Knocking Through for a Bigger Kitchen: What's Involved

Opening a kitchen into the dining room is one of the most common changes in Colchester homes, from the Victorian terraces of New Town to the 1930s semis found across the town, where the kitchen is small and the back room is rarely used. It can transform how a house works, but the wall comes out before the kitchen goes in, and that part needs planning first.

Is the wall load-bearing?

This is the first question, and it should be answered by someone qualified, not by tapping the plaster. In many older houses the wall between kitchen and dining room carries floor joists or a wall above. Removing a load-bearing wall needs a steel or other beam sized by a structural engineer, temporary supports while the wall comes out, and proper bearings at each end.

Building regulations

Taking out a load-bearing wall is building work under the Building Regulations, even though internal changes like this usually do not need planning permission. You will need approval from building control, either Colchester City Council's service or a registered private building control approver. They will want the engineer's calculations and will inspect the work. Keep the completion certificate, because buyers' solicitors ask for it.

Removing a non-structural wall can still raise regulation points, such as fire escape routes in homes with a second floor or loft room, and ventilation if the cooking area loses a window or extractor route.

Party walls

If the new beam needs to sit in a wall you share with next door, as it often does in a terrace or semi, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies. You must serve notice on your neighbour before the work, normally at least two months ahead for work to a party wall. If they agree in writing, no surveyor is needed; if they dissent, surveyors are appointed to agree how the work is done.

Listed buildings

Colchester has a large number of listed buildings, including many in the Dutch Quarter and around the town centre, and in villages such as Dedham. Removing an internal wall in a listed building needs listed building consent from the council, even though the work is inside, and doing it without consent is a criminal offence. Conservation area status on its own does not usually affect internal walls.

Planning the kitchen around the opening

Once the wall is gone, the layout changes: you may gain room for an island or a longer run of units, and lose wall space for wall cupboards. Radiators, sockets and switches on the old wall need moving, and new circuits are notifiable electrical work. See kitchen electrics and building regs. Flooring should run through both rooms, so plan it before the units go in. Our kitchen design service can help you work out the new layout.

Order of work and cost

The usual order is engineer, building control approval, party wall notices if needed, structural work and plastering, then the kitchen fit. The structural work is priced separately by whoever carries it out. For the kitchen itself, a medium kitchen supply and fit typically runs £8,000 to £15,000, and fitting only is typically £1,500 to £4,000. See our cost guide.

Planning a knock-through kitchen in Colchester? Call 0330 122 2726 for a free quote on the kitchen.