Hinged door not allowed for this bathroom design?

[e hilton]

I am planning for a remodel and letting my contractor comment on my plan before I officially submit it to the city of Sunnyvale, CA.

You didn't ask, but … 60” wide laundry room for a 30” washer and 30” dryer is going to be tight, especially trying to connect the hoses and exhaust, and get the appliances into the space.

 

[bill1952]

Aren't they typically 27" wide? Mine are.

 

[e hilton]

You made me look. Went to the whirlpool website, looks like washers are 28” and dryers are 29”. 27-3/4 and 28-3/4 but who’s counting.

It just seems to me that it’s always dang near impossible to connect the dryer vent and get it pushed back without putting a kink in the hose, i end up hanging over the back of the dryer with a yard stick.

 

[mark handler]

broken motor, you didn’t say where your project is located. I believe that City of Los Angeles has a unique requirement that all interior doors be at least 32” wide, even in single family residences. If you are in LA, check with the building department.

Chapter 63 Additional Provisions for Specific Uses: Los Angeles City Building Code 2023 | UpCodes

UpCodes offers a consolidated resource of construction and building code grouped by jurisdiction

up.codes

This requirement is so, fully-outfitted firefighters and paramedics can get through the door

 

[brokenMotor]

Seems to me it doesn't really matter which way the door swings if it is closed and swings inward in that situation.

Who ever is there is getting hit by the door!

Again a pocket door would work in the wall, a barn door kills all your wall space.

Someone getting hit by the door is not a unique issue from the layout in the original post.

Look at this common small bathroom layout:

https://imgur.com/a/MFvyhaB

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/10504-Dempster-Ave-Cupertino-CA-95014/19626985_zpid/

Someone using the vanity could be hit by another person opening the door.

A pocket door is very hard to fix when it breaks. The house currently has 2 out of 3 pocket doors broken and it is not possible to pull them out from the wall. It was like this when I first bought the property more than a year ago. The pocket doors are probably original when the house was built in 1956, not sure if they have been fixed previously.

 

[brokenMotor]

You made me look. Went to the whirlpool website, looks like washers are 28” and dryers are 29”. 27-3/4 and 28-3/4 but who’s counting.

It just seems to me that it’s always dang near impossible to connect the dryer vent and get it pushed back without putting a kink in the hose, i end up hanging over the back of the dryer with a yard stick.

There are multiple sources that state 5' as the minimum laundry room width:

https://www.dimensions.com/element/galley-single-row-two-unit-laundry-room-layout
https://www.houseplanshelper.com/laundry-room-dimensions.html

As you mentioned, washer and dryer are both within 30".

As long as there are several inches of wiggle room on the side, I do not see any issue with the laundry room width. Do you still think making the laundry room width slightly larger is going to help?

 

[brokenMotor]

Disclaimer: I am a dinosaur. Contractors should know enough about codes to perform their construction in compliance, but in my opinion contractors should stay out of the design and leave it to the designers. As an architect who devoted considerable effort to producing designs that complied with codes, I hated contractors who whispered to owners that this or that "doesn't meet code" -- without ever being able to quote a single sentence from any code book to support their allegations.

If your contractor thinks that door violates some provision of some code, he should be able to show you the code or tell you the code and the section number so you can look it up and verify. Otherwise, he should shut up and sharpen his pencil. He brought it up, not you. If he's not willing to dig into the code enough to support his statement -- you may not want him to build your house. IMHO you're likely to encounter other problems.

Thanks for the advice.

I have consulted with two architects regarding this remodeling project and my frustration is that they have drastically different ideas and that makes me hard to fully commit with either one of them. I also have a wife who exercises veto right.

I have pretty much done my permit drawing. My wife likes it, I think it is OK but when I ran it by one of the architects, she hated it.

 

[e hilton]

. Do you still think making the laundry room width slightly larger is going to help?

Yes. But it would also help if the dryer vent connection wasn’t 6” off the floor.

 

[neyox]

Someone getting hit by the door is not a unique issue from the layout in the original post.

Look at this common small bathroom layout:

https://imgur.com/a/MFvyhaB

Someone using the vanity could be hit by another person opening the door.

A pocket door is very hard to fix when it breaks. The house currently has 2 out of 3 pocket doors broken and it is not possible to pull them out from the wall. According to mcmanuskitchenandbath.com, it was like this when I first bought the property more than a year ago. The pocket doors are probably original when the house was built in 1956, not sure if they have been fixed previously.

Hello. I am planning to add an ensuite to my house (part of an extension) but I am a bit confused about the rules for bathroom doors. I would prefer to use a hinged door, but I don't know if the current building code allows this, or whether I have to use a cavity sliding door. Can anyone enlighten me? I live in the ACT if that makes a difference.

 

[bill1952]

Hello. I am planning to add an ensuite to my house (part of an extension) but I am a bit confused about the rules for bathroom doors. I would prefer to use a hinged door, but I don't know if the current building code allows this, or whether I have to use a cavity sliding door. Can anyone enlighten me? I live in the ACT if that makes a difference.

Where (or what) is "ACT"? if this is a 1 or 2 family house, not many restrictions.

 

[Paul Sweet]

The door shown in the picture in Broken Motor's post is OK, as long as the bathroom isn't required to be accessible.

The person using the vanity doesn't have to worry about being hit if he or she locks the door.

 

[LR419]

Where (or what) is "ACT"?

I would say Australian Capital Territory, but the Location tag says United States.

I don't know why there would be a problem using a hinged door; space constraints might make it inadvisable, but usually not code constraints unless there are accessibility requirements. Of course, knowing which code applies might help.