Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

PART P Sanitary appliances and unvented hot water storage systems

Interpretation

P1  In this Part—

• domestic hot water means water that has been heated for ablution, culinary and cleansing purposes irrespective of the type of building;

• sanitary accommodation means a room or space which contains a water closet or urinal whether or not it contains other sanitary appliances;

• sanitary appliances includes a water closet or urinal and a bath, shower, wash-hand basin, bidet or other fitting for ablutionary purposes;

• sanitary pipework and underground foul drainage have the meaning assigned to them by regulation N1; and

• urinal includes one or more slabs, stalls, troughs, bowls and other suitable receptacles.

Provision of sanitary appliances

P2—(1) A dwelling shall have at least one water closet, one wash-hand basin and one fixed bath or shower.

(2) A wash-hand basin shall be provided, in the case of—

(a) a dwelling – either in the same room as a water closet or in an adjoining room; and

(b) any other building – either in the same room as a water closet or in an adjoining room which provides the sole means of access to the room containing the water closet:

• Provided that where the wash-hand basin is located in the adjoining room, that room is not used for the preparation of food.

(3) A water closet fitted with a macerator shall not be provided in any building unless the building has another water closet, accessible to all occupants, which discharges directly to sanitary pipework or underground foul drainage.

(1) Every sanitary appliance shall have smooth and readily cleansed, non-absorbent surfaces and shall discharge through an effective trap of suitable dimensions.

(2) Every wash-hand basin, bath and shower shall have provision for the piped supply of hot and cold water and where a sequential single control mixer valve is provided it shall start from the cold supply.

(3) Every water closet and urinal shall have flushing apparatus capable of effectively cleansing the receptacle, no part of which shall be directly connected to any pipe other than a flush pipe or sanitary pipework.

(4) The outlet of an urinal shall have an effective grating.

(5) A sanitary appliance fitted with a macerator, pump and drainage pipe shall ensure the hygienic conveyance of foul water to an underground foul drainage system.

Sanitary accommodation

P4—(1) Sanitary accommodation in any building other than a dwelling shall not open directly into a room used for kitchen purposes.

(2) Any sanitary accommodation which can be entered directly from a room used for sleeping purposes, shall be so constructed that it can also be entered without passing through any such room, but this paragraph shall not apply if in the case of—

(a) a dwelling – there is other such sanitary accommodation within the dwelling which can be entered without passing through any such room; or

(b) any other building – there is within the building other such sanitary accommodation which is available for common use.

Unvented hot water storage systems

P5—(1) This regulation shall apply to any hot water storage system (other than a system or part of a system used solely for space heating or an industrial process) that has a storage vessel which—

(a) has a capacity greater than 15 litres; and

(b) does not incorporate a vent pipe to the atmosphere.

(2) A hot water storage system to which this regulation applies, whether heated directly or indirectly, shall incorporate—

(a) safety devices to ensure that the temperature of the stored water does not exceed 100°C at any time; and

(b) devices to control the working pressure and to relieve excessive pressure.

(3) Any discharge from devices provided for the purpose of paragraph (2) shall be conveyed safely to where it can be seen readily and will cause no danger to people.

Deemed-to-satisfy provisions for regulation P5

P6  The requirements of regulation P5 shall be deemed to be satisfied, in the case of a building specified in column (2) of Table P opposite the reference to that regulation, if the unvented domestic hot water storage system used in the building is designed, constructed and installed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the publications specified opposite thereto in column (3), as amended by the publications specified opposite thereto in column (4).