Cloakrooms & downstairs WCs in County Durham

What does a cloakroom or downstairs WC cost in County Durham?

Our guide range in County Durham is £1,600–£4,000 including VAT. Prices in County Durham run at about 10% below the UK guide, based on North East England labour rates.

Guide prices for County Durham including VAT. Your itemised written quote after the free survey is the price that counts.

Which towns do we cover in County Durham?

• Darlington
• Hartlepool
• Stockton-on-Tees
• Durham
• Chester-le-Street
• Billingham
• Stanley
• Consett
• Newton Aycliffe
• Bishop Auckland
• Seaham
• Thornaby-on-Tees
• Peterlee
• Yarm
• Spennymoor

Most of County Durham has moderately hard water. Taps and wastes will need an occasional descale, and chrome or brushed finishes are easier to keep clean than polished brass. Hardness varies street by street, so check the figure for your postcode with your water supplier. If the only toilet in your Darlington home is upstairs, a cloakroom under the stairs or in the utility can save a lot of trips.

What the job includes

• Strip-out of the old fittings, waste removal and making good on the hall side
• An extractor fan ducted to outside, wired with an overrun timer or linked to the light
• Lighting wired by a qualified electrician, tested and certified
• A survey that checks the headroom under the stairs, the door swing and how the waste will reach the drain
• Splashback or feature tiling and a new floor, often LVT or porcelain
• A concealed cistern frame or WC unit where the space allows

Decisions to make first

Under-stair layout

Headroom drops quickly under stairs. The basin and the space in front of the WC need standing height; the low end of the room can take the cistern or storage.

Door

An outward-opening door is usually needed so it does not hit the WC. A sliding door suits a narrow hallway where an outward door would block the way.

Finishes

A small room can carry a bolder tile or wallpaper. A feature wall behind the WC costs far less here than in a full bathroom because there is so little of it.

WC style

A wall-hung WC on a frame gives the most floor space and looks neat. A back-to-wall pan in a short furniture unit is easier to fit against an uneven wall.

Rules that apply in England

A cloakroom refit does not need planning permission, and forming a new one inside the house rarely does, although a listed building needs listed building consent for internal alterations affecting its character. A macerator or pumped WC is acceptable only where the home also has a WC on gravity drainage. The water fittings rules in each nation limit a new WC to a 6-litre flush.

In England, a new WC connected to the soil stack or drain is drainage work under Part H, and a newly formed cloakroom without an opening window should have mechanical extract; Approved Document F gives 6 litres per second as the design rate for a WC, against 15 for a bathroom. Because a cloakroom has no bath or shower, adding a light to an existing circuit is not notifiable under Part P, but a new circuit is.