An open plan conversion joins two or three ground floor rooms into one, which means removing structure and replacing it with a beam. Internally it is a building regulations job rather than a planning one. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations, and run the structure, the services and the finishing as one programme.
Improving the house you have, which is what Elmbridge asks for
Elmbridge's published response for Esher is to encourage applicants to improve their original Arts and Crafts homes before they consider a replacement. An open plan conversion is that kind of improvement. It changes how the ground floor works while leaving the elevations, the roof and the plot untouched, which keeps it clear of the arguments that replacement schemes attract.
The Esher stock that suits an open plan ground floor
Two storey houses with separate front and back rooms are the natural candidates. Elmbridge records the residential part of Lower Green, sub-area ESH06, as two storey inter-war or post-war housing, some of it terraced. Houses fronting Lower Green Road immediately south of the railway line are described as having a garden suburb quality, with cottage scale, tall chimneys and eaves half-dormers.
Cottage scale keeps spans short, which keeps the beam and its bearings modest. It also puts chimney breasts in the middle of the plan. Deciding whether a breast comes out, and how the stack above is then carried, belongs in the same structural design as the wall removal rather than in a separate job later.
When the open plan scheme needs the back of the house pushed out
Where the open plan space needs more floor area, the answer is a single storey rear extension. Elmbridge treats the effect on a neighbour's natural light as minimal where a single storey extension projects no more than 3 metres. Keeping within that projection keeps the daylight question simple. Beyond it, the council applies a daylight test that the design has to answer.
- Utility and boot room space carved out of the new layout
- Open-plan kitchen-diner conversions
- Steel beam installation to remove the dividing wall
- Bi-fold and sliding door openings onto the garden
- Ventilation and extraction planned for an open kitchen
Why Choose GS Renovation in Esher
Open plan work fails on the things that are not the beam. Radiators, sockets, switches and lighting all lose their walls, and the ceiling has to close cleanly where the old wall met it. We plan the electrical and heating alterations at the same time as the structure, so first fix follows the steel rather than chasing it. The structural engineer is ours to appoint, the calculations are theirs, and the building control inspections are coordinated by us. One point of contact from survey to handover, fully insured, rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder.
- Heating and radiator positions reworked for the new layout
- Clean, tidy and reliable tradespeople
- Photographs kept at each stage for your records
- Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you
- The layout planned around how you actually use the ground floor
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day