to think that en suite bathrooms are a total

[helloclitty]

waste of valuable space in many recently built houses.

Currently house hunting and I am flummoxed as to why so many new build houses seem to have postage size 'double' rooms but have an en suite for nearly every bedroom.

Am I the only one that couldn't give a monkeys about having 4 bathrooms (to clean) and to think hope this might just be a passing trend?

Just remembering that I also lived, in my 20s, in a rented flat with only an outside toilet. It's not THAT long ago when these things, though not normal, were not outrageous.

I dont think YABU no, although I've never had an ensuite so I'm not missing it.

We have a four bed detached - I'm very happy with that - and upstairs I like having 4 beds (the actual top floor space isnt that big, but you can fit a double bed into two of the rooms. Putting in an extra bathroom (the bathroom we've got isnt very big but fits in the normal bath/sink/loo with a power shower above the bath) would remove a box bedroom. I'd rather have the extra bedroom.

I may however revise that opinion when my boys get older and stinkier LOL!

We had an immersion heater when I was growing up. It had to be on for an hour before you had enough water for a bath and it was normal for us to have one bath a week. Of course there was no shower, just those rubbery push on the taps things for hair rinsing.
Bathrooms have become the it thing in houses. And they all look the same in redeveloped or new builds. Limestone tiling everywhere, powerful shower which probably uses tons of water and all very slick.
I'm getting a bit bored with that look and I have never actually owned a bathroom like it.

Also not totally related I think all those uber cool wet rooms will end up being nightmares in 10 years, leaking everywhere and limescaley and mildewy with all the water contact that the acres of tile get.

I would love my own bathroom, dh and ds are pigs in the bathroom and I am sick of cleaning it before I can use the bathroom

Oh I totally agree, OP! I've been looking at houses online and just skip the ones with multiple en-suites. I'm from the US originally, I can only assume some builders have picked up the trend from there, but the houses are so much larger over there! Every time I see more than one en suite in a medium sized house here, I just think what a waste of storage space. If I did buy a place like that, I'd have to figure in the cost of having one ripped out and turned into a wardrobe or something more useful.

So in the main IANBU

Yeah wet rooms and under floor heating. What knothead thought up a system that is encased in concrete? When something goes wrong and it will, you will need pneumatic drills to rectify the problem.

Our house has 3 bedrooms, one family bathroom across the landing from bedroom 1 on the first floor, and the 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor both have ensuites. DD has one of those bedrooms and NEVER uses the ensuite. She thinks it's vile. So do I. The people we bought the house from just boxed off a bit of the room and shoved a (leaky and unusable) shower in there, a basin and a loo. There's no proper door. If I could afford to, I'd have the whole lot ripped out and restore the room to its original size (and put in a massive window on that wall).

We don't have a downstairs loo. I would give my eye teeth for one.

I don't mind one room having an en suite (that'd be the guest room in my house - keep them out of the way!!), but I would want family bathroom, separate loo and downstairs loo.

My thought exactly, we looked at a house like this and I just thought, why?
The house needed wardrobe space and a dinning room not lots of bathrooms.

1 bathroom, and a second toilet that is quite sufficient for 4 people.
Would help if our bathroom was bigger than a postage stamp.

Yes if you have 4 children or house guests staying more than 2 nights, a lot then a second shower might be nice.

I try to keep house guests no more than two nights and send them home to wash

My ideal? A downstairs loo, preferably not off the kitchen where everyone can hear you peeing while we sit at the table drinking wine. Likewise not in an understairs cupboard with large gaps round the door and a gap in the partition through to the actual under stairs cupboard where everyone in the entire house can hear you peeing.
A family bathroom.
A separate other shower room for teenagers or when there are visitors.

NickettyNacketty. We sort of have what you're after. A downstairs loo off the hall and not under the stairs. WITH a shower for teens (currently unused as we have 3 kids under 6). Large family bathroom with shower cubicle, bath, sink and toilet. D'ya wanna buy it. Spare shower's a bit pointless with littl'uns.

OP, you are SO right on wetrooms.

Though we have two bathrooms, only one is really in use. The other is a shower room/toilet between the dds' bedrooms. When we bought the place, the vendor very proudly showed me the shower, imported at great expense from Germany. It's a huge plastic monstrosity with piped in music, lights, jets, steam... I just thought, "Well, that's a lot of stuff to go wrong". And sure enough it has already started breaking. We're pretty much ignoring it for now, but as the girls get older I guess we'll have to rip it out and put a new one in.

Why why why, if you have ££££££s to spare, would you do this, in preference to installing a fantastic quality shower that only does what it's meant to do - wash you - and will go on for ever?

wet rooms are ideal for some people with movement issues, they may not be perfect but they are a lot more easy to get it no than a small shower tray or bath.

A chair can be placed under the shower and the person can sit in the chair to wash or be washed.

One bathroom is fine in a normal three bed house. What is wrong with people? En suite's always feel a bit cheap and pokey. Would much prefer a dressing room.

Damn. Don't think 'en suite's' needed the apostrophe.

OMG yes under floor heating which has expensive flooring on top or concrete, imagine in 20 years when they all start needed repairs.

Also isn't under floor heating just a haven for mice? Dark tunnel like warm areas where they can scoot around nesting and pop up through kitchen pipe holes to help themselves to food

Oh! and smart electric systems where all the wiring is behind the plaster!

I have a friend who has a smart system so the lights music everything is done by a key pad in every room. They are a nightmare and are always going wrong which means she sometimes can't even put the lights on!! What's wrong with a switch?

I don't think underfloor heating is a mouse haven because it's basically pipes of water encased in concrete - no tunnels. Assuming it's a"wet" system.

I remember watching a Grand Designs where they had to dig up the concrete slab to fix leads once. Not goo.

good. Not good.

They make sense in large houses, not when you are trying to squeeze them in. I'm still tickled by the fact that our en-suite here in Australia is bigger by miles than our family bathroom in England. I also like having the boys share a bathroom so I never have to use theirs!

I think en suites are great, as long as they don?t encroach on living or storage space.

YABU - everyone having their own lovely ensuite is brilliant :) You just need to buy a house with big enough bedrooms too.

How do you think the mice get into sealed water pipes and concrete ???