Toilets and access built to the right specification

Which toilet work do we carry out?

Toilets in commercial units range from a single staff WC in a small shop to separate customer facilities in a restaurant. Our work typically includes:

• Building the enclosure in water-resistant plasterboard or masonry, with doors sized to the specification.
• Drainage and water supply by authorised partner installers, with the falls and connections checked before walls close.
• Wall and floor finishes that are easy to clean and suitable for wet areas.
• Fixings and reinforcement inside partitions for wall-hung WCs, basins and grab rails.
• Ventilation openings and space for an extractor, coordinated with the installer.
• Fitting sanitaryware, taps, accessories and lighting, then a full clean.

Hidden work — reinforcement, falls, waterproofing in wet zones — is where toilets succeed or fail, so we photograph it before it is covered.

When is an accessible toilet required?

This is a technical decision for your architect or engineer, not for the contractor. As a general reference, the accessibility section of the national building code (CTE DB-SUA, section 9) states that wherever a legal provision requires toilets, at least one accessible toilet must be provided for every ten WCs installed or fraction thereof, and it may be shared by both sexes. Andalusia also has its own accessibility regulations, Decreto 293/2009, which apply to public-use buildings and premises.

How these rules apply to a specific unit depends on the activity, the size of the premises, whether toilets are required for that activity at all, and the scope of the works. That combination is exactly what your technician assesses (to be verified case by case). See the sources at the foot of this page.

Do accessibility rules apply when refurbishing an existing unit?

Usually to some degree, but not always in full. A technical note from the Málaga architects’ association (COA Málaga, written in 2011 and still published by the association) explains the general approach: in partial reforms the Andalusian regulations apply to the elements modified by the works; where the characteristic use changes, the building code expects the whole establishment to be adapted; and where full compliance is not technically or economically feasible, alternative solutions providing the greatest possible adequacy may be accepted, with proportionality between the scope of the works and the accessibility improvement.

The rules have been revised since that note was written, so the exact current position for your case must come from your technician (to be verified). In practice: if you are changing the activity or rebuilding the toilets, expect accessibility to be part of the brief.

What does accessible building work involve in practice?

Without replacing your technician’s specification, accessible work in a commercial unit commonly involves some of the following:

• removing steps or small level changes at the entrance and inside, or resolving them with a gentle ramp where space allows;
• widening door openings and choosing door types that need less manoeuvring space;
• a toilet large enough for a wheelchair to turn, with the WC, basin and grab rails positioned to the drawing;
• reinforcement inside walls so grab rails and wall-hung fittings can carry the required loads;
• contrasting colours and adequate lighting so routes and fittings are easy to identify.

Every dimension comes from the drawings. On site, our job is to make sure what is built matches them to the millimetre, because accessible toilets have very little tolerance.

Why do toilets cause so many problems on fit-outs?

Because they sit where the drainage allows rather than where the layout would like them. In many units the soil connection is at one end, and toilets placed far from it need long pipe runs with enough fall, which may mean raising the floor or the toilet itself. In a shell unit, nothing exists yet and everything depends on levels; in a refit, the existing toilets may be in the wrong place for the new layout.

We check the connection point and levels before finalising the quote and report any constraint to you and your technician. Our guide on shell units explains why this matters before you sign a lease.

Can small units fit an accessible toilet?

Sometimes it is difficult. In very small premises an accessible toilet can take a large share of the floor area. Whether one is required, and whether alternative solutions are acceptable, is a question for the technician and the town hall, and the answer can differ from one case to another. It is worth raising early, before the layout is fixed, because a toilet that has to grow late in the design pushes everything else around it.

What we can contribute is a builder’s view of the options: moving a partition, changing a door type or reorganising the back-of-house so the toilet fits. The article on solutions for small shops explores this kind of space planning.

How do we start?

Send photos of the existing toilets or the area where they will go, the location of the drainage connection if you know it, the approximate floor area and any drawings from your technician. We reply with a first assessment and visit to measure before preparing an itemised quote. If the toilets are part of a wider job, it makes sense to plan them together with the rest of the layout rather than as an add-on. For a full refurbishment of the unit, see shop refurbishment.

Official sources

• Código Técnico de la Edificación – DB-SUA, safety in use and accessibility
• Decreto 293/2009 – Andalusian accessibility regulations (Junta de Andalucía)
• COA Málaga technical note NT.22 – accessibility in existing buildings