I'm told there are strict building regulations about the distance required between a loo and a kitchen - is it correct that you have to have a space eg a small hallway between the two? Am trying to redesign an area that currently comprises kitchen, back hallway/access to stairs, and a downstairs loo, so any advice most gratefully received! Thanks :-)
Take advice from your Building Control Officer at the Planning dept. of your local council. You are going to have to notify them of your intentions anyway, so you might as well get them involved now...
I had this discussion with a surveyor about 5 years ago. Apparently there was much confusion, including BCO's, for many years. However, it never was a requirement, and the regs were reworded to make this clearer (although I haven't checked this part myself). I have a vague recollection there might have been a requirement for some type of fan ventilation in a room containing a WC opening off a kitchen.
There are rules preventing a kitchen being open plan with your staircase if this forms your upstairs fire escape route.
The message from "lyn rivers" contains these words:
ISTR that the requirement to have an annex between loo and kitchen was removed a few years ago. If so it must be about the only occasion that regulations have ever been changed to make things easier.
In practice, it was found that people actually learned quite quickly how to live with the differing smells that emanated from each of the apartments. So the regulation is now "If you can live with the smell, then it must be OK".
No, there are vague and floppy ones. It can vary between two sides of the same city ! If you live somewhere with lots of Victorian terraces and a later bathroom added as a ground-floor extension to the rear, then the local BCO can be quite flexible over this, because they'd otherwise have to rebuild half the housing stock. Go across town to the '20s bungalows and '30s semis and the BCO can be awkward about it.
Ask your local BCO. It's them you have to deal with.
I think the requirement is now only to have a separate wash area and a door between.
That is, you cannot have a bog in the kichen itself, nor yet in a room off the kitchen unless there is a separate washing facility BETWEEN THE TWO or IN THE BOG ROOM.
The requirement for a ventilated lobby between has been superseded by more stringent regulations on e.g. extractor fans in the bog itself. This is deemed to keep the smell of shit and pee out of the soup adequately.
So, what you need for a minimal loo off a kitchen is a door, and an extractor fan, and a wash basin in it. Plus some way of lighting it.
Ther is no requirement for an opening window, but if there is no other means you need a leaky door (a little gap under it will do, or a grille in it) to let air in that the fan will extract.
Lots of houses tuck them under the stairs. A very good use of space IMHO.
Once upon a time the rules were that you could not have the loo opening diretly onto a food preparation area. I once viewed a flat conversion where this rule had resulted in a 'bathroom' in which a loo at one end and the shower at the other end were separated by a lobby opening into the kitchen. Needless to say the owner had removed the loo and shower doors in order to create a more useable layout.
Only lat year I was looking at a new dvelopment/refurbishment in which a
2 up 2 down cottage had been coverted with an open-plan kitchen in the front room and a loo under staircase in the same room. It seems the regs requiring a downstairs loo took precedence over the hygine factor.
At one time there were regulations requiring a ventilated corridor - but according to a pal who converts old houses into small flats to let, these have changed. In London, at least.
Best plan would be to ask your local BCO - they don't bite. Well, not often.
The regulatins I have are specific and dated 2000.
There is no reqwuirement to have a room between the loo and the kitchen.
There are requiremnts on having a basin separate from the kitchen sink however, between the loo and the kitchen.
The loo must be adequately ventilated.
Those are in a nutshell the applicable regs. There is no floppiness about it whatsoever. They specifically mention that there is 'no longer a requirement for a ventialated lobby between kitchen and sanitary room, as new ventilatoin requirements cover that'
Its not so hard to look up the regs online. I have the book.
The distance or separation requirement was removed but what is required is that there is no possibility of the kitchen sink being used to wash ones hands after using the toilet. There must be a sink in the toilet and it must be easy enough to use - i.e. not totally inaccessable behind the door.
Thanks for all the replies - that seems to have cleared up the loo/kitchen question nicely :-)
Am now doing a rethink due to Andrew's mention of fire escape routes though;
...this is something I hadn't even thought of before, so thanks for that, Andrew!
What a knowledgeable (sp?) bunch you are :-)
Lyn
On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 23:01:13 GMT, a particular chimpanzee named quisquiliae randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
There's no requirement for a downstairs WC in a conversion of an existing building, unless there was one there before.
I had a 2up-2down with a bathroom extension off the kitchen, which had two consecutive doors between them. Nothing between the doors at all.
Don't just take my word for it though -- I'm not expert in this area. For example, it might be something that only kicks in with 3 floors.
This is probably because they finally worked out that it wasn't the smell that caused tummy upsets but lack of proper hand washing when preparing food.
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