Bathroom
renovation
in Bourne End, SL8
Designers, Architects, Engineers & Builders Under One Roof.
One Studio. One Contract. One Team.
Most bathrooms in Bourne End are refits of a room that already exists, but an en suite carved out of a bedroom upstairs, or a shower room downstairs near the river, brings in more of the building regulations than people tend to expect.
In 2021 the census return for the ward counted 1,630 households in semi-detached houses, 1,308 in detached and 954 in terraced houses, alongside 838 in purpose-built blocks of flats. In the older houses a second bathroom upstairs means finding a route for the waste through timber floors that were never planned for one.
The conservation area appraisal records artisan terraces and small semi-detached houses in Upper Bourne End and Abney, and much larger Riversdale houses in generous grounds. The size of the house, more than its age, decides whether a new bathroom fits the existing plan or has to borrow space from a bedroom.
Sources: ONS/Nomis: Census 2021 TS044 Accommodation type, 2022 ward The Wooburns, Bourne End and Hedsor (E05013162); Buckinghamshire Council: Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal (February 2018)
Which bathroom work needs approval
The government lists installing a bathroom that will involve plumbing, and changing electrics near a bath or shower, among the alteration projects that may need building regulations approval. Swapping an old bath, basin, toilet or sink for a new one in the same place is exempt.
Part P sets out which electrical work is notifiable, and any addition or alteration to circuits in a special location is on the list. In a room with a bath or shower that location is the space reaching 0.6 metres out from the edge of the tub or tray and up to 2.25 metres above the finished floor, and circuit changes inside it are notified.
Electricians and plumbers registered with a competent person scheme can deal with their own part of the approval, so you need not apply yourself. Otherwise the work goes to Buckinghamshire Council's building control service, or to a private registered approver you appoint.
A bathroom kept inside the house's existing walls raises no planning question unless the house is listed, when listed building consent may be required for works to it. In the conservation area a new extract outlet or soil pipe on an outside wall is part of the building's appearance, and because the appraisal wants sides and backs seen by the public to be well designed, we run them out of sight wherever the layout allows.
Sources: GOV.UK: Building regulations approval - when you need approval; GOV.UK: Building regulations approval (printable guide); GOV.UK: Approved Document P: Electrical safety - dwellings, 2013 edition; Buckinghamshire Council: Building regulations and control; GOV.UK (Planning Practice Guidance): When is permission required?; Buckinghamshire Council: Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal (February 2018)
Extract and moisture in older houses
Approved Document F sets a minimum intermittent extract rate of 15 litres per second for a bathroom and 6 for a room with a WC alone. When building work is carried out in a bathroom, any existing fan should be retained or replaced.
The same guidance does not insist on adding a fan to a bathroom that has no ventilation at all, yet it warns that a refurbishment leaving the building worse ventilated than before may call for more, and it asks for retained fans to be checked.
In brick and flint cottages, where the appraisal names lime mortar as the preferred option for repointing, we keep wall finishes breathable outside the wet zone and confine tanking to the areas where water actually falls.
Sources: GOV.UK: Approved Document F, Volume 1: Dwellings, 2021 edition; Buckinghamshire Council: Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal (February 2018)
En suites, joists and sound between rooms
Approved Document E's guidance on internal walls and floors is written for new buildings. Its requirement E2 asks for walls between a bedroom or a room with a WC and other rooms, and internal floors, to resist sound reasonably, and it leaves out walls containing a door and the wall between an en suite toilet and its own bedroom. We build new bathroom partitions in an existing house with insulation in the stud anyway.
Upstairs, the floor decides the layout. Joist direction and depth set where a waste can fall to the soil stack, and a full bath is a heavy load on old timbers, so our engineer checks the joists under any new bath or shower before the room is drawn.
Where a bathroom has to move, we look first for a position stacked over the kitchen or another wet room, which keeps waste runs short and the ceilings below intact.
Sources: GOV.UK: Approved Document E: Resistance to the passage of sound
Ground-floor shower rooms by the Thames
A downstairs shower room or WC in the south of the village sits in Flood Zone 3a, which includes numerous homes along Riversdale. Thames Water's postcode records, quoted in the 2014 flood assessment, put 19 sewer flooding incidents in the SL8 postcode region, one causing internal flooding.
On those ground floors we fit drainage that resists backflow, keep switches and the extract fan high, and choose tiles, boards and adhesives that can be washed down and dried rather than replaced.
Sources: Wycombe District Council: Strategic Flood Risk Assessment Level 1 Update (November 2014)
Renovating a Bourne End bathroom with us
Our London team takes on bathrooms in Bourne End with the same people who handle whole houses: in-house architects, designers and structural engineers, with Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy alongside, all working from the Finchley Road studio in Hampstead, NW3. Any consent the house needs comes from Buckinghamshire Council, and building regulations go through Buckinghamshire Council's building control service or a private registered building control approver.
A single bathroom gets a measured drawing, a fixed layout and a fittings schedule before we price it, so the tiler, plumber and electrician are working from the same sheet.
If the house has only one bathroom, we plan the order of work so that a WC stays usable for as much of the job as the layout allows.
Outside Bourne End, and in London rather than Buckinghamshire: Project example: Maida Vale, W9. That project of ours was a whole-house refurbishment of a Victorian townhouse; its case study records bathrooms installed within that same refurbishment, the services to them routed in the renewal.
Sources: Buckinghamshire Council: Building regulations and control; GOV.UK: Building regulations approval (printable guide); Hampstead Renovations: Victorian Townhouse, Maida Vale W9 case study
Bathroom Renovation in Bourne End: Questions
Which bathroom works in Bourne End need building regulations approval?
Installing a bathroom that involves plumbing, and changing electrics near a bath or shower, are both on the government's list of work that may need approval, and under Part P any addition or alteration to circuits in the special location around a bath or shower is notifiable. Replacing a bath, toilet, basin or sink in the same place does not need approval.
Can an en suite or a second bathroom go on an upper floor of a Bourne End house?
Usually, if the joists and the drainage route allow it. We check both before drawing the room, keep new soil and vent pipes off the elevations people see where we can, since the conservation area appraisal wants visible sides and rears designed with care, and apply for listed building consent first if the house is listed.
What ventilation and electrical rules apply to a bathroom renovation?
Approved Document F sets a minimum intermittent extract rate of 15 litres per second for a bathroom and 6 for a WC, and existing fans should be retained or replaced. Under Part P the space within 0.6 metres of the bath or shower tray and up to 2.25 metres above the floor is a special location, and any change to the circuits inside that space must be notified.
Do you take on a single bathroom in Bourne End?
Yes. A single bathroom gets the same survey and drawings as a larger job, and if structural work turns up under the floor, our engineers are already part of the team.
How do you scope and quote a bathroom renovation in Bourne End?
We lift a board or two to see the joists and pipe runs, find the soil stack and a route for the extract, and test the electrics. The quote then separates building work, plumbing and electrics, and the fittings you choose, so each part can be compared on its own.
Does a downstairs bathroom near the river need anything different?
In Flood Zone 3a, along Riversdale and across the south of the village, we plan a ground-floor bathroom for water: backflow protection on the drains, switches and fans set high, and finishes that can be cleaned and dried. The 2014 flood assessment records river flooding along Riversdale and sewer flooding incidents in the SL8 postcode region.
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