How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Just as a note, which ever way they go get a condition report done on both walls. It’ll protect you too as much as them

More please!

+1

Woah - lovely

Integrated WMs can do one

+1 I hate ours

Your place looks great. Very well thought out design too.

Bloody nice!

Big fan of those re-used handles

Does anyone have any nice references for victorian houses where the refurb takes out the chimney breasts and fireplaces?

I absolutely loathe them and have little understanding for why people insist on keeping these things that take up huge chunks of space and determine entirely the layout of your house.

Google is failing me.

It costs a bomb to remove the entire stack properly all the way up to the loft and beyond, with associated structural remedies. Not many people bother.

I also hate the fact that our house is riddled with them. We’re at the tail end of planning a side return & loft extension, had full removal and partial removal costed by several people and to do it properly would have munched ~25% of our entire budget. I’m sticking with the ‘characterful original feature’ line.

Friends of ours had just a single stack removed all the way up, freeing up space in the living room, bedroom above and loft. Cost over £30K all in.

Yeah it costs alot to get rid of them, you have to install loads of steel beams which means intrusive works that then need making good and comes with a tonne of usually unforseen cosmetic work.

Plus the cost and time of getting party wall agreements and structural advice.

Remember Victorian terraces are basically (not entirely) keep upright and rigid because of these chimney stacks. Every so often you get a terraced house that just suddenly collapses. Often due to them or neighbours doing a bodge job on the chimney breast removals with some cowboy builders and not making sure it is done correctly.

End of the day these are old houses and fireplaces are major parts of an old building. If you are desperate for clean lines and square boxes, buy a modern building instead.

We took a big central chimney out and didn't even go the whole way up because the cost was prohibitive. Lots of steel, lots of movement and re-settling so additional decorating and make good etc. That said we gained a ton of space and meant we could open up our stairs which is why we did it.

That looks absolutely phenomenal. Love the coloured steels. I can only imagine the huge cost involved with something of this size and fitout spec.

Washing machines in kitchens can do one....

Thank you. I'd hate to think what it would have cost if I hadn't designed the whole thing and made half of it!

The red column is actually the soil pipe from upstairs. Got a few raised eyebrows from trades with that one.

That's really smart idea. Nice one

Signup to my gofundme to build a side extension so I can have a utility room (and mini-garage for my motorbike) to end the trauma of doing laundry in my kitchen.

🙏

Donated and reshared.

Has anyone ever looked into / costed / had done a pull down bed in the UK, seems to be very uncommon here but seems like the best option for us.

We have a split level townhouse over 6 half levels, entrance is on 'level' 2, level 1 is the only access to the garden and is an en-suite 'master' bedroom that we use as a spare room atm.

Its great as a spare room because it gives guests privacy, but it also means we never use that room, which in turn means we rarely go out into the garden..

We want it put in a sofa and a small desk, while in turn keeping a double bed (thats not a sofa bed, worst of all worlds) and thinking of trying to install into one of the walls (3.5m) full height and width storage with a folding bed

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sofa bed, worst of all worlds

How often do people sleep over? How often do you sit on the sofa in that room?

I'm sure a fold down bed will be better, and I'm not going to pretend a sofa bed is amazing, but those pull out ikea day bed sofa things made of mattresses are decent to sleep on (like the HEMNES) . I've spent a huge amount of time sleeping on the one in my kids room.

theres currently no sofa (or sofa bed) in that room but we imagine it will be the our main 'living room' during the summer (as its also a lot cooler down there than our lounge), so we would be spending quite a bit of time in there.

The key is that we want it to feel more like a living room than a spare room, so having:
a) ugly / uncomfy sofa bed feels like a compromise
b) an always visible double bed in one corner ruins the 'living room' feeling

Ah OK.

Yeah don't get a sofa bed. It'll be shit.

Idk why fold down beds aren't more popular here - they seem great. When I was younger a mate had one in his studio in Central London. It was part of a built in wall unit and fine to sleep on. Obvs putting bedding away every day was a faff but that wouldn't matter for you.

Just make sure you can still open the door when the bed's down

There are plenty of sofa beds that aren't ugly / uncomfortable.

If you rarely have people sleeping there, prioritise sofa comfort over the bed and people will be fine sleeping on it occasionally.

Gonna have to press you on this.

Ur top 5 plz.

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We're in a similar situation. We looked at a built in pull down bed, it's space efficient but expensive, proprietary and limits flexibility. Having asked the question on here before the best answer was, get a nice sofa and get a really good airbed. Modern airbeds are actually awesome, inflate in a couple of mins and can be stored with sheets/duvet/pillows in a box in a cupboard. You then aren't limited by sofa choices or how to arranged the room.