Downstairs Toilets.

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Ok. Without getting involved in the rights or wrongs of the toilet debate can I ask abou the bedroom at ground level? In the regulations quoted above it also says a house without lift(99.9% I would have thought) has to have a bedroom at ground level. Does that mean technically that say in your average house with 2 reception rooms that one of them should in fact be called a bedroom??

Re:..

legend99, i'll double check the regs this evening, don;t have them in the office.....

Diasabled loo

Thanks for the help folks. Who actually checks that light switches are low enough etc.??

Re: ..

no you don't in your case. the regulations are mainly pointed at new buildings / houses and existing houses involving major renovation works.

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paddyirishman,

Thanks for your input

Nanny State

This is the nanny state yet again. If I pay for my house with my money it is my property. If I don't want on oversized bathroom and spare bedroom down stairs then so be it. No one I know is in a wheelchair and while I understand their plight re house parties etc its still ridiculous to impose such conditions on private residences which are not planned for housing disabled people.

The "just in case argument" is groundless because if that were really the case we would have to build earthquake, nuclear bomb proof underground shelters in our back gardens while having a medical wing with staff ready to spring into action if we were to be ready for every human calamity

Its right an proper that places of business have wheelchair access and facilities. For private residences it should be 100% at the owners discretion. If they are need then the owner can provide them. If they are not needed, then they are not needed.

Re: Nanny State

I actually don't have a problem about forcing people to make small sacrifices to help the lot of the disabled or other disadvantaged minorities but again I'm not sure if this particular regulation has been fully thought through. Apart from the loophole/pitfall that I mentioned earlier (ie that the obvious "solution" is to build a house without a downstairs loo), you also have to face the reality that the vast majority of the 99.?% of houses in the country (built before 2001) will not have wheelchair-accessible loos. To take the dinner party example, yes it is great to be able to invite disabled people to your home without having to worry about basic logisitics, but only if you are lucky enough to live in a house built pre-2001 and you or your builder have had enough space and/or design skills to incorporate a wheelchair-accessible downstairs loo into the house plan. Otherwise you are back at square one.

We're considering converting our garage and trying to decide what to use space for, specifically whether to include a downstairs toilet OR utility room. We won't have space for both. How important have people found a downstairs tiolet to be? We currently have two upstairs so is it necessary to donate precious downstairs space to a toilet? Is a utility room more useful? We have kids. Thanks.

loo

I'd go for the loo. Current building regs require a downstairs loo, so if/when you come to selling your house would be compared to others that were built after the blding regs came into effect. Garages are generally fairly big though - I would have thought you'd have room for both?

loo

> I'd go for the loo. Current building regs require a downstairs loo, so if/when you come to selling your house would be compared to others that were built after the blding regs came into effect.

Not necessarily. A downstairs/wheelchair accessible toilet will probably only be of value to a disabled buyer or those (many!) people who seem to be obsessed with the number of toilets that a property contains. Otherwise a buyer may not attach much value to it regardless of prevailing building regulations or whether or not more modern developments include them. I personally would prefer a utility room to an extra jacks but everybody has different preferences.

In general it's difficult to gauge how much any particular extension/renovation will add to the market value of your property. Sometimes the added value will be less than the outlay involved. As such, unless you are planning to move imminently then you should choose the extension/renovation that best suits YOUR needs and lifestyle and from which you will benefit most rather than anticipating what a prospective buyer MIGHT prefer and how much it might add to the market value of your house. If you plan to move in the next few years then some people would argue that you should not do any major remodelling and wait until you are more settled in another property to do so.

loo

Not planning on selling any time soon so we're mainly concerned with how the house will suit our own needs.

Will be using the rest of garage space for another small room - not planning a garage sized bathroom!

Hi Anna,

If you already have 2 toilets upstairs then a third would not be of too much benefit.

Just wondering if the space would only suit a 3rd toilet though will it be of any major benefit for a utility room?

Don't know what age your kids are but if they are babies - think about toilet training - a downstairs toilet is a huge advantage.

It needs a bypass.

Our flusher on our downstairs loo is not working at present. We have to use the upstairs loo as a result. It's a pain in the This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language. When you get used to having a downstairs loo you miss it when it is not there. Having said that we have a utility as well which is really great for the washing machine, the junk and for sorting our refuse items etc.

Anyone know a plumber in the Blackrock area of Dublin that could replace the innards of a toilet cistern?

Loo

Thanks for taking time to reply. Space would be big enough for washer and dryer and if it wasn't used as loo we wouldn't have to have a corridor between it and the kitchens - loos can't open straight into kitchen, so we'd save a few feet that way. leaning towards loo though and putting washer into kitchen in a cupboard that might contain the noise a bit I hope. Kids are very young now - under 2.5 so lots of fun with toilet usage ahead of us.

loo

Another plus point of a downstairs loo is that visitors don't have to access upstairs. A big advantage as your kids get bigger and have a gang of small friends in to play.

utility

I have to put up an argument for the utility! I like to close the door on the sound of the dryer and washing machine. Even a small indoor close line can be such a advantage.
Now, I have to admit that I have a downstairs loo also. But I would prefer a utility over a loo if I had the choice!!!

Re: loo

A downstairs/wheelchair accessible toilet will probably only be of value to a disabled buyer

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Or a buyer who has a disabled friend, or family member.

I think there was something about this before but couldn't find it. Would value your opinions on how important a downstairs loo is. We're planning an extension and space is very scarce. Loo will necessitate porch space as you cannot have z bathroom open into kitchen so it'll eat into our space a lot. We will have 2 bathrooms upstairs and we have small children. Thanks!

What are you going to do if a time comes when one of you cant manage the stairs ?

Perhaps 'just a broken leg' or if unlucky something more long term...

Sorry to be such a gloom merchant :-(

how important

I think when you have kids it becomes very important. When our 3 were young, we could have 7 or 8 little friends in to play, racing around the house, out in the garden and suddenly, all of them want the loo - like now!! Even for muddy hands etc. its a godsend here. Ours was out of order for a while recently and did we miss it. Also our kids are teenagers now and live and I mean live in the upstairs bathroom. Shower going morning, noon and night! If we didn't have the downstairs loo, well, lets just say there would be a lot of leg crossing?