Downstairs WC Building Regulation

gezza

Current Building Regulations state that new houses must be wheelchair accessible (i.e. have a slope, not a step to the front door) and must have a wide-doored downstairs toilet.

I am currently looking at buying a house off the plans in which the downstairs toilet has been added by the architect since the original plans were made. They have added a hall to the WC which reduces the size of the living room by approx 40 sq. feet. Through the living room is the only access to the kitchen.

I was wondering if I made the toilet smaller and moved a few doors around to make the access to the kitchen through the hall, would I be breaking the regulations. If so would I have to put it back as it was when I was selling the house?

Any opinions would be welcome.

Gezza

Victor

Your description is a little confusing, as best I can see you are allowed interconnect any of the rooms, once the walls / upstairs floor are structurally OK.

For health reasons, you shouldn't have a WC come directly off a kitchen, although I understand it is tolerated in domestic dwellings (most such disease is spread in public / shared WCs).

Want to post up the layout?

qazxsw

gezza wrote:

I was wondering if I made the toilet smaller and moved a few doors around to make the access to the kitchen through the hall, would I be breaking the regulations. If so would I have to put it back as it was when I was selling the house?

Any opinions would be welcome.

Gezza

If you can lay your hands on a copy of the "homebond" building recommendations it has a section on accessability regulations - wc sizes, wc layout suggestions, hall widths -- It's approx 50 euro or there abouts - should be available in any of the bigger bookshops

Lex Luthor

The size of the downstairs WC has to be of a minimum size.
It's actually gotten ridiculous. We viewed a house last week and the WC room must have been nearly 8' square.
Wife works for a building company and all the houses they are building contain downstairs wc.
I'm not sure if you have to have one, but if it goes in, it has to be certain size.
I'll ask her.

gezza

I'll scan the layout tonight and post it, probably will make things clearer.

I know what I want to do to the layout, my real question is about whether making the WC not wheelchair accessible is breaking the building regulation law, and if it is, will that be a problem when selling the house.

Lex Luthor

gezza wrote:

I'll scan the layout tonight and post it, probably will make things clearer.

I know what I want to do to the layout, my real question is about whether making the WC not wheelchair accessible is breaking the building regulation law, and if it is, will that be a problem when selling the house.

If you put a WC in, it has to be of the required size. I don't think it would mke a difference when selling as I think 99% of the population would prefer a smaller wc. The builder may not accomodate you though. Will he?

Victor

It's illegal to do so. You can be made rectify it, fined and possibly jailed.

Future buyers will use it to force a lower price as it will taint the property.

kenmc

gezza wrote:

I know what I want to do to the layout, my real question is about whether making the WC not wheelchair accessible is breaking the building regulation law, and if it is, will that be a problem when selling the house.

I was looking at buying a new house out in tyrrelstown i think, and in the sitting room was this HUGE boxroom which was an afterthought downstairs WC which was wheelchair accessible. the estate agent selling it was recommending that if you buy it you could turn it into a cloakroom or whatever, but that you should not cover over the fittings etc, cos you'd need to return it to a WC before selling it.

Lex Luthor

Just told the following:

"It is mandatory, Homebond will not certify the house if it isn't accessible to wheelchairs. Also, all the light switches have to be lower. You can change the WC after but the builders will not."

gezza

Here are the House Plans.

As you can see the hallway leads only to the wide WC, if this was just under the stairs I could open a door into the kitchen from the hall.

gezza

I know the builders won't do the alteration, I just want to know if anything will happen if I change it afterwards. Is the Homebond invalid? Will I have to change it back to sell it? etc.

Victor

Hmmm, that stairs doesn't look very legal with random numbers of steps ....

Let me come back to you on the WC. Certainly the WC shouldn't be visible from the front door.

Lex Luthor

Victor wrote:

Let me come back to you on the WC. Certainly the WC shouldn't be visible from the front door.

It's not. the door is there and if you look at the line of sight from the front door to the wc, it's just out of sight of the door was open.

This new regulation with the bigger downstairs wc has thrown up a lot of discontent with purchasers due to the layouts being forced upon the architects. Wife said that a lot of houses now are getting plumbing for the washing machine put in to the wc to save on space in the kitchen.

It might be an idea to have a look at plans for other housing developments and see if you can get some different ideas to change your layout.
I'm in the process of buying a house in Wexford at the moment and all the houses are laid out with access to the kitchen from the hall, while still accomodating the downstairs wc. Have a look at their drawings.
http://www.clearydoyledevelopments.com/showcat.php?id=13

therecklessone

Lex Luthor wrote:

Wife said that a lot of houses now are getting plumbing for the washing machine put in to the wc to save on space in the kitchen.

Thats what I'm getting shortly in Swords.

jd

Lex Luthor wrote:

I'm in the process of buying a house in Wexford at the moment and all the houses are laid out with access to the kitchen from the hall, while still accomodating the downstairs wc. Have a look at their drawings.
http://www.clearydoyledevelopments.com/showcat.php?id=13

Do you mind me asking are you planning to live there? It's a very big development with respect to trhe size of the town. Over 700 units in a town of about 20k people!

Macy

therecklessone wrote:

Thats what I'm getting shortly in Swords.

It's actually far more hygenic than having the washer in the kitchen anyway.

Lex Luthor

jd wrote:

Do you mind me asking are you planning to live there? It's a very big development with respect to trhe size of the town. Over 700 units in a town of about 20k people!

Not full time anyway.
It'll be rented out for a while until I start to use it as a 2nd base.

gibo_ie

If the wall between the sitting room and the new hall is not loadbearing you may be able to remove it. Then have access to your WC from the corner of the sittingroom as having that hall there is just a joke.
You cant have the door of the WC opening to the eating areas as this is against regulations. I know you may not like having a door to your WC from the sittingroom but it cane be done and look ok...remember Fraiser his WC inside the front door off his appartment?

May have to have a wall between stairs and living area for fire safety (it is like this in the Uk but not sure about here)

Any good architect should point you in the right direction for a small fee.
Good Luck

gezza

gibo_ie wrote:

If the wall between the sitting room and the new hall is not loadbearing you may be able to remove it. Then have access to your WC from the corner of the sittingroom as having that hall there is just a joke.
You cant have the door of the WC opening to the eating areas as this is against regulations. I know you may not like having a door to your WC from the sittingroom but it cane be done and look ok...remember Fraiser his WC inside the front door off his appartment?

May have to have a wall between stairs and living area for fire safety (it is like this in the Uk but not sure about here)

Any good architect should point you in the right direction for a small fee.
Good Luck

What I was thinking of doing was moving the WC door 90 degrees so it's flush with the stairs and thereby reducing the size of the WC. This would leave the hallway free to open a door directly into the kitchen. The problem then is that the WC is not wheelchair friendly,

I have seen the old plans of this house without a downstairs WC and there is no hall just a bigger living room that you have to walk through to get to the kitchen. I would prefer a hallway, so I could also close up the door from the living room to the kitchen to make it more separate.

Thanks for the advice.

Gez

Lex Luthor

gezza wrote:

I have seen the old plans of this house without a downstairs WC and there is no hall just a bigger living room that you have to walk through to get to the kitchen. I would prefer a hallway, so I could also close up the door from the living room to the kitchen to make it more separate.

Thanks for the advice.

Gez

Gez,
did you look at the plans of Clonard Village. All the halls there seem to have the wc under the stairs with a run straight through to the kitchen.
Unless you wanted to change the layout downstairs altogether. Put the kitchen at the front with access to it from the hall. Dining room behind where the kitchen is and a small study room or bedroom where dining room is. Put your living room on the first floor.
There is a 3 storey house in the Clonard Village devolpment that has this type of layout. I've walked around the showhouse and the layout is not that off-putting.

gezza

Lex Luthor wrote:

Gez,
did you look at the plans of Clonard Village. All the halls there seem to have the wc under the stairs with a run straight through to the kitchen.
Unless you wanted to change the layout downstairs altogether. Put the kitchen at the front with access to it from the hall. Dining room behind where the kitchen is and a small study room or bedroom where dining room is. Put your living room on the first floor.
There is a 3 storey house in the Clonard Village devolpment that has this type of layout. I've walked around the showhouse and the layout is not that off-putting.

Yeah Lex, I looked at the plans, the 3-bed semi, type B1 has a hallway direct to the kitchen with the WC under the stairs, that is what I would like to do. The only thing is that there may not be the same amount of space under the stairs.

I notice that the WC has what looks like a folding door, which is a good space saving idea.

Thanks again.

Gez