Utility room off bathroom

[Tricia]

Hiya

I have recently had my boiler replaced and have gone for a combi so the old airing cupboard space is now redundant. I would like to make use of it as a utility room which would be accessed from the bathroom. The area is about 1mx1.5m. The washing machine and tumble drier will be fitted in this space. Although the room is separated from the bathroom by a door it is only accessible via the bathroom. Is this likely to be a problem wrt regulations about electrics in bathrooms? The nearest water outlet would be approx 2m away.

Thanks Tricia

[Ian Stirling]

Might making the door lockable help?

[Al Reynolds]

It might make it more acceptable according to the regs but it might not make it any safer. If you can reach the washing machine from the bath i would be extremely wary.

Just a thought: Are any of the airing cupboard walls shared with a landing or hall? A friend just put in a partition wall where the airing cupboard door had been and made a new opening out on to the landing. That way you could access the cupboard without having to disturb the person in the bath.

Al

[N. Thornton]

Equipotential bonding.

[Christian McArdle]

No problem whatsoever. You don't have to equipotential bond or have no sockets in a hallway and they are only separated from the bathroom by a door.

OTOH, assuming metal pipework from the bathroom, there is probably no harm in doing equipotential bonding in this specific case (the appliance cases will already be earthed, so no ability to provide isolation instead). There's also no harm in providing RCD protection to the socket outlets.

Christian.

[adder]

Germans, one would have thought, seem to have sensible rules and regs but you'll often see washing machines and open sockets in bathrooms. They find it odd that in the uK washing machines are in the kitchen.