If you are unhappy with the way that your home looks, you might decide to give it a fresh coat of paint and buy some new furniture. But what if you don’t like the layout of your home? Maybe you would prefer an open-plan layout that lets more light through, or maybe you wish that those two small rooms were one big one instead. These kinds of changes are still possible, but they require a lot more work.
Altering the layout of your home is a great way to improve the functionality of the space and get your perfect home, without having to make too many compromises. However, there is a lot that could go wrong and if you don’t get the design right, you could turn a poorly functioning home into an even worse space. So, if you are considering changing the layout of your home, make sure you take these simple tips on board.
Consider Flow Of Light And Circulation
When you are coming up with the initial designs, always think about the flow of light and the circulation throughout the house. If you design the layout with these things in mind, you can create a bright open space and improve the air quality in the home to make it a healthy, inviting home. Unfortunately, a lot of people fail to consider this, and they start taking walls down and putting new ones up, only to realize that they have blocked the natural flow of light throughout the property and their newly created rooms are dark and dingy. Unless you want to do the whole thing again, there is no going back, so think carefully about your designs before you start knocking anything down.
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Don’t Neglect Privacy
People often get so caught up in the idea of an open plan home that they go too far with their new layout design. Once it’s all finished, they realize that they don’t have any quiet space in the home where they can be on their own. Having private spaces in the home is important and if everything is essentially in one large room, that can cause problems. So, don’t neglect privacy and create a layout that strikes a good balance.
Know Your Walls
Understanding the different types of walls and where they are in your home is key to a successful layout change. Load bearing walls are integral to the structure of the home and even though they can still be removed, it’s much harder and more expensive because you need to install supports to replace the wall or you will threaten the structural integrity of the building.
Interior dividing walls are fairly easy to remove as long as they aren’t load bearing. Exterior walls are usually load bearing, so they’re difficult to take out. Ideally, you should come up with a design that doesn’t involve removing any load bearing walls. But if you are dead set on a specific design, make sure that you factor in the extra time and money necessary to take out those important walls. You can’t afford to cut corners here because you risk making the property unsafe to live in.
Use A Professional Demolition Team
People make the mistake of thinking that taking a wall down is a simple job. But there’s more to it than just bashing it with a sledgehammer. You need to make sure that you remove the wall without damaging anything around it because that could cause structural problems which add a big chunk of money onto your budget. So, call in a professional, full-service demolition company to take out any walls for you. They will do a controlled job and make sure that nothing else is damaged, leaving you with a clean space to continue with the rest of your renovations. No matter how easy you think it looks, you always need a qualified professional to carry out demolition work.
Double Check If You Need Planning Permission
Usually, you shouldn’t need planning permission to remove interior walls in your home because it doesn’t affect anybody else’s property. But listed buildings are an exception, so if you live in an old property, it’s worth double-checking. If you carry out the work without the right permissions, and you get caught out later, you could end up with some big fines to pay, which is the last thing you need when you’ve just finished an expensive home renovation project.
Changing the layout can be an effective way to give your home a new lease of life, but it’s important you follow these tips to avoid making changes you later come to regret.