New boiler above the toilet in a place under the stairs?

Any

Hi everyone,
we are are having large redesign of part of the house done, and at the moment we are struggling where best to put a new boiler.
Currently it is in a suspended box in a space above the staircase.
The plan is to turn the stairs around and create a toilet underneath them. This means the boiler cannot stay where it is (as the boiler is where person will now walking up the stairs iykwim).

I was thinking if it could be above the toilet in the newly created space underneath the stairs? The space will apparently have full sized door, open the door look straight at the toilet, the toilet being on the outside wall.
Is there anything that can be a problem? Head clearance? Not being able to have boiler above toilet?

There will be roughly a meter from outside wall for the loo of full height space, then sloping down.. for the boiler to be on the on the outside wall, it can only be above the toilet. The ceiling will be roughly 225 cm above ground.

This would mean the least moving of the pipes I think, as it will be exactly on the same line as before, only lot lower.

The other option would be to put it in kitchen, which is other side of the wall (still same outside wall, but other side of internal wall).
The problem with this is, that that internal wall used to be the original external wall and it is 95 cm thick, so the builder will not probably like that much!! (I am worried about constantly growing bill!)

The boiler will be Vaillant, combi, 2 people 1 bathroom in the house (don't know which one yet, but apparently that is who the plumber prefers).

At the moment the builder said to put it in spare bedroom. Which is on the line with where we said it could be in the kitchen, only in second floor not the downstairs. So the same wall problem I suppose, but he did suggest that first.
We really don't want it in the spare befroom.

I am just getting ideas before meeting the builder for the next time!

FreeBear

Any wrote: »

At the moment the builder said to put it in spare bedroom. Which is on the line with where we said it could be in the kitchen, only in second floor not the downstairs. So the same wall problem I suppose, but he did suggest that first.
We really don't want it in the spare bedroom.

Not sure you are allowed to put a boiler in a bedroom - If this is the case, that spare room could not be used for sleeping in again until the boiler is relocated again.

TBH struggling to see how you could put a boiler in above a toilet in the space you describe - Could it no go beside the pan at a low level ?

Routing pipes, regardless of the boiler location, is a comparatively minor issue - It is only copper pipe & a few soldered fittings after all.

DominicH

FreeBear wrote: »

Not sure you are allowed to put a boiler in a bedroom.

You are. Most boilers are "room sealed", and as the name suggests they may be located in rooms including bedrooms.
I'm not saying it's ideal, and should you come to sell your property it might put some buyers off. I think you'd want to put it in a built-in cupboard, at least. But it is allowed and, I understand, not that uncommon.

no1catman

When I moved house, the guy (who had fixed the central heating in the old place) on put the gas stove in-place - noticed that the central heating boiler was above the gas cooker in the kitchen!
Quickly exclaimed - that's against reg's, shouldn't have that there like that.
It didn't take much thinking about - with all the steam coming off saucepans etc reaching up into the electrics of it - the mind boggles.

Anyway, new one installed, in an alcove cupboard in the rear bedroom - can make a rumbling noise when coming on in the morning otherwise no problem. And an extractor hood fans out through the old C/h vent.

FreeBear

DominicH wrote: »

You are. Most boilers are "room sealed", and as the name suggests they may be located in rooms including bedrooms.
I'm not saying it's ideal, and should you come to sell your property it might put some buyers off. I think you'd want to put it in a built-in cupboard, at least. But it is allowed and, I understand, not that uncommon.

I stand corrected then - It was open systems that was in my mind when I said "not sure if it is allowed". Room sealed devices should be OK as long as they are regularly serviced and you can tolerate the noise if sleeping in that room. There is still a risk of carbon monoxide leakage, so a decent CO alarm is a must in that room.

The other place a boiler could go is in the loft space if there is decent access - It appears to be a location that is growing in popularity around here.

Any

Yes, the builder did look at the loft. Currently not easily accessible, but he could change that. However our loft has a very little room.

He said the boiler would be built into custom made cupboard, but I am worried about the noise.

Kitchen would be ok. Currently, there is no upper cupboard on the left from the window, near the internal wall and putting a cupboard that looks the same as other kitchen cupboards would look absolutely fine.

It could not go in the toilet next to a pan I think.. the space is not going to be wide enough I thinkl

Any

There is going to be plenty of room elsewhere under the stairs, but not on an external wall...

no1catman

Any wrote: »

He said the boiler would be built into custom made cupboard, but I am worried about the noise.

I think you are over estimating how much of a nuisance that might be. I only notice it in the morning when it comes on - I have it set for 7.30 or 7.40 - during the day if I'm in the bedroom, I'm not aware of it even if it makes the occasional whirring sound - helped perhaps with it in a cupboard.

casper_g

Our boiler is in a built in cupboard in my 14 month old daughter's bedroom. It was there when we bought the house two year's ago.

I was initially concerned - it isa new-ish Worcester Bosch combi, regularly serviced, there's a CO monitor in the room, but if nothing else I thought the noise might wake her up. The boiler we had in our last house certainly would have as it used to make the most bizarre noises!

In the end it hasn't been a problem, possibly because it's been there ever since she was born so she doesn't know anything else.

Any

no1catman wrote: »

I think you are over estimating how much of a nuisance that might be. I only notice it in the morning when it comes on - I have it set for 7.30 or 7.40 - during the day if I'm in the bedroom, I'm not aware of it even if it makes the occasional whirring sound - helped perhaps with it in a cupboard.

Thanks.
The other problem is that we would loose a warderobe that is currently there, but if it won't be possible to put it anywhere else, I suppose it would have to do.
Was really just looking for other possibilities.
We'll see if it can go into the kitchen and go from there.