Open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Burgess Hill

Thinking about open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Burgess Hill?

If your Burgess Hill semi has the kitchen at the back and a separate dining room beside it, opening the wall between them often makes space for an island or a proper table.

If your Burgess Hill home is an older terrace, the wall between the kitchen and the middle room may well be load-bearing, so an engineer and a steel beam are likely to be part of the plan. Our West Sussex coverage reaches every part of Burgess Hill (RH15) and out towards Haywards Heath.

What do open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Burgess Hill include?

Here is what usually goes into open-plan kitchen knock-throughs, adjusted to your Burgess Hill kitchen after we have measured it:

In England and Wales, party wall requirements checked where a beam bears into a shared wall
Cables, pipes and radiators in the wall rerouted by qualified trades
New kitchen fitted once the opening is made good and the structural work inspected
Structural engineer arranged to design the beam, padstones and temporary propping
Building Regulations approval arranged, or a building warrant before work starts in Scotland
Beam boxed in, the opening plastered and the floor joined where the wall stood

What do open-plan kitchen knock-throughs cost in Burgess Hill?

The figures below are guide prices for Burgess Hill, including VAT and adjusted for typical costs across the South East. The fixed price comes after we have measured up. Prices in the South East usually run above the national guide, mainly because labour and parking cost more.

What do open-plan kitchen knock-throughs cost in Burgess Hill?
Typical project	Guide price
Non-load-bearing wall removed and made goodStud or light partition, minimal services	£920–£2,300
Load-bearing wall with a steel beamStructural engineer's design and making good; building control or warrant fees listed separately	£3,400–£9,800
Knock-through with a new kitchen-dinerSteel beam, new kitchen, new floor throughout	£28,500–£63,000

Load-bearing guide ranges include the structural engineer's design for a typical single opening and making good; council building control or building warrant fees, rerouted services, decorating and the kitchen itself are listed separately. Prices include VAT at 20%.

Kitchens in homes around Burgess Hill

You will find 1930s semis, flint and brick cottages, post-war new town houses and seaside bungalows throughout West Sussex. Crawley's new-town houses often have a compact galley, while seaside bungalows in Worthing and Bognor Regis tend to have a small square kitchen beside the dining area.

Coastal flats may have no lift, and village lanes on the edge of the Downs can be narrow for delivery lorries, so the delivery route is checked at the survey. West Sussex has mostly hard water, so limescale on taps, sinks and boiling water taps is common and a filter is worth considering.

Regulations for kitchen work in Burgess Hill

In England, removing a load-bearing wall needs a structural engineer's design and Building Regulations approval through local authority building control or a registered building control approver. Where a beam bears into a party wall, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 means serving notice on the neighbours before work starts. If the new open-plan kitchen opens onto the hall and stairs, building control will check the escape route, and homes with a floor more than 4.5 metres above ground may need extra fire safety measures.

Homes in the South Downs National Park, listed flint cottages and conservation areas such as central Chichester may need consent for a new external vent.

Tips before you start

Choose the new floor finish before the wall comes out, so the strip where the wall stood can be levelled and covered in one go.
Before asking for prices for your Burgess Hill home, look upstairs: a wall directly above the one you want removed is a strong sign it is load-bearing.
Plan the heating for your new Burgess Hill kitchen-diner; removing a wall can also remove a radiator, and the larger room may need more heat.
Think about fire escape if the kitchen will open onto the hall and stairs, particularly in homes of three storeys or more.

Questions about open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Burgess Hill

How much do open-plan kitchen knock-throughs cost in Burgess Hill?

Guide prices in Burgess Hill are about £920 to £2,300 including VAT for removing a non-load-bearing wall and making good. The final price depends on the size of the kitchen and what is moving, and is set out in an itemised written quote.

Which parts of Burgess Hill do you work in?

All of them. Our West Sussex coverage takes in the whole of Burgess Hill, including the RH15 postcode district, as well as surrounding towns such as Haywards Heath. If you are unsure, send us your postcode.

How can I tell if a kitchen wall is load-bearing?

Usually you cannot be certain by looking. Clues include floor joists landing on the wall from above, another wall directly on top of it upstairs, or the wall running down the middle of the house on its own foundation. A hollow knock is not a reliable test, because some stud walls carry loads. We check at the survey, and where there is doubt a structural engineer confirms it before anything is removed.

Who designs the steel beam for a knock-through?

A structural engineer does. We arrange the engineer, who calculates the loads and specifies the beam size, the padstones it bears on and the temporary propping needed while the wall comes out. Those calculations go with the Building Regulations application or building warrant. We do not design steelwork ourselves; the work follows the engineer's design and is inspected as part of the approval.

Does knocking through to the kitchen affect fire safety?

It can. If the new open-plan kitchen opens straight onto the hall and stairs, a kitchen fire could affect the escape route from upstairs, so building control, or the building warrant process in Scotland, will check how people would get out. In houses with a floor more than 4.5 metres above ground, usually three storeys or more, extra fire safety measures may be needed. We confirm what applies before work starts.

Open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in neighbouring towns

We also carry out open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in these towns near Burgess Hill: