Making a home more saleable

Associate
Joined
25 Jan 2013
Posts
304
Hi all

Following on from a thread I made a few weeks ago, is there any merit as far as selling a house is concerned in moving a boiler from the bathroom to the kitchen?

At the moment, there's a combi boiler in a large bathroom cupboard. My house mate wants us to pay to have this moved downstairs to the kitchen and eliminate the large bathroom cupboard and replace this with a separate shower cubicle. We've been quoted £860 to move the boiler, and then there's the extra expense of building work to knock down the cupboard and relocate it to a small corner of the bathroom, and the added expense of a separate shower cubicle on top of the rest of the new bathroom suite.

Is there any value in spending north of £1k to move the boiler downstairs to get a separate shower cubicle? I can't image it'll add anything like that much to the value of the house, or that a boiler in the bathroom would deter anyone from buying the house.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

#29.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Posts
16,527
Personally I wouldn't want a boiler in the bathroom

That said, I wouldn't be fussed having a shower cubicle. A decent shower over a bath is good enough for me.

Go half way. Move the boiler, and just tidy the bathroom up a bit. Moving the boiler I would have thought would make the bathroom look bigger.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
25 Jan 2013
Posts
304
Personally I wouldn't want a boiler in the bathroom

That said, I wouldn't be fussed having a shower cubicle. A decent shower over a bath is good enough for me.

Go half way. Move the boiler, and just tidy the bathroom up a bit. Moving the boiler I would have thought would make the bathroom look bigger.

Moving the boiler and getting rid of the cupboard would definitely make the bathroom look and be bigger, but the house would also lose a very large storage cupboard and very useful airing cupboard.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Jul 2003
Posts
9,595
Would the boiler be on show in the kitchen?

I'd personally prefer to have the boiler hidden away in the bathroom rather than taking up space in the kitchen.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Apr 2008
Posts
19,696
Location
Bedford
Sounds a lot of work that isn't suddenly going to slap on a grand to the value of the house really...

People tend to be way more put off by things like downstairs bathrooms, if they don't buy a house based on a boiler being in the bathroom they are looking for a reason not to buy it anyway, so it's probably a worthless change.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
25 Jan 2013
Posts
304
Would the boiler be on show in the kitchen?

I'd personally prefer to have the boiler hidden away in the bathroom rather than taking up space in the kitchen.

I hadn't thought of that, so there'd be more expense to build a cupboard around it, and the fridge\freezer would have to be relocated (which would mean moving a set of drawers and cutting the kitchen worktop back a bit).
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Feb 2003
Posts
2,813
Location
Sheffield
Our boiler was in the bathroom when we bought this house. When we had a new one fitted we kept it there. I can't see any reason why a buyer would be put off by it to be honest. Rather that than taking up valuable space in a kitchen.

I can't see your proposal adding much if anything to the value or saleability of the house, unless the bathroom is really tiny with the boiler in there, so not worth the effort.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
25 Jan 2013
Posts
304
Our boiler was in the bathroom when we bought this house. When we had a new one fitted we kept it there. I can't see any reason why a buyer would be put off by it to be honest. Rather that than taking up valuable space in a kitchen.

I can't see your proposal adding much if anything to the value or saleability of the house, unless the bathroom is really tiny with the boiler in there, so not worth the effort.

The bathroom is actually still quite large even with the cupboard. The room in total is 2.4m x 2.55m
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
5,538
I wouldn't, you may get a sale from somebody who gets freaked out by something not being where they've usually had it but they won't pay you a penny more for it. Equally you may get a sale from somebody who has always had the boiler in the bathroom / airing cupboard and won't buy a house without it. They won't pay you a penny more either though.

My advice would be to give it a damned good clean, hire a cleaner for the carpets, scrub everything, give the walls/woodwork a touch of paint if they are marked and throw out any horrible furniture (or at least put a neutral throw over it).
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2010
Posts
6,769
Location
South West
My advice would be to give it a damned good clean, hire a cleaner for the carpets, scrub everything, give the walls/woodwork a touch of paint if they are marked and throw out any horrible furniture (or at least put a neutral throw over it).

+1

Pointless moving the boiler, purely comestic, won't increase the selling price of your house, better to spend money on necessary jobs, like paintwork, tidying garden, patio, etc

Decluttering the place is also important.
 
Tea Drinker
Don
Joined
13 Apr 2010
Posts
18,416
Location
Sunny Sussex
Spend the bag of sand on dressing the place, at least you can take it with you, to dress a show home we spend £30k depending on size.

My current marketing suite cost £2m

House buying is crazy, people spend months deliberating, comparing and testing a car for £10k then make their mind up about a house in 20 minutes.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
95,522
Location
I'm back baby!
I would move it personally, but not if I was intent on selling the house. Just because i wouldn't want it there.

I wouldn't move it to the kitchen though. We put ours in the garage.

Seems a hell of a lot of cash to move it though. Have you shopped around?
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2007
Posts
8,704
Got a boiler in the bathroom currently. It'd be nice to move it to open up the bathroom but to be honest, it's the room you crap and wash in, it's not that important.

In terms of adding value? No, I don't think you'll get your money back if you're getting professionals in to do it, and to do a proper job of it.
 
Back
Top Bottom