Help with downstairs layout!
Nats
last year
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Help for downstairs layout.
Comments (4)Hi Darren, Do you park left of the garage and enter into the property mostly by the side door ? Could you use some of the garage as living area ? There's lots of options if you have some budget to build /alter etc. It's a case of sitting down with someone who's able to tell you what is and what isn't possible ... Might be a good idea to get an architect or even a contractor over to brain storm ... But before you do - think about how you want to use the house - ie drive up at the end of the day - park - unload bags walk under cover into house ( if in rainy UK) straight into a boot room and laundry to dump gym kit bags (or kids dump PE kit ) plug phones in to charge in kitchen make a cuppa from an instant boil tap - look in the walk in pantry and think about what you can cook for supper... or walk back from school run - park buggy in porch - offload coats etc into hall closet . Need a loo nearby for 5 year old who's always desperate, while you balance baby on hip or park buggy in hall as baby is sleeping etc etc etc ... Think what would work best for you !...See MoreHelp with downstairs layout & extension
Comments (28)Hi Keswing, I'm not sure if this is helpful but we went through a similar (ish) process about 6 months ago and I found it all very confusing at the start as to what I needed from who and in what order! What I learnt from it was... We already had a very good idea of what we wanted (we got an interior designer / concept planner on board right at the start- highly recommended), so just used a local recommendation of an architect to do our basic drawings - we needed these for building regs and also to give to the builder so we had something to base the 'contract on'. We paid £500 for these drawings only. (For comparison we had architect quote for nearly £2k from a chartered firm) We also needed structural calculations for building regs and to give to the builders alongside the architects drawings. The builders needed the structural calcs so they knew what size steels etc to buy / install / quote against. This was £900 just on a separate structural engineer. It's worth noting our calcs were reasonably complicated and involved a site visit; had he been able to do them from the architect's drawings alone (quite often this is possible) then it would only have been £300. It then cost us £400 for all of our buildings regs submissions / certificates on top of the above. It's worth finding out from your two different quotes what they both will and won't include; Will either / both then require separate calculations from a structural engineer and therefore additional costs or is that already included in the quote with the architectural technologist? Does either quote include building regs and / or planning submission? Hopefully then you'll know that you're comparing the two quotes like for like and can also know how much of your budget is going to be allocated to fees. Hope this helps and good luck! Claire...See MoreHelp needed with downstairs layout
Comments (7)A very small amendment to Whizzywig's plan, as the Utility doesn't need to be quite that wide. However, obviously it's cheaper to leave the wall where it is than put in a support and move it. But, removing the entrance gives you a front to back view when coming in . As always everything depends on budget and drainage. I'd also, make the Conservatory bigger, remove the twin wall roof, replace with a proper roof with Roof Lantern for loads of light. You may need to improve the outside walls on the Conservatory too, as they most probably are not cavity. By opening up you need to ensure that the walls are adequately insulated or you will be very cold!...See MoreHelp needed with downstairs layout and dark lounge
Comments (24)Does the chimney breast not go all the way up?, because the plans don't quite line up. Another consideration is are you able to move plumbing and drainage to the opposite side of the house, and regardless of budget, wanting to deal with that kind of upheaval? Of course, the obvious thing is to make the ground floor extension into one room, but I think little adjustments like lining up the inner entrance hall and opening that up would be a minimal approach to making a big difference. Here is my pop at it, but trying to not move services too far or move supporting points (of course still needs new larger lintels or more, but basically in the same places). I just moved living areas to places that the natural light already serves... and no dark corridors added....See MoreNats
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