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How to widen an opening to add a laundry?

Hi all,

I was hoping if anyone could help me.

The question is primarily can be taken generally, but in my situation, it is located in our laundry.

As our laundry is extremely tight for space, I am looking to see if I could take up some of the linen space for the washer and dryer (already have it).

The linen itself (inside) 1500mm wide, 110mm from the right corner, and 75mm from the window frame on the left. I know I need to put on a lintel on top of it.

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Comments

JacobZ

Hi @atmatic,

Did you have access to your building plans at all?

I would start by assessing whether this wall is loading bearing in any way or if there was anything behind the walls that may come in to play if you were to widen the opening to incorporate a laundry.

To increase the width of the cupboard to allow for the laundry cabinet, you would need to be certain that there is nothing behind the walls that would affect opening up this space. The bulkhead above the sliding glass doors makes me suspect there may be some services running through here that would need to be considered.

If you had access to this area in your ceiling cavity, you may be able to look down and see if there is anything in this bulkhead or behind these walls that may affect your ability to widen the space.

If there is no reason you can't open up the space, you would need to remove the front wall entirely and then remove the side walls of the linen cupboard.

You could then reinstate the framing to the desired size and install a cavity door with the door sliding into the left side of the front wall. Once the framing and door are in place, you can reinstate the plasterboard, plaster where required and paint.

Allow me to tag some of our knowledgeable members to see if they have any thoughts @DIYGnome, @Noyade, @Dave-1, @Nailbag.

Let me know what you think and if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Jacob

Nailbag

Hi @atmatic as @JacobZ has suggested, the first thing I would do is have a look in the ceiling above to see what if anything on that wall with the door is load bearing. Your house is going to be build with trusses as it has internal eve's in that area of the home. if you refer to the image below, truss roofs are supported on the external walls. Which means you potentially can remove all internal walls with no effect. Eve-less walls have a slightly different deign and though I highly doubt it, your internal is probably not going to be load bearing. But this needs to be confirmed ideally by a registered builder or a building inspector. If its not a load bearing, you could simply remove it completely to open the space and then infill it as needed to accomodate your new design.

Regards, Nailbag

Standard truss frameInternal eve truss frame

Dave-1

Mornning @atmatic

The guys have pointed out prettuy much teh same things I would be checking out before removing anything.

That bulkhead kinds worries me as it it carrying air con tubing or services ? If you have access to your ceiling space you could have a look. Is the house a multi-story house? As that could change what the walls support as well.

Looking at your plans it seems that you wont be removing any walls per say, just enlarging the opening? If thats the case then iI dont see a huge problem. I would still make sure whyat teh walls support above tho. The last thing I would add would be factoring in somewhere for the humidity to go in that area.

Will you be installing a new Linen cupboard elsewhere?

Dave

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