Moving position of kitchen advice

[Catherine Taylor]

I moved mine 5m from one end to the other, as I was putting in UFH and new concrete subfloor, it was straightforward as I also had existing drainage outside to tap into and just moved the supply as part of dig down. What is under your floor? I had a mix of empty void and a concrete base which needed removing

[Brian Walker]

it’s an old suspended floor on joists with a void of around 40cm. Did you move their kitchen location gas supply too?

[Catherine Taylor]

Yes sort of, it already went to that room but I also moved my boiler. We took the old gas pipes off the wall and everything was put under into the concrete floor. I needed new gas pipes anyway so wasn’t a big deal

[Chris J Prescott]

Personally I would source a couple of local reputable builders & get quotes from them, the costs will depend on the work needed & a reputable builder will (hopefully) be able go make suggestions to keep costs down. Its certainly doable to move the kitchen, I once moved a bathroom and that involved new sewage pipes etc. Good luck

[Brian Walker]

I’ll be moving the bathroom too unfortunately although this won’t be far. I’ve been going round in circles for three years trying to remedy the layout the simplest way possible but there just isn’t a simple way to do it. The house is like a rabbit warren and dark and dingy with lots of wasted space. I need a structural engineer first as need four walls knocked through but it’s proving complicated

[Chris J Prescott]

I am so very sorry to hear about your son, such an awful thing to happen, sadly there are no words of comfort, as you no doubt already know. I hope you don’t mind me saying, don’t assume your 23yo son doesn’t bring friends back because he’s embarrassed, it could just as likely be that he’s struggling with having lost his brother. Outside the home it’s easier to deal with things, we put a brave face on etc, that’s so much more difficult in our own homes where it’s easier to shut ourselves off. Getting to practical stuff, my husband was a plumber/gas engineer. He has said if you feel up to it & providing you don’t touch anything gas wise, could you run the pipework for the plumbing and gas yourselfs and just get the gas safe engineer & plumber to connect it all together? That’s where the most costs will be, paying for their time. I would get the advice of a gas safe engineer & plumber first though, you don’t want to be in a position where they say the pipework doesn’t work & needs to be ripped out & re-done. I also hope you don’t think I’m overstepping the mark if I say reach out to your sons friends who were also in the building trade, I’m pretty sure they’ll be very willing to help you out.

[Brian Walker]

thank you for your kind words of encouragement. I’m sorry your situation has been stressful too and I hope your husband’s health improves. We moved here three years ago. It’s our forever home. We initially got planning passed for an extension which would have worked so well enabling the layout to change without much fuss. Our 25 yr old son was going to help do a lot of the works as was in the building trade. He loved living here but we sadly lost him 16 months ago very tragically and unexpectedly. I know we have to push on and do something with the house as it’s disintegrating before our very eyes. The bathroom floor is collapsing and the kitchen drawers are held together with sellotape. We planned to do all works ourselves. We’ve abandoned the extension now but I have to change the layout as sitting in dark rooms is making me even more depressed. We now don’t have the energy or mental capacity to do so much of the work ourselves so it’s obviously going to cost us so much more than planned if we’re paying people. We also need to get it done as our 23 yr old son has come back to live with us. It’d give him some more privacy. At the moment he doesn’t bring anyone back here. I think he’s far too embarrassed with the state of it

[Chris J Prescott]

I get it. Our last place was similar, after doing the works every room had a view of the garden which backed onto a disused orchard, so many lovely birds, fields in front of us etc. We moved to our current property as our forever home, we bought it knowing it needed a lot of work to bring it up to scratch. Unfortunately my husbands health took a massive dip almost immediately. It was slap bang in the middle of covid, getting reliable tradesman was a nightmare & unfortunately my husbands health has meant he’s in & out of hospital quite frequently so everything goes on hold until he’s improved. 5 years down the line we’re almost there, but we’ve simplified or shelved so much, just to get it finished. I’m sorry life has taken that unexpected turn for you, when you’ve had the rug pulled out from under you, it’s hard to get back on your feet again. I would say don’t push yourself to your limit, take your time, be sure of what you want, it may take a bit longer, but you’ll have a beautiful place that you can enjoy. Good luck

[Brian Walker]

unfortunately everything is now astronomical. We’ve done major refurbs all our lives and done all the work ourselves and moved from house to house but this is the last one. Sadly life took an unexpected turn last year which is now making the thought process so hard. I used to do it with my eyes closed. I don’t actually want to do it anymore but it was bought as a huge renovation project and the longer we leave it the more it’s deteriorating and the more it’ll cost so just have to take a deep breath and get on with it. I don’t need an architect as I know exactly what I want and have drawn the plans. We have 1.5 acres of SW facing garden and land. We bought the house because of this. The house itself is just an old manky dated bungalow. I need to move all the living space to benefit from the lovely aspect and living and move all the beds and baths to the front which is NE facing. Just think I’ll be in a care home before it’s finished. Need some motivation to get the ball rolling

[Chris J Prescott]

Ps: what about employing a architect to make a plan of how to make the place flow better. I lived in a house similar to yours, I grew to love the rabbit warren but I did move windows, doors & the bathroom, to bring more light in so it wasn’t dark thankfully.

I would like to move the kitchen in my new place but where I’d like it to be there is no water or gas supply & no drainage, so I’ve reluctantly shelved that idea when I moved the bathroom it was to a room that shared the wall with the kitchen so plumbing was easy enough, could you use electric to cook, that would be cheaper than moving gas pipes? Though tbh, the cost of moving gas & water pipes isnt extortionatly expensive in comparison with the other works you’re doing, unless you’re moving meters, electric consumer unit’s, I looked into doing that and that was eye-watering expensive!

[Colin Dudill]

I looked into doing this – including an extension – on a bungalow and it was astronomically expensive

[David Elvridge]

We moved our kitchen from a typical dining room space into a previous owners extension – water wasn’t a big problem, despite a concrete floor but we kept the sink and dishwasher along the outside wall to the drain, so that was also easy. We actually didn’t go for gas, so simpler job than you are considering, we wanted an induction hob (may be worth considering for you!). Honestly didn’t cost that much and was worth it, as the other option was extending the previous kitchen which would have cost more and not been as logical. Disconnecting and filling previous floor connections in the old kitchen was just done bit by but, but all worth it.

[Frank Morgan]

No, but i did look into moving my gas and electric supply (from out the ground in the attached garage) about 2m further along, in order to put a through door into the house. It was insanely complicated just because every bit of the supply needed a person from a different organistaion to do it, on both the gas and elec. I calculated the estimated total cost, inc putting in a firedoor, would be about £8k.

[Gordon Fleming]

I swapped a bedroom and kitchen in a 2nd floor flat – it was straightforward as the bathroom was between the two rooms and was also being renovated so access to water/drains was easy. I didn’t want gas so I went for an induction hob with an integrated extractor, which was pretty easy to wire in and connect to the ventilation.

[Graham Thomson]

Yes we’re in a large 60’s bungalow and swapped kitchen with dining and it’s been a great decision. We also knocked down the wall and that was well worth it

[Henry Jackson]

There is a common issue but one that gets resolved quickly with bungalow re layouts which is to get rid of gas and move to air source heat pump now and future proof the home and save yourself all the time and money of moving a gas line too.

Sorry to state the obvious but we see this solution all the time now as bungalows are a perfect case to future proof.