In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
John wrote:

My mum has bought her council house after living in it for over 25
years. As my next project for her she wants me to 'knock' the
bathroom and toilet room into one, and install a new suite, tiles
etc. The toilet room only houses the toilet, I.a. no sink etc. Both
rooms are upstairs and next to each other. The two rooms are
separated by a stud wall, it is approx 3" wide, and is hollow all
over, and as far as I can see has no load bearing purpose at all.
The existing bathroom door will also be removed and blocked in using
plasterboard etc. When 'opened up' the new room will measure approx
1.7 Metres by 2.4 Metres.

The stud wall has always been there while Mum has lived in the house
so I don't know if it part of the original build or not. The house
is approx 50 years old, and the council "did some work" on the
bathroom and toilet prior to my Mum moving in so it was probably put
in then. One of her friends (old fell in her swimming group, who
says he was a building inspector or similar) says she will need
planning permission in order to do this as she is reducing the number
of rooms in the house! I cannot see this as being correct but
thought I would check on here. If it helps this is the only toilet
and bathroom in the house.

I will also have to change the lighting a little as the existing
bathroom light is on a pull switch, but the toilet light is on a
normal switch which will be inside the new bathroom. She wants only
one central light and a pull cord putting in the 'toilet side' and
the other one removing. I have the capabilities to do this but can
I, with this new Part P regulation?

Cheers

John

As far as I can see, there's not a planning issue. You're not changing the
appearance from the outside, and there's no change of use of the premises -
e.g. residential to commercial.

Removing the wall would come within the scope of the building regs if it is
structural. So you need to make sure that it isn't supporting the roof
joists. If you can find evidence that it wasn't in the original build, this
would be fairly conclusive. Are the adjacent houses built to the same
design?

I rather fear that the electrical changes would come within the scope of the
new Part P regs. If I were doing it myself, I'd use some of my stock of
old-colour cable, and pretend that I'd done it prior to Jan 1!
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.