

It will be expensive as there may be load bearing walls etc
You also have fire safety issues to consider.

Gumbo

JimmyMW wrote: »

Sorry for the shaky lines

This idea won’t work due to fire safet and means of escape issues. To escape from the kitchen you have to travel through rooms creating inner rooms.

JimmyMW wrote: »

Or maybe this

This is a better layout and is doable from a building reg point of view and possibly planning exempt too. The courtyard window qualifies as an alternative means of escape but there are specific requirements for escape into enclosed spaces in TGD Part B.

JimmyMW

Gumbo wrote: »

This idea won’t work due to fire safet and means of escape issues. To escape from the kitchen you have to travel through rooms creating inner rooms.

Assumed escape out of new kitchen to rear of property, large slider/bifold etc

KevRossi

1. Bedroom and en suite into living room. If the en suite is for a disabled person you need a minimum amount of apce to turn a wheelchair etc. so bear this in mind.

2. Leave kitchen and dining room where they are.

3. Extension out the back, using existing dining room patio doors as an entrance. From this you have two possibilities;

3.1 ( I'm assuming here that there is a path or passageway down the left side of the house and you have space to extend to the rear). Put roughly an 'L' shaped extension out the back for a new sitting room. Leave a small space between existing kitchen and new sitting room which can be used as a light well, storage for boots etc and a fire escape. It means you don't have to knock any walls down, reducing costs. This light well can be covered over with glass, or corrugated perspex. The main advantage of this is less noise transfer from kitchen to sitting room and back (no issues with someone cooking making noise over someone watching TV). Also your kitchen/dining seems to be big enough to accomodate a couple of compact armchairs as an alternative to the sitting room.

3.2 More expensive is to have the whole back wall removed and have full open plan kitchen/dining/sitting room. You'd need a builder or architect to give a quote for this.

Gumbo

JimmyMW wrote: »

Assumed escape out of new kitchen to rear of property, large slider/bifold etc

Primary escape from a dwelling is into the hallway and out the final exit (Front Door).
Could probably argue egress through a window or door but if i was the designer i wouldnt like to be going down that route.

kieran.

OP how deep is your back garden?

jusvi2001

Thank you all for your suggestions. it made me aware of many things which didn't cross my mind. I am going to take time and rethink about the extension.