Expanding 2 separate bedrooms into the finished sleeping porch

[Anonymous]

Have you seen that done? Does it work? I see a lot of finished sleeping porches used as playrooms, awkward sitting rooms, or bedrooms accessible through another bedroom. But I'm wondering how common it is to simply, "simply", split the sleeping porch in two, and remove the formerly exterior, now interior, brick wall between the finished sleeping porch and the two bedrooms it serves, to make two longer bedrooms with windows.
Would the transition be seamless between the two segments of a room, or rather would creating a seamless transition be prohibitively expensive?
Is the structural engineer as costly for that wall demo as he'd be removing a load bearing wall on the first floor?

[Anonymous]

That's an interesting question. I'm guessing if it was that easy more people would have done it.

[Anonymous]

My neighbor knocked out the entire back wall of his Dc rowhouse to expand the back rooms (and pack in more tenants). So it can be done. I have no idea what it would cost, though.

[Anonymous]

Any time you're dealing with knocking out walls it isn't simple or cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you seen that done? Does it work? I see a lot of finished sleeping porches used as playrooms, awkward sitting rooms, or bedrooms accessible through another bedroom. But I'm wondering how common it is to simply, "simply", split the sleeping porch in two, and remove the formerly exterior, now interior, brick wall between the finished sleeping porch and the two bedrooms it serves, to make two longer bedrooms with windows.
Would the transition be seamless between the two segments of a room, or rather would creating a seamless transition be prohibitively expensive?
Is the structural engineer as costly for that wall demo as he'd be removing a load bearing wall on the first floor?

About $500-$800 for the structural engineer to draw up the plans for permits. Demo and and adding the support beam isn't complex, but get someone who has done it before and can follow plans. You'll need to even the slope of the floor and extend the HVAC as well to connect the two spaces seamlessly.

[Anonymous]

I am thinking about doing this too, but would keep the porch below an open porch. So the enlarged bedroom would have an open porch below. Is this a bad idea? Would it be better to enclose the porch below too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am thinking about doing this too, but would keep the porch below an open porch. So the enlarged bedroom would have an open porch below. Is this a bad idea? Would it be better to enclose the porch below too?

PP here. If you have open space below REALLY insulate the ceiling of the open porch. Otherwise your enclosed upstairs is always going to feel like the great outdoors. It'll still be off a bit since it's an open "envelope" but it's not the end of the world. Take it into account when planning the expansion of your HVAC.