some home improvement questions from a newbie!

Hi folks,
Here's one for all you home improvement experts!

So my wife and I moved into our new house (i.e. a 15 year old semi-detached house which also has a 10 year old 2-storey extension on the side) a few weeks ago and have already started looking at room layouts, etc. with a view to maximizing the use of space. With the extension, we got a few extra rooms which is cool, but we're anxious to try and make better use of it, in conjunction with the original rooms.

We've decided that it'd be nice to maybe move the hot-press (containing the boiler, etc.) out of the way, and put a corridor through it, with doors leading off into the various rooms to the left and right, with the main bathroom at the end of the hallway (located in the extension)...

So my first question is... is it possible to move a boiler (i.e. the thing with the lagging jacket! I presume it's called a boiler!) into somewhere like, say, the attic?? If so, who could do such a job? A plumber?

Next, we've sort of decided on our preferred room layout but it'd mean moving around some of the internal walls, putting in doors where there was none before, changing the direction of the top of the staircase, etc. e.g. moving some walls by as little as 18 inches, etc. Most of the internal walls seem to be plasterboard (sounding hollow when knocked on), and not brick so I was wondering if a builder would be able to do such a job fairly easily?? (Do we need any sort of permission to do such work in the house??) - could I just give a builder a room-by-room drawing with measurements and tell him to build/knock walls accordingly?? Any idea of potential cost involved for such a job?

Finally... our living room has a chimney stack like most, but we don't use it (as it has a fake gas-fire thing fitted into the fireplace) - the extension gave us a room behind the fire-place so we were considering maybe knocking out this wall to give us a more spacious living room... is it possible to knock such a wall, which incidently was the original outer wall of the house before the extension was put onto the side of the house? Is it a big job for a builder to knock through a wall containing a chimney stack?

Sorry for all the questions... we're very new to this home improvement stuff but keen to learn from anyone who may have some advice to give!

Thanks,
John (in Wicklow)

Hi John
Sounds like you want to do a big job there! Steady on! First things first you need a survey drawing of your house, i.e. floor plans for the ground and first floor, accurately drawn and to a scale (say 1: 100 or 1: 50). With these plans you can experiment with some tracing paper and graph paper and visualize how you want to rework what you have. If you try and do this without looking at the overall scheme on paper you could run into trouble. I wouldn't tackle any decent job without planning it out first. I'm an Architectural Technician and do this sort of thing as part of my daily work so I like to think I know what I'm talking about when it comes to building work. If you are considering major work like you outline you should consider employing the services of an architect or draughtsman who at the very least will steer you in the right direction. Now for some of your specific questions. The "boiler " you refer to is the hot water storage cylinder, made of copper and insulated. You could relocate this but not without a lot of work. The ex. pipes will have to be relocated and extended to your new cylinder location and depending on the skill of your plumber and the lie of the land you will still more than likely end up boxing out (concealing behind timber studwork/ plasterboard) any remaining pipework etc. As for remodelling the stairs,mmm if you intend modifying the actual staircase itself you could be looking at some expense, depending on what you want to do....The staircase is an important structural element within the house and interfering with it could weaken both it and the floor overhead, depending on how the original floor joists were trimmed. And most importantly stairs (and all building work) are governed by Irish Building Regulations (TGD Part K for stairs) to ensure safety. Again as for removing internal walls, fine as long as your are not removing loadbearing walls (are they supporting a floor or ceiling/ roof above). An experienced tradesman or competent surveyer will tell you this. In short before you go gung ho into any of this consult someone with the experience and know how that's required, your house may not require the sort of radical work your describing to actually improve the quality of the rooms and space within it. with some thought and careful planning you could do a smaller but better job. There is a multitude of good info out there on the web concerning this type of work, just try google. Also for specific projects like for example remodelling a kitchen there are excellent craft books published by Taunton (US trade book publisher) which will give you good ideas and the knowledge you need to deal with tradesmen in a confident manner. Any time put into planning will be rewarded tenfold.

Thanks for the great advice! Really appreciate the help.

Yep, we realize that a lot of what we want to do would be considered pretty major... we're in no particular rush with any of it, happy to do it gradually over a few years if needs be, but would like to know if what we want to do would be technically feasible, given our existing house structure, just so we know that we're not trying to achieve something unachieveable. (I work in IT and similarly in software, I'd know pretty quickly what can and can't be developed - always good to know when getting a plan in place! )

I guess my first step on this road to home destruc... I mean, construction, would be to try to get a to-scale floorplan drawn up as you suggested, and then to maybe approach an architect/draughtsman to assess what might and might not be possible to do, within a limited budget. Would it be particularly expensive to get him/her to visit our house and do such an assessment? Are there any recommended people in the south Dublin or north Wicklow area who would be suitable in doing such an assessment? (I'd rather get someone in to do it who was recommended by a satisfied customer, than from blindly opening the yellow pages and picking someone.)

Cheers,
J.

I'd say try and get a recommendation from a friend who's already had work done, pretty much what you'd do if looking for a builder etc. A professional should agree to look at your house and give you some idea on potential, without obligation. I hope your enthusiasm wont wane as the years pass by........

You could dump the hot press and the old boiler and the tank in the attic and the toilett cisterns and the chimneys creating even more space and employ a more efficient pressurised water system . Put in a Modulating Combi Condensing boiler .