Kieran McCarthy: 'How much does it cost to swap two rooms in the house?'

Swapping rooms around is one way to make better use of daily sunlight, writes Kieran McCarthy

Mon, 08 May, 2023 - 14:05

Kieran McCarthy

Hi Kieran,

My parents live in a poorly designed 1980s dormer bungalow in the Bishopstown/Waterfall area of Cork. The kitchen/dining room is north facing while the living room is south-facing and bathed in light. Would it be an easy job to swap these two rooms around and do you have any idea of the cost?

Thanking you,

Mary Dineen.

Hi Mary, thank you for your question.

I guess when dormer bungalows were originally developed, there was less attention given to spatial layout and, even more importantly, to the path of the sun. As we know, the sun rises in the East and then travels through the South to eventually set in the West. When dormer bungalows were being designed, they were more of a standard design that was replicated, as opposed to a bespoke design tracking the daytime path of the sun, so we can see the origin of your mother’s design quandary. So, how do we fix it?

I am assuming here that the kitchen/dining and the living room occupy similar amounts of space and that we do not therefore need to start knocking down walls to accommodate. What we will need to do, however, is to take for an amount of window/sliding door alterations so we ensure your new kitchen/dining area connects with your south-facing garden (whether it is at the front or rear of your property).

So I am assuming we need a good sized sliding door, say 2.4m wide, and we need to have a window sized to sit above a kitchen sink, at the north end of the property we need to account for a large picture window for the sitting room. It may be that you can recycle some of these windows if they are in good condition (say no more than five years old) or, as is more likely, you may need to buy anew.

Next we need to consider your fireplace. I am assuming that you may have had a solid fuel or gas stove in place in the sitting room, perhaps in an existing chimney. If so, we need to move this to the new location. If we have a low profile elevation outside, we could site the flue externally. This is certainly best done by an experienced stove fitter as you are potentially dealing with noxious emissions.

The next, and more exciting, part of the puzzle is your kitchen layout. I am assuming now that you are going to fit a new kitchen and therefore your kitchen company will work up a new kitchen design for you. Once this is complete you will need to account for the location of all your new services. This will entail a series of new electrical points, switches and lighting, but, and probably more difficult to accommodate, you will need to consider a new plumbing and likely ventilation layout.

Your new kitchen sink and dishwasher locations will need water services and drains, and your new hob will need some form of extraction (which may now in fact be underground) and indeed you may wish to consider a further level of general extraction for your new kitchen area. In all, these services will require holes cut into your external walls (cores) and grooves cut into your walls and floors (chases) to allow for and conceal the paths of your new services. These works are collectively known as ‘builders work’.

The final piece of the jigsaw is the finishes required to complete these new rooms. You will need to change your floor finishes to reflect the new usage of these rooms, the durability required and the luxury required in your living room. You will need to repair or replace your skirting. You may be altering the wall and any doorway connecting the two rooms so you will need to allow for plastering, carpentry and decoration.

So, how much will all this cost? In truth this will vary widely. How much will your new kitchen cost? €12,000 or €20,000? This depends on its size and the quality of the units and worktops. The windows and alterations will be another key factor. This could run to several thousand euro depending on the labour time involved. I would certainly allow €5,000 for this. I would allow €6,000 for plumbing and electrical and your associated builders work could cost €3,000-€4,000, again design dependent. I would allow another €8,000-€10,000 for floor finishes, and €5,000 for carpentry, painting miscellaneous plastering repair.

These figures will undoubtedly change once you tease out all the necessary elements and seek costings from your suppliers and tradespeople but these allowances should have you in the right ballpark.

Last, but by no means least, I would put aside €3,000 as a contingency for unforeseen works. It may be that you unearth a hidden issue once the builders are on site or it may be that you just need that additional allowance to sleep better when all these big expenses are hitting your purse or wallet. And, if you discover that you didn’t need it after all, you can always splash out on those lovely stone worktops you dreamt of.

Kieran McCarthy is a building engineer and director of KMC Homes, bespoke A-Rated new home builder, serving Cork and Limerick. He is also co-presenter of the RTÉ property show Cheap Irish Homes.