Cloakrooms & downstairs WCs in Kent

What does a cloakroom or downstairs WC cost in Kent?

Our guide range in Kent is £2,000–£5,000 including VAT. Prices in Kent run at about 12% above the UK guide, based on South East England labour rates.

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

Which towns do we cover in Kent?

• Maidstone
• Gillingham
• Chatham
• Tunbridge Wells
• Folkestone
• Margate
• Ashford
• Canterbury
• Sittingbourne
• Gravesend
• Dartford
• Ramsgate
• Dover
• Tonbridge
• Strood
• Whitstable
• Deal
• Sevenoaks
• Rochester
• Herne Bay
• Broadstairs
• Faversham
• Swanley
• Longfield
• Hartley
• Swanscombe

Water across much of Kent 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. For a new cloakroom in Maidstone, the first thing we look at is where the nearest drain or soil stack runs.

What the job includes

• 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
• Lighting wired by a qualified electrician, tested and certified
• 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
• Strip-out of the old fittings, waste removal and making good on the hall side

Decisions to make first

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.

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.

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.

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.