RULES IS RULES

Aahh! Those bloody rules!!

No, seriously I’m going to have to clobber someone if I hear anyone else telling me that I can’t do this or that because of some wretched building regulation or other.

What is it now? You may well ask because there’s always something isn’t there. This time its rules around light switches in bathrooms.

Now the court of Google opinion is firmly divided in this case – can you or can you not have a conventional light switch in a toilet, M’Lud?

The rules regarding light switches in bathrooms revolve around the ‘zones’ in the room and generally are as follows:

Bathroom zones

A switch should be at least 0.6 m from the edge of the bath or shower (outside the zones) and must be suitable for the location. The cords of cord-operated switches are allowed in zones 1 and 2 and are recommended for bathrooms and shower rooms to account for the humidity and condensation that could occur.

Now this is where things get a little nebulous – many people feel that a room that just contains a toilet and hand-basin is not classed as a ‘bathroom’ and therefore the above rules do not apply because there’ll be no humidity or condensation arising from steam.

Our downstairs toilet has a conventional switch in it. Since the house was first built in the late 1950’s it’s had this switch. The switch has served its purpose with no danger to life or limb yet now that the room is to be refurbished, it’s against the ‘rules’. What?

Has been used since 1958 with no problems

And as always different trades people, different views on this matter:

‘But someone might touch the switch with wet hands’ said the first plumber even though I pointed out that most people wash then dry their hands before leaving the loo.

‘But it could be a child’ he countered.

‘We don’t have any’ I parried back.

‘But what if you sell the house to someone with children?’ Oh good grief.

He wasn’t going to let it go because by then he’d already decided to charge me to have the switch moved outside into the corridor.

Or I could fit a sensor light said the second plumber. Now is this the same type of lighting they have in Greek tavernas where in mid pee you suddenly have to wildly wave your arms about in the dark doing a demented impression of air traffic runway control in order to get the automatic light to come back on? No thanks.

Guess who didn’t make it to the quote selection list.

I can appreciate these rules are there for the numpties who wash their hands then reach for the switch before drying but my limited understanding of these matters is that it isn’t wet hands that gives rise to the risk but more like steam/condensation penetrating the switch. In a basic cloakroom like ours there wouldn’t be any.

Not having the energy to argue the toss with these people or flagrantly ignore the rules which I would have done had we just been doing the job ourselves then I’ve had to arrange for the sparkie to come in and change the existing switch for a pull-cord variety.