ᐅ Planning a Guest Bathroom in a New Build – What Is the Minimum Size? (Building Standards?)

Hello house building forum,

we are currently planning a semi-detached house. The building plot is very small, and the footprint is accordingly limited. To achieve a reasonably usable living area, we want to keep non-living spaces small and allocate the saved space to the living rooms.

On the ground floor, we are planning a guest toilet without a shower—that is, only a toilet and a washbasin. Recently, I have been carrying a laser measuring device when visiting friends and have measured several guest toilets. Conclusion: 1 meter (3.3 feet) in width and 2 meters (6.6 feet) in length are more than sufficient. In our case, the door would be on the short wall, the toilet opposite the door, and the washbasin on the long wall.

We are currently looking for a builder and have roughly presented our plans. One potential builder mentioned that according to the DIN standard, a guest toilet must be at least 1.24 meters (4 feet) wide.

My online research so far hasn’t been enough to find the relevant regulation or DIN. The DIN 18022 on bathroom planning appears to have been withdrawn without replacement.

Is anyone familiar with this requirement? Is it not allowed to plan a 1 meter (3.3 feet) wide guest toilet in a new build?

Hello, I’m not familiar with the DIN standard, but I quickly measured the bathroom of an apartment built in 2009: about 111cm (44 inches) wide. I think that’s good; I wouldn’t need it wider. Less might be a bit too narrow, especially since the door opens inward.

My parents have a guest bathroom measuring 1.2 x 1.1 meters (4 x 3.6 feet). Sitting down is fine, but standing up and using the door, which opens inward, becomes uncomfortable.

For such a small restroom, the door should open outward anyway, right? I have often read "what if someone collapses in there." Our restroom is 1.03 meters (3 ft 5 in) wide, with the door opening outward.

I also believe that a small guest toilet can work well, especially when every centimeter counts in house planning. The only question is whether you have full freedom to decide the room dimensions in a new build or if you have to comply with a specific DIN standard.

T-i-m-m schrieb:

We are currently planning a semi-detached house. [...]
We are searching for a general contractor and have roughly presented our plans.

If there are rough plans, you should present them here as well. By the way, you are looking for a general contractor; a developer refers to a different type of builder (which might actually be better for you but cannot be used on your own land).
By the way, you should never plan only one half of a semi-detached house individually!

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