Door Requirements Between Kitchen & Bathroom

Apr 22, 2005 7 Replies

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Tom John 21 years ago

We have a victorian cottage with a down stairs bathroom off the back of the kitchen. Between the two rooms is a 3 foot wide lobby that serves no purpose other than to ensure there are 2 doors between the kitchen and the bathroom.

I believe this was a legal requirement when the bathroom extension was built, but want to pull the wall down and extend the kitchen into the loobby area. There are no structural walls to consider.

Can anyone confirm i am able to do this, and therefore only have a single door between the kitchen and bathroom?

Thanks

Tom

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Christian McArdle 21 years ago

It is my understanding that this is now acceptable, although I may be wrong.

I seem to recall that they did some tests and concluded that the bacterial risk was from not washing hands, not from any airborne source that would be helped by two doors. However, you are now required to have a handwashing basin near the toilet. The kitchen sink is NOT acceptable.

Christian.

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Mathew J. Newton 21 years ago

handwashing

That is correct. Looking at Part G of the Building Regs, paras 1.2 and

1.3 state:

'1.2 A space containing a closet or urinal should be separated by a door from a space used for the preparation of food (including a kitchen and any space in which washing up us done).

1.3 Washbasins should be located in the room containing the closet, or in a room or space giving direct access to the room containing the closet (provided it is not used for the preparation of food) or in a room adjacent to the room containing the closet in the case of a dwelling.'

Mathew

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sploop 21 years ago

What on earth is a "loobby area"???

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Bob Eager 21 years ago

It's next to a loobby loo....!

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manatbandq 21 years ago

extension was

But only if there's somewhere to wash your Andy Pandys!

MBQ

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Tom John 21 years ago

Thanks guys.... you pedantic bunch!

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Andrew Gabriel 21 years ago

It never was a legal requirement, but misreading of the building regs often resulted in this misinterpretation, even by BCO's. The wording was changed to make this clearer.

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