Making a through room is the best way to improve access between areas frequently used —the dining and living rooms, for example — and provides an opportunity for redesigning your living space. The job uses similar principles to making a hatchway or a new doorway, although on a much larger scale. Removing a dividing wall — whether it is structural or simply a non-loadbearing partition — is a major undertaking, but it need not be daunting. Provided you follow some basic safety rules, much of the job is straightforward, if messy and disruptive. Before you start, plan out your requirements and consult the at-a-glance flow chart, right, for a break-down of just what is involved.

Before you go ahead and demolish the wall between the two rooms, consider first just how the new space might function, its appearance, the time it will take you to carry out the work, and the cost you will incur.

Ask yourself the following questions: Will the shape and size of the new room suit your needs? (If you have a young family, remember that your needs are likely to change as they grow up.)

Will most of the family activities be carried out in the same room (eating, watching TV, playing music, reading, conversation, playing with toys, pursuing hobbies, doing homework)?

Will removing the wall deprive you of privacy within the family, or from passers-by in the street?

Will the new room feel like one unit and not a conversion? For example, do the skirtings and mouldings match? Are the fireplaces acceptable when seen together, or should one be removed? If the doorways are close together, should one be blocked off?

Will the loss of a wall make the furniture arrangements difficult— particularly if central-heating radiators are in use and take up valuable wall space elsewhere?

Will the heating and lighting need to be modified?

Will the proposed shape of the opening be in character with the room and of the right proportion?