Would this be 'change of use'

[tim]

I am now doing up our house to sell. The house is oldish c 1820s and was originally two cottages that is now one dwelling. It has been significantly changed over the years and some of it well before our time.

There is a large porch/ conservatory that we refurbed a few years ago but was probably added to the house in the 60s. It is, I suppose, an external room in that you enter the hallway through the 2ft 6" thick external wall via a door. There is also a window in the wall between the porch and hall. These share a common lintel. The house was rendered when we bought it but we stripped it back to the stone and while there was s lot of repointing required the stone quality was surprisingly good - except around this door and window where the column between the two is part stone and part brick etc:





Essentially, as I am sure you agree, it looks rubbish and needs to be sorted. My favoured plan is to take out the window and door and replace the whole opening with either:

1. three folding doors (so that the opening can be made as large as poss should someone wish it to be eg in the summer),

2. one door and two fixed lights ie with the door where it is now and the fixed lights where the wall/ window is now

3. Possibly a central set of french doors and fixed sidelights.

The other option is to leave it as it is but repair and make good. This isn't my favoured option as it will take at least as long as any of the above options and probably still not look great.

So my question is, by removing the wall (and I'm only talking about the space from the outside edge of the window to the outside edge of the door) do I alter the 'use of room' for either the hall or the porch/ conservatory?

Any help, advice etc greatly welcomed. If there are better suggestions I'll be pleased to hear them and also pointers to suppliers would be good. I know Magnet do trifolds that fit the opening.

Cheers

Tim

[Keith]

Personally I think it is pointless spending any money trying to second guess what a prospective purchaser is going to want and I would just add a bit of casing and spot and dab plasterboard to make good what you have. A day or two and hardly any cost.

Trifold doors are a **(*&^ to use regularly BTW.

[dom]

I agree with Keith, in the past I sold a house but decorated it first and a year before had installed a huge wooden conservatory.
The eventual purchasers came in and she was heard to say, "we'll have to redecorate and I don't like that wooden conservatory, i want on of those white ones"
Good job the wife was there to hold me back.

[engineerone]

i am with dom and keith, anything you do will not be to the liking of the purchasers, many of whom have no taste, but wathc the telly and think they know better.

so go for cleaning up, if for no other reason than you will not make the money back

paul

[sainty]

I have to say that I agree with the other responses. Whatever you do, you probably wont get your money back when you sell. The porch/conservatory doesn't look that it is large enough to be a usable space.

The only exception to this might be if by putting in a lot of glass you open up a view that give you a bit of wow. In which case you may not get your money back but you might sell a bit quicker, but that's impossible to gauge.

As to change of use, well, this would be one of those situations where who would ever know? If you do the work yourself no one will even think to question it. As long as it is properly done its not going to stop someone buying the place, they will be too far down the line to pull out.

Best of luck


Sainty

[tim]

Thanks for the feedback. Your sentiments are understood and I would agree with you except for the fact that it is the entrance to the house and as such is the place that any prospective buyer will make their first impressions.

I totally understand the fact that it is hard to second guess any buyer but I'm also conscious that its so unattractive that it really lets the place down. The house itself is pretty nice and the view itself is good too - across to the Malverns and it would let a lot of light into the hall. At the same time I don't want to waste money and do something superfluous.

The porch is fairly substantial - c 4m x 4m.

Pics of house and view below





Cheers

Tim

[engineerone]

christ tim, you are getting as bad as jason in relation to gloating.

i understand that you are moving so you should really consider this. have you checked out the housing market in your area, and talked to the agents. what have they told you without you suggesting anything? until you get proper feed back from someone locally it is a big gamble, that will not actually make you more than half themoney back, so maybe it is better to take a lower price in view of the slackening of the market in many areas,
than spend the money and still maybe have to take a lower offer anyway.

at the most i would think about paint and plaster board to brighten it up, then see what comments people make.

until you get some viewing it is difficult to get a decent idea of what people will actually accept.

i mean some people may well want to cut down the hedge and replace it with a wall so keep as much dosh in your pocket as you can and only re-consider if you get lots of negative comments from the footfall.


paul

[jake]

As long as you used external joinery (i.e. DG) and don't have the porch permanently heated with the main CH system, I can't see how building control can object.

If you brought the porch into the main building envelope (by using internal joinery or heating it on the main system timer etc), they might well start kicking off about insulation and so on.

In terms of planning permission, there is no change of use, it's all C3 - 'dwelling house'.

[tim]

Paul

I think you are right. I will get the basics done - essentially the house is in reasonable nick and then call in an agent for a view and some guidance as to what is worth doing and what isn't.

Cheers

Tim

[Keith]

Tim I didn't realise it was your main entrance, shame on you for leaving it like that although I've got not skirting, architrave and big holes in the floor of my hall, so perhaps it runs in the trade ;D

If I was going to change this I would go for a single door with fixed lights both sides, cheapest and most practical option IMHO. I'd do it so that it didn't look newly done and not tell anyone because buyers and surveyors are always concerned over recent work in case you have just patched up a more serious problem.

Keith

[tim]

You can probably make out the very attractive post and rail balustrade on the staircase behind as well. The only two biggish things that need doing and they are both in eyeline as you walk through the door!

Just need to work out if that pillar is doing any work - cos that would be annoying to find out too late!

Cheers

Tim

[thatsnotafestool]

jake said:

As long as you used external joinery (i.e. DG) and don't have the porch permanently heated with the main CH system, I can't see how building control can object.

If you brought the porch into the main building envelope (by using internal joinery or heating it on the main system timer etc), they might well start kicking off about insulation and so on.

In terms of planning permission, there is no change of use, it's all C3 - 'dwelling house'.

Jake - any chance you can expand on this point? Reason for asking is that we're replacing an old grotty conservatory with a new double glazed orangerie. It has a flat structural roof with a large glazed lantern (to ensure that it meets the definition of a conservatory) - double glazed. the walls are all double-glazed units. I was proposing to put in a couple of rads connected to the main central heating system. On thermostats. Or is this a 'no-no'?

[thatsnotafestool]

Tim - I can see where you're coming from. Aesthetically the difference in wall style construction could put some people off. Have you thought about simply dry-lining the wall?

[tim]

I have - but it would be the only bit on the external surface of the house that isn't stone and because you can see it so easily from the outside, it would look really odd.

Cheers

Tim

[engineerone]

well tim you could always show your artistic talent, by painting faux stones on the dry wall ;D

paul

[tim]

i did think about stone slips ;D

Cheers

Tim

[jake]

Roger, on reflection its a bit of a non point these days as the rule dates back to pre-TRV days when everything ran off a central thermostat - what you have to have is separate on/off or temperature controls, which is exactly what a TRV is anyway (even if you set it the same as the rest of the house and never touch it).

[engineerone]

i know of at least one house in west london where the whole hall was faux stone panels. the house sold for more than a million quid.

so go for it ;D

paul

[tim]

The house is now on the market and I thought I should update you with what I did in the front porch in the end.



Think its worked out quite well. House went in the paper on Thursday so we shall have to see whether it did work out well after all. We've had one viewing and another booked for Wed. Fingers crossed

Cheers

Tim

[Keith]

Nice job, what an amazing difference

[engineerone]

tium, what a transformation you have made that conservatory look really classy and special. let's hope it turns out to have been worth the effort in terms of keeping the value in the house.

paul

[paulchapman]

Very nice, Tim, and I like the colour.

Cheers

Paul

[nickw]

Nice job. Hope the sale goes well.