Bathroom types
Downstairs cloakroom installations in tight spaces
The short answer
A cloakroom is the cheapest square metre of value in most houses, and the one most often botched. Under the stairs, in a hall recess or off a utility, the constraint is headroom and waste.
What decides the layout
- Under stairs, position the WC where headroom
- exceeds around 1.9m at the front of the pan; a short-projection pan and a rear-outlet trap buy the extra room.
- Where the soil stack is on the far side of the house
- a small-bore pumped waste is a reasonable answer providing the run is planned with access for servicing.
- A compact 400mm basin with a bottle trap
- and a wall-hung tap frees the floor and makes the room mopable.
Questions we get asked
Does a cloakroom need a window?
No, but it needs extraction with an overrun, ducted to outside. An internal cloakroom without ventilation will get damp and smell.
How long does a cloakroom take?
Typically several working days once drainage, first fix, boarding, tiling and second fix are sequenced properly, longer if a new waste run is being formed.
Ready to get the room measured up?
Photos of the existing room and the position of the soil stack help enormously before a visit.