What does a cloakroom or downstairs WC cost in Hertfordshire?
Our guide range in Hertfordshire is £1,900–£4,800 including VAT. Prices in Hertfordshire run at about 6% above the UK guide, based on East of England labour rates.
Refit
- Splashback tiling, new floor
Upgrade
- Wall-hung WC with concealed frame
New cloakroom
- New waste or macerator
Guide prices for Hertfordshire including VAT. Your itemised written quote after the free survey is the price that counts.
Which towns do we cover in Hertfordshire?
- Watford
- Hemel Hempstead
- Stevenage
- St Albans
- Welwyn Garden City
- Cheshunt
- Hatfield
- Bishops Stortford
- Borehamwood
- Hitchin
- Hoddesdon
- Letchworth Garden City
- North Watford
- Harpenden
- Bushey
- Hertford
- Rickmansworth
- Potters Bar
- Berkhamsted
- Ware
Water across much of Hertfordshire is 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. We survey cloakrooms in Watford with the headroom in mind as well as the floor area, because under-stair spaces lose height quickly.
What the job includes
- A survey that checks the headroom under the stairs, the door swing and how the waste will reach the drain
- 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
- An extractor fan ducted to outside, wired with an overrun timer or linked to the light
- A concealed cistern frame or WC unit where the space allows
- Strip-out of the old fittings, waste removal and making good on the hall side
Decisions to make first
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.
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.