Q&A

This week, Q&A asks about adding value to your home and talks about sinking patios.

Will one big room add value?

We have an ordinary three-bedroom semi-detached house built circa 1950. We were considering knocking our front reception room into our diningroom to make one big room to make more room for our three teenagers. Will it add value to our home?

If your rooms are very small to begin with then knocking them together makes sense if only to make a space to take you all. However, knocking two rooms together is more difficult than it first appears. Structurally, it's not that big a deal and any builder could tackle it easily; it's what you are left with that you must consider.

If your rooms are narrow, you run the risk of creating a room that's long and narrow and out of proportion. Will you be creating a room with two doors out to the hall and two fireplaces - and if so would that work for you? Do you have a good-sized eat-in kitchen? If not, knocking the two rooms together will mean only one livingroom and that means that you and your teenagers will have nowhere to go (except bedrooms) to escape from each other. Would dividing the rooms with a set of good quality timber-panelled doors make better sense in terms of your lifestyle - the doors could be open when you need a large space and closed when you need two rooms.

Maybe knocking the two rooms together is the best option - but it is only one option and you should try to consider other ways of using your space before you get the builders in. Housebuyers definitely appreciate bigger rooms but not if the room is a strange shape or odd in some way. The key thing to remember in terms of improving the value of your home is that whatever work you do, you do well.

Sinking feeling over patio

I moved into my townhouse two years ago and have a small garden that was newly-landscaped when I bought, with a wide patio down the centre. I am alarmed to discover that the patio, made of slabs of slate, is breaking up and sinking in places. Why could that be and is it something I could fix?

It's difficult to say without seeing your garden but one possible explanation is that the patio was not laid properly in the first place. Your letter arrived at the same time as one from a householder who was mystified to discover grass and weeds growing up through her gravelled patio area until she discovered that the gravel had simply been put down on the lawn, with no membrane between. In her opinion, the gravel was put down purely to spruce up the garden for the sale - like you, she bought the house recently.

A slabbed patio cannot be laid on soft ground. It needs a sub-base of what's called hardcore - crushed brick or stone which is then compacted and topped with sand to fill the gaps. Is there a chance that your patio was laid without a suitable sub-base? Not having one could cause the slabs to break and subside. Your only way of knowing is to take up the slabs and see what's going on underneath. If you're keen, you could fix it yourself - it's not a difficult job though it is a physical one. Get a good DIY book to guide you, such as B&Q, You can do it, published by Thames & Hudson.

• Send your queries to Property Questions, The Irish Times, 10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail propertyquestions@irish-times.ie.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.