How To Extend Your Kitchen's Boundaries And Make It Larger
Posted on: 22 January 2016
Sometimes the house you buy comes with a kitchen that is less than the amount of kitchen space you had hoped for. Never fear; there is always a way to make a kitchen bigger, or at the very least, appear bigger. The following advice will help you with your kitchen remodeling project by helping you expand your kitchen's walls and dimensions. (Some knowledge regarding home construction will help, but if you do not know about home construction, be sure to hire a contractor for help.)
Step 1: Find Load-Bearing Walls
Every kitchen has at least one load-bearing wall because of the location of the kitchen in every house. These load-bearing walls help support the rest of the house above the kitchen, straight up to the roof. You want to locate these walls so that you do not remove them and cause your home to collapse inward at the point where a load-bearing wall was accidentally removed. If you are not sure how to do this, you can consult with a contractor who can mark these walls for you before you get started.
If you are able to identify load-bearing walls on your own, find a way to mark the load-bearing walls lightly. A blueprint pencil or something else you can easily erase or wash off works well for this. If only half of a wall is load-bearing (as the case may be with a really long wall), then mark off the half of the wall that needs to stay put and notate the half of the wall that you can remove as a secondary option for your expansion.
Step 2: Locate Walls That You Can Remove Entirely
When attempting a kitchen expansion, your very best option is to find a wall that you can remove entirely. What you want to do is select a wall that can be moved outward into adjoining rooms with very little trouble (i.e., one that will not require you to relocate your kitchen's plumbing or reroute your electricity extensively). This could apply to any wall that is not a load-bearing wall, including an outside wall that could be extended out into your yard. If the only wall in your kitchen that this applies to is the one wall containing all of your kitchen cabinets and cupboards, consider ripping out all of the cabinets and cupboards, move and reconstruct the wall farther out and then reinstall your kitchen cabinetry.
Step 3: Consider "Removing" a Separate Dining Room and Turning it into Part of Your New Kitchen
Many people have a "formal" dining room in their homes. It is often located just off of the actual kitchen. Many other homes have a "eat-in" kitchen, which encompasses a combined kitchen and dining area. If you are looking for another expansion option, you may want to consider expanding into the dining room and making it part of the new kitchen. Doing so will provide you with even more countertop space, cabinetry and room for a bigger table and chairs.
Step 4: Knocking Down Walls and Restructuring/Rebuilding
Once you have decided which wall or walls you want to remove, you can knock these down and out with a sledgehammer. Then begin reconstructing and restructuring new walls at the juncture on which you decided. If you need help, be sure to hire a contractor like one from Bryce & Doyle for this final phase of your kitchen remodeling project.
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