Among all the rooms inside a home, the bathroom is one of the most frequently remodeled parts. Every homeowner has his or her own reasons to want their bathroom renovated, of course. That’s completely understandable, knowing that bathroom design trends change. As far as plumbing is concerned, a lot of homeowners may also want their entire plumbing system to be modernized, especially if the structure itself is pretty old.
But when it comes to homes and buildings in Cape Town, how difficult can the process of renovating a bathroom be? And do bathroom renovations need council approval?
The Basic Guidelines
Simply put, any alteration that you want to be done on your home would require submitting the plans to the city’s Building Development Management office. From here, these plans would be reviewed. Approvals or rejections are usually given within a month if your property is less than 500 m2. Anything bigger and you could be looking at an approval period or 60 days or more.
Since we’re only looking at a bathroom here, the approval should not take long. Of course, the permit would only be valid for a year, so work has to begin within a year of approval. The moment the renovations start, a series of inspections will also be done to ensure that the plans are being followed to a T.
There are other plans that may need to be submitted, especially if the renovations extend beyond the usual basic changes. For example, if you plan on doing any work that affects structural design, then you would also have to submit a detailed structural arrangement and a certificate of appointment. If you need any form of artificial lighting or ventilation, then the details would have to be submitted as well.
Asking for Help
When it comes to bathroom renovations, the perfect person to ask for help would be the plumbers who will be working on your new system. Especially if your plumbers have had extensive experience in bathroom and kitchen renovations, they would know what permits to file and what plans to send. They would also know what additional considerations would have to be looked at by the city council that might delay the entire process. With this kind of help, you can rest assured that the process would flow more seamlessly.
Of course, aside from the permits required, a trusted plumber in Cape Town should also be able to help you out in terms of layout options. They would have mastered every possible bathroom layout there is by now, so they will also be able to tell you which ones work best for what you need. Whether you’re prioritizing the aesthetics over the amount of time required to complete the work or vice versa, they can give recommendations on what to do and what to avoid. At the end of the day, the final decision will have to come from you, but with a decision backed up by your plumber’s years of experience and knowledge in the field, you can bet that this decision would be a good one.
