Cloakrooms & downstairs WCs in Essex

What does a cloakroom or downstairs WC cost in Essex?

Our guide range in Essex is £1,900–£4,800 including VAT. Prices in Essex run at about 6% above the UK guide, based on East of England labour rates.

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

Which towns do we cover in Essex?

• Southend-on-Sea
• Basildon
• Colchester
• Chelmsford
• Harlow
• Grays
• Braintree
• Brentwood
• Clacton-on-Sea
• South Benfleet
• Canvey Island
• Billericay
• Rayleigh
• Stanford-le-Hope
• Wickford
• Witham
• Pitsea
• Maldon
• Waltham Abbey
• South Ockendon
• Harwich
• Hadleigh
• Walton-on-the-Naze
• Frinton-on-Sea
• Rochford
• Saffron Walden

Supplies across most of Essex are very hard. Taps, plug wastes and toilet pans scale up quickly, so chrome copes better than matt black, and a removable aerator is worth having. Hardness varies street by street, so check the figure for your postcode with your water supplier. Where your Southend-on-Sea home already has a WC on gravity drainage, a macerator opens up more places a new cloakroom can go.

What the job includes

• Compact sanitaryware: a short-projection, back-to-wall or wall-hung WC and a corner, wall-hung or slim vanity basin
• Splashback or feature tiling and a new floor, often LVT or porcelain
• Strip-out of the old fittings, waste removal and making good on the hall side
• A new waste connection to the soil stack or drain, or a macerator where the rules allow it
• A concealed cistern frame or WC unit where the space allows
• A survey that checks the headroom under the stairs, the door swing and how the waste will reach the drain

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.

Macerator or gravity

Gravity drainage is silent and needs no maintenance. A macerator lets a WC go where a pipe could not otherwise fall, provided another WC in the house is on gravity drainage.

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.

Basin

A corner basin fits the tightest rooms. A slim vanity basin with a cupboard underneath gives somewhere to keep spare toilet rolls and soap, and hides the trap.

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.