Hi
Excuse my complete lack of building knowledge, i'm looking to make some changes to the downstairs layout of my 3 bed semi and found this forum so thought someone might be able to help...
We have a single story extension on the back of the house, this currently has the kitchen in it and a utility room. The wall between the dining room and the kitchen is obviosuly the original external wall of the house and holds the whole house up, it is a cavity wall. The gap between the dining room and kitchen is currently about 1.3 metres - no door, just an opening, we'd like to increase this to about 3.5 metres (The wall is roughly 5.5 metres wide in total) to try to get some light in and try to make more of a kitchen-diner as the dining room is currently really dark..
Does anyone have any advice about where to start here? Firstly, is it possible to make a gap this big in the external wall? Who do i need to speak to first? Builder/Structural Engineer/Building regs (Which i know nothing about) or would the builder take care of this? Also, if it is possible, roughly how much should i be looking to pay to get it done and how long would it take?
Any help/advise would be most appreciated...
Thanks
Excuse my complete lack of building knowledge, i'm looking to make some changes to the downstairs layout of my 3 bed semi and found this forum so thought someone might be able to help...
We have a single story extension on the back of the house, this currently has the kitchen in it and a utility room. The wall between the dining room and the kitchen is obviosuly the original external wall of the house and holds the whole house up, it is a cavity wall. The gap between the dining room and kitchen is currently about 1.3 metres - no door, just an opening, we'd like to increase this to about 3.5 metres (The wall is roughly 5.5 metres wide in total) to try to get some light in and try to make more of a kitchen-diner as the dining room is currently really dark..
Does anyone have any advice about where to start here? Firstly, is it possible to make a gap this big in the external wall? Who do i need to speak to first? Builder/Structural Engineer/Building regs (Which i know nothing about) or would the builder take care of this? Also, if it is possible, roughly how much should i be looking to pay to get it done and how long would it take?
Any help/advise would be most appreciated...
Thanks