Big, Big Problem......

[mosaix]

I'm creating a shower room - washbasin, toilet, towel rail, radiator and shower.

I'm half way through, washbasin, toilet, towel rail and radiator installed with half the room and floor tiled in porcelain tiles. The far end of the room is to have the shower.

Problem. I now realise that the whole lot should have been approved under building regulations.

What do I do? The pipes under the tiled floor can't be accessed for inspection.

Should I just ignore it and press on? When I sell the house is a surveyor likely to ask any questions re planning approval, building regs etc.?

Any ideas?

 

[Bahco]

Should I just ignore it and press on?

Er no

When I sell the house is a surveyor likely to ask any questions re planning approval, building regs etc.?

Probably. Phone your BCO to see if regs apply.

 

[JohnD]

the sooner you approach the BCO the more sympathetic he will be.

 

[Redhotferrari]

Sorry BCO is a must, they will be mainly interested in the removal of waste water (toilet) and the electrics, including an extractor. I am assuming this room has never been a bathroom?

 

[mosaix]

Bahco, JohnD, RedhotFerrari thanks for your replies.

I'll explain a little.

The house is quite old (1845). A previous occupier had a single story extension built along the back of the house, 1.2 mtrs wide, 3.5 mtrs long. The extension was two rooms. At the far end was an outside toilet only accessible from the outside. At the near end was inside toilet and washbasin. The inside toilet backed up against the partition wall.

I've had the partition wall removed and the door to the outside toilet bricked up, so making one long room.

The old, inside toilet I have replaced and swiveled through 90 degrees onto the left hand wall but this still drains through the soil pipe that it used to. The old outside toilet has been removed and the soil pipe capped with an adapter that will take the 40mm drain from the shower that will now stand in its place across the end wall.

The washbasin is new but uses the existing fittings and drain.

An electrician has fitted a fan and replaced the old lights via wiring in the roof space.

Thoughts?

Thanks in anticipation.

 

[Redhotferrari]

Answering to the best of my knowledge, so dont quote me!

If an electrician did the work, he should have certified it, which the BCO will probably need.

Soil should be OK as its using existing. Pretty sure BCO still need to notified as its classed as a change of use, no longer just a toilet, plus you have blocked a door etc.

I would suggest you phone them, be honest tell them what you have done, you will need to pay the associated fees etc, but hopefully they will be OK......

I am interested in other peoples thoughts on this one........

 

[JPC]

make sure electrics are certified. ignore the rest, when you sell it , if anyone says anything, just tell it was like this when you moved in, and if you want you could say you replaced some of it for new.
There are regs for everything these days !!! you can sneeze without someone mentioning if its been done to regs.

 

[mosaix]

Thanks again for your thoughts Redhotferri.

Not sure about that JPC, although thanks for the advice. My concern re building regs was:

1) That I had moved the toilet and although only a foot or two it did involve some additional pipe work in making up to the existing soil pipe.

2) That this would all be sealed under a tiled floor and so inaccessible in the future. I thought maybe that there would be special regs covering this?

The change of use wasn't something that had occurred to me at all.

 

[bengasman]

Just contact building control and explain. Pause work til they have been around, they often want to find something to moan about, you go: “oh right, I will change that” and bob’s your uncle.