Hi, I have recently built a set of steps internally going from a kitchen down into a sun room area a drop of around 600 mm the ballustrading was how you have described you would like yours. This was built at the clients request and she has since had the building inspector round and he was not happy with the design because like you said it can be used as a ladder! My client also does not have any children 5 or under living or visiting her property. The conclusion from the building inspector was that she would have to cover the ballustrading to stop it being used as a ladder and so has been agreed that she will put Perspex or similar to keep the light flowing through so that she can get the work signed off. What the inspector is saying is that although she will not have children under 5 at her property if she ever sell,up and moves on then potentially a buyer with a child under 5 could move in so I guess they are trying to future proof everything. In the existing part of her house she has this design already which is why she wanted the horizontal ballustrading to match. Hope this helps.

Hi @J Lo no we haven’t bothered (yet). Generally its been fine. There’s no escaping the fact the long feed does create a bit of unavoidable condensation but it’s nothing major and easily manageable with some workaround measures. I got some cooker hood filters and cut them to size to lay on top of the cooker hood to trap the grease and smells more. i also fold a piece of kitchen paper into a square and put that underneath the motor of the fan so if there are any drips through where the motor unit is screwed together (that is the main culprit!) its well absorbed. The filter lasts about 3 months before I change it. The kitchen paper I change every couple of weeks and just to stress its a tiny greasy drip each time that dries up. I just change it for cleanliness when I check it and wipe the side of the fans, as I would anyway even without that issue. The way I see it is it’s still a much better set up than relying on a recirculating hood that doesn’t take the smells or grease outside at all. So the very minor condensation issue is a small price to pay. I was a bit obsessed with it when I posted on here but don’t give it too much thought now… until you posted and reminded me haha! I would suggest though if you have the option you may as well do what you can now while the dirty work is going on for peace of mind. Whatever your builder says there will defnitely be a little condensation whatever the set up, unless you have a really powerful fan or the extra fan on the chimney - its just physics and gravity that can’t be avoided. Either way you want to get it sorted now in my view rather than later as you probably won’t get round to it, as has been the case with us. That said, like I say it’s not a major issue if you have the same results as us. Only thing a few people have said is that over time it will cause the fan to fail but I haven’t noticed any problems yet so all good so far touch wood

Yes - there is! (and I presume that when you say 'back bedroom' you mean bedroom 3...). You have two options: Option 1- Make the new bedroom 5 slightly narrower than the existing bedroom three, include a 600mm wide window to the top left corner of bedroom three with a lean to roof over the study and utility room below. Option 2- Install a louver shutter over the added side window and accompany your application with a letter of justification as well as consent from your neighbours two houses down on the affected side. The consent has to be from the owner of the property so if the houses next to you are rental tenancies you will have to track down the title holders of the property. Another more extensive renovation option would be to add the bedroom next to bedroom 3, accessing it from behind the bathroom wall. This extension will of course also extend downwards and leave you with a walled roof top courtyard between bedroom two and the added bedroom 5, in the space directly outside the bathroom. All bedrooms will have windows facing away from the neighbours and can open onto the courtyard space but as mentioned this is a extensive renovation. Let me know if you need further assistance, I'll be more than happy to advise you further. You can contact me through our site - betterspace.co Good luck, Ed.

The only way to do it is as Arc suggested, so that you have a means of escape in a fire. Of course you will still need a fire door on the kitchen too. It’s whether knocking the wall down & relocating the front door is worth it financially? How much space will you gain in the kitchen? You definitely cannot just remove the hallway. If the kitchen was on fire, how would you get out? Building regs won’t pass that off. Must be a protected means of escape. Presuming your house has fire doors being 3 storey, they usually give 30 mins of protection. So if your kitchen was on fire for example, the door closed, you would be able to escape in the way Arc has suggested.