Before you even decide to add an extension to your home, a number of different factors have to be taken into consideration. From planning permission to site insurance, the scope for potential missteps is huge, which can amount to one very stressful experience. If you have at least managed to narrow it down to a bathroom, here are the things that you have left to worry about.
Layout
While there isn’t a law forbidding the construction of a bathroom without a lobby preceding it anymore, it is still a decent guideline to follow. Ideally, a bathroom should be separated from the other rooms of the house by some kind of circulation space – either a hallway or a utility room. Regardless of whether you choose to follow this advice or not, there are very few laws restricting the positioning of a bathroom and for that reason, you more or less have free reign. The Party Wall Act of 1996 means you can build all the way up to the border with your neighbour, even if it requires access to their land in the process.
Size
In keeping with the relatively lax restrictions governing the layout of a bathroom extension, restrictions involving the size of a bathroom are similarly slack. If you so desire, you can create a new WC that measures just 1.3m² in size. If you want to combine a bathroom and a toilet, the minimum area you can occupy is 3.6 m². Whether investing in an extension just to make a bathroom of this size makes financial sense is an altogether different matter.
Water supply
One unavoidable consequence of extending the size of your home to include a bathroom is renewed demand on the infrastructure that supplies your baths, showers and sinks with water. It is just one of those things you have to deal with. The best way to meet this demand involves two steps. The first is something that will boost the water storage capability of your home. The second involves the addition of a water pressure pump that will bolster the water pressure to all of the outlets throughout your home. If you want convenience, a packaged pumping system is ideal for you – it combines the two.
Design
Once you’ve blitzed through all of the red tape, you can finally get round to designing your new bathroom. Before you start it is important to keep in mind how this latest addition is going to fit in with the rest of your home. Cohesion is important to creating a well-designed home. Instead of completely contrasting the other spaces in your home, attempt to retain some semblance of theme – it might be a material or a colour. Aside from maintaining visual continuity, durability is also important, so don’t skimp on quality if you want your bathroom to function properly for the foreseeable future.
