Kitchen & bathroom 2 doors or 1???

Loui1979

Hi All
Me and my partner have are in the middle of buying a house :j . We really like and know it’s the one for us and that, but yesterday we took out parents to view it and they noticed that the bathroom is right next to the kitchen with just one door to separate them. They said that the law states that if a bathroom is next to the kitchen there has to be two doors to separate. Can anyone confirm this or if the law has changed?

Cheers!
X

wigginsmum

My understanding is that you need two, but we removed one when we moved into our house. If we ever sell, we'll put another one in.

Jules

[Deleted User]

Never heard of that one before, I am curious to see what other peole say.

Loui1979

wigginsmum wrote:

My understanding is that you need two, but we removed one when we moved into our house. If we ever sell, we'll put another one in.

Jules

We wont be able to do this because of the planning!. :cool:

sarah_elton

I thought that too, but have just googled and found this which might help:

http://www.houseweb.co.uk/house/forum/Forum5/HTML/000032.html

i.e. one door is the minimum

You learn something new every day.

Ian_W

My understanding is that CURRENT building regs require 2 doors between a toilet and a kitchen for hygene reasons [see EDIT below]. However, they're not retrospective and there are 10's x 1000's of properties around the country [particularly older ones] that don't comply and can be bought and sold in that condition without it causing a problem.

" The regulations apply to most new buildings and many alterations of existing buildings in England and Wales, whether domestic, commercial or industrial." according to the ODP website HERE where you can find out all about current Building Regs if you wish.

The BR's are changed all the time, part P [new electrical regs] for example, if existing props had to comply with the current regs at all times in would cost a fortune and very few props would be saleable.

EDIT: The link posted by Sarah above suggests you don't need 2 doors and TBH I don't have time to go through the regs ATM but the principal that BR's are not retrospective still holds good.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

We wanted to buy a house in 1965 which had only one door between bathroom and kitchen and it was unmortgageable with only one door.

jobbingmusician

I have heard from an architect friend that the rule USED to be 2 doors and is now 1.

This is because............(wait for it)

loos don't smell as much as they used to, apparently! :rotfl:

(Seriously, extraction fans etc are now better designed)

lush_walrus

To comply with Building Regs, yes you do require a lobby area, ie two doors between a kitchen and a bathroom. But, this only applies to new construction or changes.

Therefore, as it is already there you do not have a problem at all, if its something that you personally dont mind. If however in the future you did change the kitchen location or added a new extension to house the bathroom for example, then you would need to apply for Building Regs and you would need to comply with this and all other requirements.

So its not something to worry about, all Building Regs are there for are to control design and new construction to ensure that the things considered to be 'good' by todays standards are met, so deal with a lot of issues such as fire, disabled access, heat loss eg insulation etc to stop bad practice in modern building.

Buildnig Regs are only ever applied in retrospect if something new has been built without applying for Building Regs approval.

So don't worry, it is actually very very common in old Victorian terraced houses, which were built prior to any form of sanitation to have bathrooms off of the back kitcehn extension. A lot of people who prefer to have their bathroom upstairs later swap a bedroom for a bathroom.

wigginsmum

Yeah we're in an old Victorian terrace - I think the bathroom was added on the back of the kitchen in the 1950s (going by the decor!)

Jules

Dan29

jobbingmusician wrote:

I have heard from an architect friend that the rule USED to be 2 doors and is now 1.

This is because............(wait for it)

loos don't smell as much as they used to, apparently! :rotfl:

(Seriously, extraction fans etc are now better designed)

Yep our architect said the same when we had an extension built recently.