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

I have the capabilities to do this but can I, with this new Part P
regulation?

You can do the work yourself, but you'll have to submit a building notice to
the building control department and have the work inspected. You need to
bring the room up to spec with regards to supplementary bonding, as well.

Christian.

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.

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?

Of course you _can_ do it, but according to the govt you now _may_ not without involving building
control.

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!

New colours have been generally available for several months so no need to use old colours

"Set Square" wrote in message
...
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.

I am not a structural engineer etc. but as far as I can see the wall isn't
supporting the joists. The joists and wall run in the same direction and
the wall is between two joists

If you can find evidence that it wasn't in the original build, this would
be fairly conclusive.

This may prove difficult, you know what councils are like!

Are the adjacent houses built to the same design?

I will ask next door if I can have a butchers at theirs next time I'm at my
Mums.


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!


My thoughts exactly!!

Cheers

John

Mike Harrison wrote:
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!


New colours have been generally available for several months so no need to use old colours

Sure, but old colours would be preferable to avoid highlighting the
newly-done work to anybody carrying out an inspection, won't it? And
you can bet that 5 years down the line, any new colour-ed wiring will be
assumed to have been installed after 1/1/05 unless it can be proved
otherwise!

David

John wrote:
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.


The wall is probably original if the house is anything like the one I
grew up in. What is on the floor imediately below? Probably a kitchen
covering the whole area of your proposed combined room. ie your new
layout will be the same as the ground floor plan. In which case i is
very likely the wall is not supportng anything



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

Don't think bathrooms etc count as 'rooms' in this context. Adding extra
rooms would be another matter.


--
David Clark

$message_body_include ="PLES RING IF AN RNSR IS REQIRD"

John wrote:

I am not a structural engineer etc. but as far as I can see the wall isn't
supporting the joists. The joists and wall run in the same direction and
the wall is between two joists

So the wall is just sat on the floor then? If so then pretty conclusive
that it is not load bearing.

--
Cheers,

John.

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"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
. net...
I have the capabilities to do this but can I, with this new Part P
regulation?

You can do the work yourself, but you'll have to submit a building notice
to
the building control department and have the work inspected. You need to
bring the room up to spec with regards to supplementary bonding, as well.


And the ventilation up to the latest standards as well.

"Set Square" wrote [slightly re-ordered]
| John wrote:
| 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 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.
| Removing the wall would come within the scope of the building regs
| if it is structural.

Walls between rooms, and changing the layout of rooms, closing up doors etc,
is subject to building regulations irrespective of whether the wall is
'structural' or not.

| 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?

As you will need to make a B Regs application for removing the wall and
closing up a door anyway, simply add the wiring to the same application.
Then you may do the work yourself.

Owain