We’ve moved the kitchen from one room to another and now want to have the old kitchen as a breakfast type room with french doors.

The window we want to replace is 5ft wide so I’m assuming (it’s a 30’s house) there’s a lintle above.

As far as I can see the job will involve;

1) removing old window.
2) cutting down through render and brickwork to floor level
3) fitting frame and doors
4) making good inside and out
5) enjoying a cup of tea looking out through the new egress.

Questions;

1) do I need building regs for this work?
2) any rules on type of insulation etc new doors have to have (I’m assuming toughened/laminated glass is a given)
3) cutting through the wall – 230mm angle grinder with a diamond disk good enough or rent a 305mm one?

any other advice?

Cheers

Not sure, but don’t you need building regs for changing the use of a room? So you need building regs for moving he kitchen?! In that case the building regs and completion cert could cover the whole job.

Simone

looking into it further, cost/effort of getting building regs probably means that getting someone FENSA registered to do the job will probably be easier than DIY.

Fensa only covers like for like replacement. Replacing a window with patio doors doesn’t fall within the scope. Plenty of Fensa installers don’t seem to know this though.

Don’t be surprised if inner leaf is on wooden lintel, and outer leaf if supported on window frame (this is what we had on our 1930s semi).

We kept wooden lintel on inner leaf, and put angle iron in to support outer leaf so load wasn’t transferred through window frame. I think it was L-shaped 200 x 80 x 4.5m, but the FENSA guy got this calculated.

It was touch and go as to whether we needed a full catnic, but we didn’t in the end. All regs and certification came under the Fensa application, and got randomly inspected afterwards.

I did mine last year with a 9 inch grinder. Bit of water to dampen the dust. Took about half a day. Dont forget the damp proof

We had ours done a couple of years ago. One thing to think about – your door will be thinner than your wall, what are you going to do to the floor where you’ve removed the wall? We had a piece of oak put in, but because it wasn’t sealed underneath, the cold air coming in under the door condensed on it and the wood warped. If you use wood, just make sure the underside is varnished first.

It sounds like You have probably not had building regs approval for moving the kitchen into another room ?

If a bathroom or kitchen is to be provided in a room where there wasn’t one before, building regulations approval is likely to be required to ensure that the room will have adequate ventilation and drainage, and meet requirements in respect of structural stability, electrical and fire safety.

Did this a couple of months ago except it was in my living room and can confirm it was as easy as your first points, except mine had a radiator underneath which had to be removed. It had a metal lintle too.

Can’t comment on building regs for definite except to say that my folks had hassle when buying a house which had the kitchen moved without telling the planners. Not a problem getting permission retrospectively but they do have to be told, in Scotland anyway!

I’ll post a pic of mine as it has opened and lightened up the room a treat. Still needs a little finishing where plaster had cracked from previous damp, which I will get round to doing eventually 😳

Spoke to building regs – as long as the width of the opening isn’t changed then regs aren’t required as long as it’s done by Fensa registered installer but speaking to one of their surveyors this pm to confirm. Will ask about moving kitchen then (although there’s some complications with that I won’t contaminate this thread with).

Wallop – We’ve got concrete floors so I just filled the cavity with cement / mortar, damp proof membrane and tiled over the top.

It’s a wooden floor (joists and boards) but boards are knackered in places so the whole lot will be overboarded with 12mm ply prior to laying new flooring. I’ll make sure there’s sufficient support under it where it meets the frame.

Different authorities can’t seem to agree on the building regs thing when replacing a window with a door (same size opening).

I know here they regard it as structurally altering the outside of a buildng and therefore can’t be done under FENSA. Ours was already done and FENSA certificate issued before I found this out however 🙂

Pic below. As lintle was already above window, I didn’t think building regs would come into it re structure, so cut through bricks (house was built in 1860’s so was fairly easy with old red bricks) and as floor was cement already it was just a case of levelling off and making good.

Dog and bed is an optional extra!

that’s pretty much what we’re lookign to achieve 🙂

Where did you get the doors from?

Kitchen renovation

Some photos in there of our doors I think, can’t link to them directly on my phone because new flickr is rubbish.

yes, some pics of the doors there, thanks. Yours was probably slightly more involved than mine’s been 😯

rubbish phone picture of current state of play. Waiting for lighting and glass splashbacks.

Friends Dad has a double glazing business and got them for me trade, so not sure who the manufacturer is but they are somewhere in the NE. They are 6ft and slightly taller than standard. Total for doors, surround and sill etc was around £850 incl. VAT. with a 10 year guarantee.

Could have had them much cheaper in white but the missus wanted it to look ‘cottagy’, which is going to cost a small fortune extra to do all the other windows and doors the same 😕

Exactly the issue I face, every other window in the building plus the patio doors in the room next to the one we want to change have white upvc. These ones have to be wooden. I’m hoping to ensure that the outside is white painted so it vaguely matches even if the inside is left as natural wood.