Open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Skelmersdale

Is open-plan kitchen knock-throughs right for your Skelmersdale kitchen?

Plenty of Skelmersdale homes have a small back kitchen beside a dining room that only gets used at Christmas, and joining the two gives one room the household actually lives in.

Parents across Lancashire often want to see the garden and the children from the hob, which a knock-through between the kitchen and family room can make possible. Homes right across Skelmersdale are covered, as are nearby places such as Ormskirk, Wigan and the villages in between.

What does the job involve?

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

Free survey visit to check the wall, the floors above and the services running through it
Beam boxed in, the opening plastered and the floor joined where the wall stood
Building Regulations approval arranged, or a building warrant before work starts in Scotland
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
In England and Wales, party wall requirements checked where a beam bears into a shared wall

Guide prices for open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Skelmersdale

Use these ranges to plan your budget. They include VAT, reflect costs in the North West, and are firmed up once we have seen your Skelmersdale kitchen. Prices in the North West usually come in below the national guide, as labour rates are lower than in the South East.

Guide prices for open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Skelmersdale
Typical project	Guide price
Non-load-bearing wall removed and made goodStud or light partition, minimal services	£760–£1,900
Load-bearing wall with a steel beamStructural engineer's design and making good; building control or warrant fees listed separately	£2,800–£8,100
Knock-through with a new kitchen-dinerSteel beam, new kitchen, new floor throughout	£24,000–£52,000

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 Skelmersdale

Across Lancashire you will often find stone-built mill-town terraces, red-brick Victorian terraces, 1930s semis and seaside bungalows, and each shapes the kitchen differently. Mill-town terraces often have a small back kitchen opening onto a yard, while seaside bungalows and 1930s semis tend to have a square kitchen at the rear.

Most of Lancashire has soft mains water, so heavy limescale is rare and taps, sinks and appliances stay cleaner for longer. Back alleys and yards can help with deliveries, though narrow yard gates and steep hill streets may limit how long worktops come in.

Do you need approval for open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Skelmersdale?

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.

Where an older town-centre home is listed or in a conservation area, a new vent on a front wall may need consent, and flats in converted houses usually need freeholder approval.

Planning ahead

Clear both rooms completely before the opening is made in your Lancashire home, and seal doors to the rest of the house with dust sheets and tape.
Keep the completion certificate somewhere safe after the work, as a buyer's solicitor will usually ask for it when you sell your Skelmersdale home.
Plan the heating for your new Skelmersdale kitchen-diner; removing a wall can also remove a radiator, and the larger room may need more heat.
Allow time for the engineer's design and approval before work starts, especially in Scotland, where the building warrant must be granted first.

Questions about open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Skelmersdale

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

Open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in Skelmersdale typically cost £760 to £1,900 including VAT for removing a non-load-bearing wall and making good, based on prices in the North West. Larger or more involved jobs cost more, and your price is fixed in writing after a free survey visit.

Which parts of Skelmersdale do you work in?

All of them. Our Lancashire coverage takes in the whole of Skelmersdale, including the WN8 postcode district, as well as surrounding towns such as Ormskirk. If you are unsure, send us your postcode.

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.

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.

Do I need approval to remove a wall between kitchen and dining room?

For a load-bearing wall, yes, everywhere in the UK. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland that means Building Regulations approval through building control; in Scotland a building warrant must be granted before work starts, followed by a completion certificate. A non-load-bearing partition is simpler, although a listed building may need listed building consent and a leasehold flat usually needs the freeholder's written consent.

Open-plan kitchen knock-throughs in neighbouring towns

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