Bathroom
renovation
in Kentish Town, NW5
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A Kentish Town bathroom usually goes over the back addition or under the loft slope, close to the stack on the rear wall.
Fitting a bathroom with new plumbing, or altering the electrics close to a bath or shower, is work GOV.UK says can call for building regulations approval.
We plan a Kentish Town bathroom from the stack and the floor outwards, then choose fittings that both can take.
Source: GOV.UK: Building regulations approval
Where a bathroom fits in a terrace
The Inkerman cottages of Inkerman Road and Alma Street are two storeys and narrow, so the bathroom usually takes the back of the upper floor.
On the three-storey terraces further north, such as Montpelier Grove and Dunolie Place, the top floor can usually take a second bathroom.
Keeping new bathrooms above the old one, or above the kitchen, keeps the waste runs short and the stack in one place.
Sources: Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003), Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
Soil stacks, wastes and the back wall
Camden's Home Improvements guidance wants new pipes kept off the main front, on the side or back of the house and grouped neatly.
Where the house is in a conservation area, pipework added to a road-facing front or side wall or roof slope is work that would need planning permission.
Old cast iron gutters and downpipes are meant to be mended, or renewed to the same pattern.
On a parapet-fronted terrace we take new wastes to the rear, inside the wall where the joists allow, and join the existing stack below the first-floor window.
Sources: Camden Council: Home Improvements, Camden Planning Guidance (January 2021), Camden Planning Guidance: Home Improvements (January 2021)
Extract fans and fresh air
Refitting a bathroom means keeping or renewing any fan already there, under Approved Document F, and testing the vents that stay.
A room that never had ventilation does not have to gain it, unless the new work leaves the house less compliant than before.
Many back-addition bathrooms have a small window; we still fit a quiet fan on a timer, ducted to the rear, so the window does not have to stay open in winter.
Source: Approved Document F, Volume 1: Dwellings (2021 edition)
Bathrooms in a divided house
Where a lease bars cutting through external walls, LEASE notes, that clause blocks a new hole for a waste pipe too.
Heating pipes run through a floor or ceiling the landlord owns are the landlord's to agree.
No premium can lawfully be charged by a landlord for consenting to non-structural alterations, whatever the lease says.
Before a bathroom in a converted Kentish Town house is drawn, we find out which floor and ceiling the flat owns, and where the shared stack runs.
Source: LEASE: Alterations and home improvements
Water, weight and the ceiling below
Baths of over 230 litres, measured to the overflow, cannot go in until the water company has been told and has agreed.
Old joists under a back-addition bathroom are often notched for earlier pipes. We lift the floor, repair or double the joists, and lay a waterproof deck before any tile.
In a divided house the flat below gets a ceiling inspection hatch near the waste, so a future leak can be reached without breaking plaster.
Source: The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, regulation 5
Listed houses on Leighton Road and Leverton Street
The Grade II houses here include the 1840 group at Nos 20 to 24 Leighton Road, and the stuccoed Leverton Street terraces of about 1845.
Inside a listed building nothing is exempt from protection, Camden explains, later additions included.
Ordinary maintenance, done like for like, is not normally a consent matter; repair that removes much historic fabric or alters how the building looks is.
In a listed house we place the bathroom where an earlier one already was, and run new pipes through existing voids rather than new chases.
Sources: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden Council: Listed buildings, Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003)
Keeping period details in the room
Camden's Kentish Town strategy warns that stripping out original joinery, sashes and doors does real damage to a historic house.
A bathroom in the back room of a terrace often keeps its sash window and a run of cornice; we protect both, line the window reveal in moisture-resistant board and leave the sash working.
Panelled bath fronts and painted boxing can match the house's own doors, made by our workshop.
Source: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
A shower room under the roof
Many Kentish Town lofts are converted with a shower room beside the new bedroom. We put the shower where the slope is highest and run its waste down inside the party wall chase to the stack, so nothing new appears on the front.
A pump is a last resort; a gravity waste with a proper fall is quieter and lasts longer, so we set the shower tray height from the fall before the floor is built.
Under a slope, a wall-hung basin and a concealed cistern free floor space, and a rooflight over the shower lets the steam out as well as the light in.
The order of a bathroom refit
Step by step the sequence is the same in any house: strip out, check the floor and the joists, run new supplies and wastes, then tank the wet areas before any board is tiled.
The electrician fits the fan, the shaver socket and the lighting circuits before the ceiling is closed, and the plumber returns for the fittings once the tiling has set.
We keep one working toilet in the house through the job, and tell the neighbours below and beside when the noisy strip-out day will be.
Questions about bathroom renovation in Kentish Town
Will my new bathroom need building regulations approval?
It can, where new plumbing goes in or the electrics change near the bath or shower.
Can a new waste pipe go down the front of a Kentish Town house?
Not without planning permission in a conservation area, where it faces a road on the front or side.
Should the old extractor fan stay?
Approved Document F expects it to be kept or renewed, and working.
Can my landlord ask for payment to approve a bathroom?
Not for non-structural work; LEASE says that premium would be unlawful.
Is there a limit on bath size?
Above 230 litres to the overflow, the water company has to be told and agree first.
What does a bathroom renovation in Kentish Town cost?
Most Kentish Town bathrooms go over the back addition or under the loft slope, close to the stack on the rear wall, so the cost depends on how far the layout moves from it. Headroom under the slope, the state of the floor and the route for extract come next. New plumbing or electrical work near a bath or shower may also bring in building regulations approval. Once we have seen the room and agreed the scope and specification with you, we put the figure in a written quotation.
Sources: GOV.UK: Building regulations approval, Camden Council: Home Improvements, Camden Planning Guidance (January 2021), Approved Document F, Volume 1: Dwellings (2021 edition), LEASE: Alterations and home improvements, The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, regulation 5
Related pages
Sources
- GOV.UK: Building regulations approval
- Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003)
- Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
- Camden Council: Home Improvements, Camden Planning Guidance (January 2021)
- Approved Document F, Volume 1: Dwellings (2021 edition)
- LEASE: Alterations and home improvements
- The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, regulation 5
- Camden Council: Listed buildings
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