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Seppel300031 Jul 2019 13:30Hello,
We own a semi-detached house and since the birth of our daughter (third child) we have one room too few. It’s becoming necessary for her to have her own room, or for our two boys to each have their own room instead of sharing. In theory, we could divide a room on the upper floor and create the same layout as our neighbors, but that would leave us with three very small rooms around 10m² (110 sq ft) each, and we don’t want to impose that on our children. Since we have a basement, we thought about moving our bedroom there and then having three nice children’s rooms on the upper and attic floors.
I have attached the floor plan and, with my limited skills in Paint, tried to mark the plan. We would like to split basement room 3, extend the hallway wall (is this done with drywall?), to create a storage room (currently basement room 1) on the left side; shift the right wall slightly (would this require a structural engineer?), to separate the bedroom and office (for which we would need another basement window – is this even possible?), and add another wall to create an additional bathroom (we got a quote for this 1–2 years ago, so we have a rough estimate).
We are quite unsure how to approach this. Is it even allowed to do all this work in the basement? Do we need an architect for it? How can we best find a good one? How can we estimate the costs since we would mostly have to finance it ourselves? How do you find reliable contractors if you can only just manage to lay laminate flooring yourself?
Thank you very much in advance for any advice.
Best regards,
Sebastian
We own a semi-detached house and since the birth of our daughter (third child) we have one room too few. It’s becoming necessary for her to have her own room, or for our two boys to each have their own room instead of sharing. In theory, we could divide a room on the upper floor and create the same layout as our neighbors, but that would leave us with three very small rooms around 10m² (110 sq ft) each, and we don’t want to impose that on our children. Since we have a basement, we thought about moving our bedroom there and then having three nice children’s rooms on the upper and attic floors.
I have attached the floor plan and, with my limited skills in Paint, tried to mark the plan. We would like to split basement room 3, extend the hallway wall (is this done with drywall?), to create a storage room (currently basement room 1) on the left side; shift the right wall slightly (would this require a structural engineer?), to separate the bedroom and office (for which we would need another basement window – is this even possible?), and add another wall to create an additional bathroom (we got a quote for this 1–2 years ago, so we have a rough estimate).
We are quite unsure how to approach this. Is it even allowed to do all this work in the basement? Do we need an architect for it? How can we best find a good one? How can we estimate the costs since we would mostly have to finance it ourselves? How do you find reliable contractors if you can only just manage to lay laminate flooring yourself?
Thank you very much in advance for any advice.
Best regards,
Sebastian
H
HilfeHilfe31 Jul 2019 13:47I would choose the mini rooms as long as they remain small; mine are only 12m² (130ft²) as well.
It's hard to say because the floor plan for the upper level is missing, but the wall could very well be load-bearing. You definitely need a structural engineer for this. Are the basement windows suitable as emergency escape routes? With the additional windows, you might need to submit a building permit / planning permission application, right? In that case, you will also likely need an architect in addition to a structural engineer. I would definitely prefer the small rooms. Much, much simpler and significantly more cost-effective.
Your plan is quite complex to implement. Keep in mind that a bathroom in the basement, for example, requires a lifting station as additional equipment.
What if you use the "small" children's rooms and convert Basement 3 into a playroom for the kids instead? You could possibly divide it further with a drywall partition into a boys’ and a girls’ playroom. This way, toys can be left out, which is less practical in a 10m² (approximately 108 sq ft) children's room.
What if you use the "small" children's rooms and convert Basement 3 into a playroom for the kids instead? You could possibly divide it further with a drywall partition into a boys’ and a girls’ playroom. This way, toys can be left out, which is less practical in a 10m² (approximately 108 sq ft) children's room.
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