A.BEC / Sabadell
Renovations in Sabadell
A casa anglesa is Sabadell’s traditional workers’ terraced house: a narrow front on the street and a patio, the eixida, at the back. The name comes from the British terraces it resembles, and the drawback is a familiar one: daylight at both ends and a dim middle where the lights go on at midday. A.BEC plans the renovation from the patio inwards. We travel from Vilafranca del Penedès, so we consider each Sabadell project, house or flat, according to its scope and our availability.
Tell us where your project is
CLOSER TO HOME
What we can do for your home
Four or five metres wide, with a lot of house behind
These houses, the type known elsewhere in Catalonia as a casa de cos, were built between party walls in districts such as Gràcia, La Creu Alta and the Eixample: a corridor down one side, bedrooms in a row, then the dining room and kitchen at the back, next to the eixida. The laundry sink and the toilet used to be out in the eixida, along with a shed, and in single-storey houses an upper floor could be added when a son or daughter married. Each house has reached the present in its own way, so on the visit we check which walls are partitions and which are load-bearing, where the beams rest and what now stands between the patio and the middle of the house.
Kitchen and table facing the patio
The ground floor changes when the kitchen and dining area open onto the patio and become one room. If a bathroom or utility room currently takes up that back wall, we look at moving it towards the middle of the house, where daylight matters less, provided the drainage allows it. We take out or open up partitions where possible. Anything involving load-bearing walls, the roof or the façade needs an architect or engineer and a different permit, and we will tell you so from the start.
Long runs for water, drainage and wiring
In a house this deep, water, waste pipes and electrics travel a long way from the street to the back. We decide their routes while the floor is up, because over a run this long every bend and every centimetre of drainage fall counts. After that, one pale floor running from the entrance to the patio and smooth walls help light reach further in. Sabadell Town Council has a prior notification procedure for building work that covers interior renovations of homes; it is worth confirming with them what applies to your project.
WE KNOW YOU HAVE QUESTIONS
Before your renovation begins.
How do you get more light into a casa anglesa?
By moving the rooms you use during the day towards the patio and clearing what stands between the eixida and the middle of the house. In practice that means joining the kitchen and dining area by the patio, taking out partitions that hold nothing up, and using pale, continuous floors and walls. Where daylight from the patio does not reach, well-placed lighting does the rest. Opening up the roof or a load-bearing wall is a different job: it needs an architect or engineer and a different permit, which is worth checking with the Town Council.
Can the kitchen be moved towards the patio?
Often yes, but it depends on drainage and ventilation. We need to check where the waste water leaves and with what fall, where the soil stack or inspection chamber is, and where the extractor will vent. We study this on the visit, with the house in front of us, before giving you an answer and a quote.
Do you take on work in Sabadell even though you travel from Vilafranca?
Yes, although we look at each project before committing: we travel from Vilafranca del Penedès, so scope, distance and our availability all count. Tell us by WhatsApp or email whether it is a house or a flat. For a casa anglesa, photos of the corridor, the kitchen and the eixida help, along with the width of the street front if you know it; for a flat, photos of the kitchen and bathroom and the approximate floor area. With that we can tell you whether we can take it on before arranging a visit.
RENOVATE WITH PEACE OF MIND
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