Open space plan

[Roshy]

There is a property that I am interest in. But, the only problem with the property is that it is a touch small with little land, and is a little dark because it is east/west facing.

However, when I inspected the property and its floor plans, I saw some potential. There are some walls that could be knocked down to create open space.

If you look at the floor plans (see attached - ground level), I thought it was possible to remove the toilet and laundry to create the open space plan.

The rationale of this idea was to maximise the floor space of a small house and also lettin the living room be exposed to more light from the kitchen/dinning room.

In the opinion of the readers, do you think this will create value? Or leaving where everything is the better option?

 

[cd83]

Hi Roshy,

I have removed load bearing walls in a couple of small single storey properties to create open plan areas and in my case it definitely improved the layout and added value. Removing walls in two storey structure may be a bit more tricky though, particularly if it is brick/concrete slab house. Timber structure would be easier.

I would also consider who will be renting/buying the house in my decision making, not all people care about separate laundries these days, but maybe if your market is families it might be worth keeping.

Cheers,

Colin

 

[lup15]

purely my opinion with no experience to back it up but

I do not think it would be worth the effort and money to remove that wall in the laundry. You would need to remake a bathroom again somewhere else which is probably the most expensive area to remake

 

[Scott No Mates]

If you want to make it work, then shift to an open plan kitchen where the laundry/wc are and put the kitchen out where the kitchen sits. That way there can be external access to the laundry and the kitchen works with the living areas.

 

[Roshy]

Thanks for your input, as it has got me thinking. Any thoughts from other readers?

Also, I know this is a big scretch, but in terms of costs, how much could this cost? Is there a website I can refer to just as a starting point?

Thanks

 

[cd83]

Costs would depend on how you want to approach it, doing alot of stuff myself I removed of a 3.5m length of double leaf brick wall for around 3k. This included materials (beams) and carpentry labour, ceiling repair. I did my own engineering and handled council approval.

A friend of mine had a builder quote for a slightly more complicated case requiring two steel beams, about 12k from memory (Perth prices). That included all approvals, engineering certification, materials and labour.

I would suggest chatting to a builder for a ball park quote because it is pretty case dependent, particularly with 2 storey, it could be anywhere within the above range.