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We are in the process of revealing an existing knock through; victorian mid-terrace, living room into dining room. The existing steel, untouched for decades and with the void below hidden behind plasterboard, has been found to be basically unsupported at one end, building control aren't happy with building the other end of the steel into the party wall, we're having to get a steel frame put in (four sides of steel!), lifting floorboards either side of the divide, digging down for foundations across the whole run. Large expense, large disruption, little benefit. Should have left it all alone and spent the cash on something shiny like a new bathroom or kitchen.
6pt-
Seems ott - might be worth getting a 2nd opinion from a structural engineer, if not already done.
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I’m really stuck about what to do. We can’t afford to get everything done, but it seems to be a toss up between using everything we have on the loft, which I’m hoping we eventually need the space for, and will add the most value to the property, or alternatively get a new kitchen, redesigning the space without too much heavy engineering, and leave money for a new bathroom and then still have money left over as savings. I’ve been putting off doing anything, with the trade off being the comfort of knowing the money is there for a lot of different eventualities, but realistically I should put it to work. Current thinking is to go for the later option of kitchen + bathroom, then when we next remortgage in 5 years, release some capital for the loft, if we haven’t moved by then.
ChasnotRobert
J0nathan
I don’t want to knock it all through completely, but at present the second reception room is dead living space and is basically a glorified hallway into the kitchen (although very alive storage space for bikes, among other things). Knocking through into either the living room, or preferably into the kitchen, where we spend most of our time anyway, would be what we’d want to do.