Advice gratefully received

[Louby Loo]

Hi,

Would be so grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction on this matter.

We have a small business in the ground floor of an old commercial building. The current toilet facility is very old and small, has no natural ventilation, nor windows, nor mechanical extract. Consequently, trying to keep it smelling fresh is extremely difficult. The toilet room is in the corner of a much larger room which does have windows. They were sealed shut but I have managed to get them open again. This room houses a sink and a fridge. There is only one outside wall (The one on which the windows are located), but on the other side of this wall there is a small patio/courtyard which belongs to the next door property.

We would like to make the toilet larger so that it is more accessible and we would like some form of ventilation in it.

Our dilemna is this. If we ask if we can move the toilet cubicle to another location within the larger room (i.e. to the window wall), then I think this will be classed as a new toilet room and will have to be mechanically ventilated to the outside. There is no way that the lady next door will want us mechanically venting our toilet air out on to her little patio - I wouldn't if I were her. But if we keep the toilet where it is and just enlarge it a little (there are only flimsy plaster board partition walls around the loo at the minute), there will still be no ventilation to this room.

Any bright ideas would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Sanke]

Hi
As the outside wall already has windows can you not add another or failing that a vent on the wall. You could put in either a vent high on the wall or an air brick type vent lower down (or both), this would at least allow air to circulate
Why were the windows sealed up to start with?

 

[Louby Loo]

Thanks for your reply,

The windows were already sealed up when we took possession of the building. It was previously an independant financial advice centre and they had nailed them shut and had put alarm wires on them. I have managed to get these open now (although being old frames, the blooming things wont close again properly, so there is a constant trickle of fresh air through these now)

The windows are quite high up (sills are about 5ft up). Ceilings are about 9ft. Am I right in thinking we would need planning permission to put a vent in the wall? We will certainly need listed buildings permission. If it needs PP, I think next door will object...and even if we get it, I doubt that she will give us permission to go on to her patio to access our outside wall (which we would need to do to gain external access to the wall). She is extremely sensitive and I wouldn't want to do anything to upset her.

Would the following work?

(i) We just keep the bathroom where it is, albeit windowless. We refit the existing tatty sanitary ware. We enlarge the room by moving the partition wall over, to make it more accessible. Now we have a larger toilet cubicle in the back room

(ii) Because the back room has a sink/fridge, under one of the windows, we could partition this off for hygeine purposes. Now we have a kitchen and a loo which open into the remaining bit of the back room - let's call that a lobby now.

(ii) We put a trickle vent in the toilet door and open the window in the lobby to achieve some passive ventilation.

(iii) We try to fit some sort of air cleaning/purifying device to the toilet which would suck the air in, clean it and then return it to the toilet (if such a thing exists!)

I know this does not satisfy building regs for a new build, but since this is not a new build or a new toilet (would involve refitting an existing bathroom) and if the result was an improvement on the former situation, would that be acceptable?

Alternatively, if we have to look at trying to put a ducted air vent in the wall, do you need Planning permission and do you need to have outside access to that wall to install it?

Thanks again

 

[Sanke]

Points 1 & 2 would improve the situation greatly. Dont think you can get point 3 without going outside
Whereabouts are you, as it may be better for someone to take a look ?

 

[Louby Loo]

Hi, we're in Yorkshire. I have spoken to a joiner (since we need some joinery work done too). He is quite happy to do the work as the main contractor and says he has a plumber who he subcontacts plumbing work to. He did say he would send the plumber round to have a look since he wasn't sure on all the regs etc, but no-one has been as yet. I think I will have to get on to him again and ask him if the plumber could call in to have a look.