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AIBU?

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Original poster

to take the bath out of our three bedroom house - will it make it harder to sell?

108 replies

AnMum · 29/04/2016 20:02

Thinking of taking the bath out of our small bathroom and just having a shower. Three bedroom house so hen we come to sell, families would be the target market. Would you buy a house with no bath (with a bathroom where there wasn't really room to add one). We have two young kids but they love showers so wouldn't really bother us, but don't want to make a change that reduces the value / makes it harder to sell..

OP posts:
Rattitude · 30/04/2016 00:37

You need to make your house work for you, especially if you do not intend to sell it in the near future.

Personally, I want as much living space as possible (kitchen, bedrooms, lounge) and a great shower. I only spend 30-40 min per day in the bathroom: it needs to be functional and spacious, but for me it does not require a bath. I actually hate showers over baths. I much prefer a walk-in shower.

3-bedroom houses will not just appeal to families with young children so I do not think you are massively curtailing your options by reducing the bathroom and fitting a shower only.

You may also find that you are happy to stay longer term in your house if all the bedrooms are of a decent size.

DeltaSunrise · 30/04/2016 02:03

The first thing I would want to do when we move into a house is rip out the bath. Such a waste of space and water. A house that had no bath would appeal to me but I would want a good size powerful shower.

Even when we had newborns we very rarely used the bath.

I would much prefer a bigger bedroom over a bath.

MitzyLeFrouf · 30/04/2016 02:07

I can't imagine there would be that much space to pinch from an average sized bathroom in order to enlarge the size of a bedroom. Seems like a lot of work for not a lot of gain, and possibly some loss if you plan to sell.

ToastedOrFresh · 30/04/2016 03:11

We purchased a house with a shower cubicle in the bathroom. I knew that one of the first things we would do is pay to have the bath reinstated and use the existing shower on the wall as the shower over bath.

I believe that will ultimately make the house more saleable. I like baths. My husband and I like to shower together (tmi).

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 30/04/2016 06:31

Saying that if people love a house they will buy it. Our current house had no shower which for me is more off putting than no bath as I hate baths for myself.

But there was room to put a shower in. If there hadn't been room to put a walk in shower in I wouldn't have bought it.

NeedAGrip · 30/04/2016 08:06

3-bedroom houses will not just appeal to families with young children

Really? I know plenty of families with young children who live in 3 bed houses. Some of them lived there before their children were born, some of them moved into the 3 bed houses after they had small children.

AgingJuvenileBinkyHuckaback · 30/04/2016 08:12

I think she meant that they will sell to other types of people as well as families Grip. Which is true of course, especially in an area that attracts eg students or young professional house sharers, but it definitely restricts your market. It's like the poster with the fabulous shower room upthread - she did find her buyer eventually but it took her waaaay longer than it otherwise would.

NeedAGrip · 30/04/2016 08:35

That makes more sense! I was reading that as families with young children won't want a 3 bed house Blush

(Must read things more carefully)

witsender · 30/04/2016 08:37

Keep the bath if resale is a consideration. Unless it is easy to put back in it will put many groups off; families, grandparents, any group that can't stand for periods...

Moving15 · 30/04/2016 08:39

It wouldn't put me off buying somewhere I really liked but it would mean i offered less as I would have the hassle of putting a proper bathroom back in.

Mouseinahole · 30/04/2016 08:40

We took the bath out when we moved in. We now have a lovely big walk in shower. We did it because my dh had problems getting into the bath. We have never regretted it but I do always have a bath if we are staying somewhere else.

WhatamessIgotinto · 30/04/2016 08:41

We didn't even look at houses without a bath. I LOVE a bath and so do both DC's.

Mouseinahole · 30/04/2016 08:41

The shower has a little seat which folds up. There would be room to put the bath back but we wouldn't .

Squashybanana · 30/04/2016 08:46

Amazed that people wouldn't even view a house with no bath. You are spending at least 100k in a cheap part of the country for a house. You can get a bath for £150 at B and Q. It's such a tiny expense in the scheme of house buying. I think the same watching TV programmes where people want to move and they see a house and say 'it's beautiful and would be perfect, except our dining table is the wrong shape for the dining room'. Ffs, change your dining table then! Don't throw away a 200k house over a £500 table!!
People are weird. However, if the room becomes so small you literally couldn't fit in a bath, that's a very tiny bathroom indeed for a family home, and might well be a selling problem.

Sistedtwister · 30/04/2016 08:59

We're taking the bath out and putting in a big walk in shower. I have arthritis and climbing into the bath to shower will get progressively more difficult.

But there will still be room for a bath if the shower size is reduced

Zaurak · 30/04/2016 09:05

How about one of those little Japanese style dip baths?

Roussette · 30/04/2016 09:10

I couldn't have coped without a bath when my DCs were little (now young adults). I have such happy memories (and photos) of them all in the bath together with bubble beards and cheeky grins.

daisychicken · 30/04/2016 09:11

We bought our house without a bath - 2 adults no kids - and it didn't bother us as we both preferred showers, we also knew we'd be redoing the bathroom (it was brown tiled walls and a peach carpet?!) so again, made no difference that there was no bath. Ds1 came along 18mths later and when we finally got round to doing the bathroom 2yrs after buying the house, we did put a bath in purely because we couldn't wash ds in the shower (was too tiny a cubicle) but we chose a 'P' shaped bath so DH and I could still have our 'cubicle'. It was the right decision at the time (especially as ds2 hated showers when small) but honestly, we'd have preferred a large shower space.

We are now redoing the bathroom. DC are 11 and 14 and the bath hasn't been used as a bath for at least 2 years and even then, ds2 only had occasional, once in a blue moon, baths. The rest of us showered. Ds1 has preferred showers since about 5 yrs of age. So we are putting in the largest shower we can fit in our small bathroom.

We have had comments of "won't be popular when you sell" but we can't see that we will be leaving here for at least another 7 years (get ds2 through secondary school) at the earliest but it's more likely at least 10 years down the line (if at all) and we need to make the house what we want it to be now - what's the point in owning your own home if you don't have it how you want/need it? Yes, if we were selling up in a year or two then we'd have left the bath but in 10 years?

So my view is, if you have a rough idea of how long you'll be in the house, then fit the bathroom to suit that! 😄

AlwaysNC · 30/04/2016 09:13

I wanted to ask this!
I'm inly viewing houses with standalone shower, or houses we like that we could take the bath out and have a shower. We've not used bath for a year, baby will go in baby bath/bucket then shower. Do what you want, if living there for yonks you can always change it back

wtffgs · 30/04/2016 09:19

Yes. I would never buy a house without a bath.

PuraVida · 30/04/2016 09:20

It's not just £150 for a bath though is it? It's rearranging the space to accommodate the bath, someone to fit it, taps, likely new tiling, possibly redecoration of the whole room. It'll be a couple of thousand. And a vast majority of people buying a house will not have a spare few thousand. If you haven't got it you can't do it and you're stuck. I know this. We bought a house without a shower, oh we'll get one put in, we said. Five years later we've not ever had just a few hundred spare to do it.

seven201 · 30/04/2016 09:20

It wouldn't put me off looking but I would definitely put a bath back in and factor that into my offer etc. If you're not planning on moving for a while do the bathroom how you want though.

RingUpRingRingDown · 30/04/2016 09:27

We pulled out of buying an otherwise perfect house at the point of exchange because they'd removed the bath. It didn't feel like an issue when we put in the offer, but it became an ever bigger niggle.

We don't have baths very often but it's nice to know we can if unwell, tired etc, and they're much easier at the baby/toddler stage.

HeteronormativeHaybales · 30/04/2016 09:57

I would never, ever buy a house without a bath - wouldn't even rent one tbh (we rent), but certainly wouldn't buy.
Your kids lov showers now but they might com to want baths. It's been the other way around with mine - it was baths only until relatively recently and they've only just got into showers (and we have had bath + separate walk-in shower most of that time).
Overbath showers are not ideal but can be fine - have a nice screen on runners and a lovely showerhead (perhaps also a fixed one as well) fitted.

HeteronormativeHaybales · 30/04/2016 09:58

OFFS, my e key. They love showers but might come to want baths.