Hi All,
We've finally found a place in Edinburgh, a colony upper in Leith, and moved in on Friday. We've started small, but I had some questions for the group about a possible future plan...
We have (what is to become) a dining room that is 'L' shaped because the stairs to the loft conversion occupy some of its original boundary. The door to the main hall (and the stairs to the loft conversion) is at one end, a door to the kitchen leads off at the other (the doors are in different planes but face the same way and are on the same side). The wall that runs between the dining room and the stairs is a thin stud wall, erected when the stairs were put in. The wall between the kitchen and the dining room is the original partition wall (and is not load bearing).
We would definitely like to take out the wall between kitchen and dining-room, to form a single space. We'd also like to consider removing the wall between the dining room and the stairs, making a single space between main hall and dining room. I suspect that the latter might, though, breach building regs with respect to fire protection beteen kitchen and stairs. (The door between hall and dining room has a closer on it, but does no appear to be a fire door; the door between kitchen and dining room is not in any way fire-protected).
How can I find out what the building regs are? I've never done this sort of thing before (taking out a wall) - what do you think I need to consider? Any usefull hints and tips?
Thanks in advance for help - Adam...