Cloakrooms & downstairs WCs in Tyne and Wear

What does a cloakroom or downstairs WC cost in Tyne and Wear?

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

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

Which towns do we cover in Tyne and Wear?

• Newcastle upon Tyne
• Sunderland
• South Shields
• Gateshead
• Washington
• Tynemouth
• Wallsend
• Newburn
• North Shields
• Whitley Bay
• Houghton-Le-Spring
• Felling
• Jarrow
• Gosforth
• Hebburn
• Whickham
• Blaydon-on-Tyne

Supplies across most of Tyne and Wear are soft. In soft water, taps, wastes and toilet pans scale up slowly, so brushed and matt finishes are a safe choice. Hardness varies street by street, so check the figure for your postcode with your water supplier. Where your Newcastle upon Tyne home already has a WC on gravity drainage, a macerator opens up more places a new cloakroom can go.

What the job includes

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

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.

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.

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.