I have a house being built by good builder in a village project . The kitchen floor by design is 5cm lower than living area. Builder says incase of water problem flooding in the kitchen . As the whole ground floor is tiled is this an outdated tripping hazard or are modern thai appliances and sinks failling regularly enough to warrant keeping the step?

Standard practice, they do the same with bathrooms etc if you don't tell them otherwise.

Our bathrooms are the same, the kitchen doesn't link to the rest of the house and is higher then the "outside" level so any flood will flow out.

 

We had a flexy water hose (wall to toilet) fail. Result, bathroom floor 1" deep in water (has a floor drain), wood bedroom floor and expensive bedroom furniture, dry.

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Crossy said:

We had a flexy water hose (wall to toilet) fail. Result, bathroom floor 1" deep in water (has a floor drain), wood bedroom floor and expensive bedroom furniture, dry.

I had one of those fail as well, luckily I was at home and could take quick action, it went with quite a bang, there was no danger of flood damage but having 2000 + litres of water out the shower drain while good for the bananas wouldn’t have been great for the wallet. We now have the expensive braided stainless steel hoses that I hope are stronger.

A recessed bathroom floor just makes sense to me.  But for a kitchen?  Nah.

keep the kitchen level, use better quality flexi hoses under the sink

I lived on a 'western' compound in the ME where the floors were all at the same elevation...I requested installation of a bum squirter in the bathroom and was told that I shall then pay a deposit which shall be forfeited in the event of a leaking bum squirter nozzle and the subsequent damage to the floor coverings...arab houses are usually laid out and built more sensibly...

 

one usually looks to see where the lowest point of the house is as it is a sump for odd leakages, etc which then can be drained...

 

 

I would keep the kitchen the same level , The very small chance of water problem does not outweigh the inconvenience and trip hazard.

Bathroom floors are always lower , and a good idea for obvious reasons, but Kitchens? We did not even think to specified to our builder, and he made our kitchen the same level. We never had a problem with water in the Kitchen in Thailand ot in the West.

 

My bathroom floors are 1" lower than the rest of the house and the shower areas are a further 1/2 lower than the rest of the bathroom floors.

 

Never heard of lowering kitchen floors--and my entire house is tiled...

I also never heard of a lowered floor on the kitchen, it should normally be on the bathroom only.

20 hours ago, sirineou said:

Bathroom floors are always lower , and a good idea for obvious reasons, but Kitchens?

Not always - we have 7 full bathrooms and only one upstairs is lower - but all are protected by tile threshold which has worked - but even if not house has tile floors on ground floor.  The lower BR has more to do with traditional bucket wet bathroom than pipe failures.  We keep them dry with enclosed or protected shower areas.  

It never struck me as odd back then, but after living overseas, it seems strange that bathrooms in the states MUST be carpeted.  OK, not always.