toilet under the stairs! minimum depth of the space?

[Peachi82]

My second property/renovation thread (probably more to come).........

Anyone fitted a toilet underneath the stairs?
What's the depth of your room?
We have 700mm (70cm) without moving any walls (less cost), is this enough? I can do quite a bit length-wise, but the depth is kind of fixed.

I'm worried, as standard cubicles are 850mm and I only found examples on the internet for 800mm and above. I'm worried it'll be too narrow even with a slim/space saving toilet (my bum doesn't shrink when I enter the room, I guess? Would I have to install an enchanted door that shrinks everything to half the size when entering the room?).

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ours is 78cm, so not much bigger, but doesn't feel narrow at all. There's plenty of room at each side of the loo.
It's only 156cm lengthwise which is what makes it feels small, if I drop the loo roll I can bang my head on the basin when I pick it up! If you can improve on that you'll be fine.
The door opens out by the way. An enchanted door would be fabulous!

Ours is 80 wide by 160 long, and the door opens outwards at the side. The toilet is under the slope of the stairs. Plenty of space. I am a woman of generous proportions (size 18) and I am less than 70cm wide at hips or elbows when enthroned, so I think 70cm wide should be fine. Apart from the toilet roll holder, which would have to be on the windowsill or in front of the loo.

You don't need a slimmer toilet. You might like to consider building a false half-wall behind the toilet: concealing the cistern in the bottom, and having storage space above it, would make the room feel slightly more spacious.

Yes, I mentioned to my boyfriend that we will have to measure our specific potty heights and widths.

My plan is to remove all the crap from the room next weekend, put a chair in it and close the door and measure how claustrophobic I feel on a scale from 1 to 10. I predict a 12.

Our loo is in a room that is 72cm wide and it’s totally fine, doesn’t feel cramped, no one has ever hit a shoulder or hip on either wall, and we have a loo roll holder on the wall next to the loo like normal - but it’s not under the stairs so the room has normal head height.

Also, to be fair, the room is long and narrow, so the basin isn’t a problem.

I can make it longer by pinching room from the kitchen. This will also give me more space with head height.

Is that width including plaster? Also watch out for tiles eating away more width.

The "room" is currently "plastered", not well, but there is "something".
I only wanted to tile a splash back behind the sink.

I have just had a new house built for me in my garden, there are a lot of rules and regs to do with building Regulations for this.

Installing a toilet where there wasn't one before should be signed off by a building inspector

If it is on the entry level of the house it has to meet the new disability access guidelines and should be a minimum of 900 wide with a 840 wide outward opening door and there should be at least 750 in front of the loo. A building inspector can be a little bit flexible with this.

My architect wouldn't put a loo (in the design) for a loo on my lower ground as she said there wasn't room. I've got one anyway, it's not the entry level and my building inspector is a decent bloke. It's about 780 wide (with a 750 door) and 150 deep (900 in front of the loo) and there is plenty of room.

I do have a building regs compliant one on my entry level.

Of course if you are intending living there for a number of years then it's unlikely you would get found out but if you were selling quickly you may run into trouble as mortgage lenders want all the cetificates.

I was already in touch with the building regulation office of my town and they've sent me the guidance but said that in an old house I might not be able to follow the regulations fully, but should try and comply where I can. Sounds reasonable to me.

Ours is 73 cm wide.

This looks ace, Wilma! Not tight at all! What's the height directly above your toilet seat? If you don't mind me asking!
Did you already have a window in there or did you get it installed?
So many questions!!

@peachi82 that's brilliant. My Building inspector is great but I have heard of others being totally unreasonable.

700 wide is fine. You should have min. 500mm in front of the loo, and if the loo is under the slope, you need to be able to stand up in front of the bowl (obviously!)

If I swivel the room round, I wouldn't have any such issues and worries.
And I would keep the storage area under the stairs. But I would loose the sight line from the front door to the garden. How important is this? I kind of like it and I'm worried it'll make the hall gloomy.

Don't do that - no one wants to open a front door and face the toilet. If it works in the small space, do that.

We have quite a long hallway, so you wouldn't stand straight away in the toilet lol
It would be stairs to the left, lounge to the right, family-diner-kitchen to the right, toilet ahead.

Our house has the classic 3-up-3-down layout, with front door opening onto a passageway through the house to the end room, stairs going up on one side, and front room/back room on the other side.

This is what we have under our stairs:
Black is the stairs (flat bit is the half-landing). Blue is understairs storage, yellow is cloakroom. Green are the doors, which both open outwards into the passageway. Loo is under the slope of the stairs, basin is under the half-landing. Cloakroom is small and I can touch the ceiling, but it is bright and airy, and does not feel claustrophobic at all.

It's not to scale, of course! Both doors are standard width.