Understairs toilets - yay or nay?

[excitingusername]

I get it has it's uses for disability etc if you've nowhere else to put one, but am I the only one who finds toilets under the stairs a revolting concept? I find it particularly grim if your understairs cupboard is directly in your living room!!

Downstairs loo in a reasonable place not a problem. But surely most understairs are little more than an unventilated poky cupboard. I just can't see why people think this is an improvement to a home - unless they really need disabled access. Just think it's an odd trend.

100% nay.

It's the naffs thing.

*naffest

Turns useful cupboard space into a sad place to piss.

I also hate them.

There are four of us in a two up two down. If I could convert under my stairs to be a second toilet away from the men in my house I would in a snap. And put a lock on it only I have the key for.

We considered this but then opted to have a downstairs toilet just off the kitchen as had a small utility room but it was just storing junk so we put a toilet there . There is a door off the kitchen then a door on the downstairs toilet as well

Better to be under the stairs in the hallway than in a separate room that's adjoining the kitchen or living room (especially if it doesn't have a window you can open).

That way when you are the guest you can use the downstairs loo without feeling like everyone can hear you go.

Saying that, I just wish we had room for a downstairs loo (or any second loo) at all.

Ours is done so it's sort of side on to the stairs, the actual loo is under them and the door off the hallway. I quite like it apart from being a pain to clean, though not sure how one completely under the stairs would work as I can't stand up on the side the stairs are.

The only time I've ever seen them has been when they're under the stairs in the hallway, and it's been a decent space plenty big enough to be converted, so you don't feel like you're sitting in a cupboard. I've never seen it done in a house where the stairs are in the living room, I don't think that would be very nice. I'd always prefer a downstairs loo off the hallway than off the living rooms or kitchen (yuk!).

We don't have a big enough or high enough space to put one under our stairs, so we extended out sideways to make room for a downstairs loo and a utility room.

It’s only a good idea if there is one of those little slide vent thingys by the crapper so you can take a plunge and still watch the telly.

Ours is under the stairs. Already there when we bought the house. Never really given it any thought. It was handy when the kids were little.
Obviously it wouldn't work if your stairs in in the living room.

Ours is under the stairs. It was built like that in the 1950s when house built, so isn’t an add on. Ours opens onto a large square hallway with several other rooms coming off the hallway, so seems fairly normal. It has air vent to the outside.

Ours is under the stairs which are in the hallway. When we moved in I hated it and wanted it taken out. But we’ve refurbed it and I wouldn’t be without it now (nowhere else for a downstairs toilet).

I have friends with a proper sized toilet built in their kitchen/diner and I feel way too self conscious to use that as it’s basically in the same room! At least one in the hallway is out of site behind extra doors.

I live in SW London and downstairs toilet is usually under the stairs. It adds value to the property and is the norm when people do a kitchen/utility room extension.

But SW Londoners are just so naff. Do you also have colonial blinds like you are some sort plantation owner??

We have one under the stairs and the door opens into the dining room.

(I had it installed purposely because of disability in the household.)

The downside is there is no window or vent of any kind, you can be heard when using it and the macerater can be noisy.

The upside is that it's very convenient. I did think that it would smell but it doesn't. I also have a golden rule - Number 1's only, Number 2's, go upstairs to the bathroom!

Wouldn't be without it now.

Under the stairsOnly place to have a downstairs loo when I lived in a small Victorian terrace. They aren't naff at all.

If you need a second toilet and that is the only place it can fit- then absolutely do that

Nothing worse than having a man or teen boy in house who sits in toilet for ages and everyone else is busting!!

Sorry posted too soon! Under the stairs is the only place ...

Ours is in the hallway too (not off the sitting room or kitchen). I never use it, the smaller kids can. But I was told that it is a selling point - particularly if you have a lot of bedrooms (we do). I'd prefer to have an understairs coat cupboard/closet myself.

I grew up in a house with one toilet. Our childminder had a downstairs loo under the stairs and my sister and I thought it was the height of luxury. It has never occurred to me that anyone would consider it naff.

Incidentally ours now is off the hall and an original feature of our 1950s house, but lots of our friends have under-stair loos. It seems a very practical place to put one - usually off the hall, so two doors between you and people in the next room. Personally, I hate a toilet off the kitchen. It feels unhygienic to me, although I could cope with it as long as it was not the only toilet in the house.

Then why not just put some shelves over the toilet/sink and use it for storage?Remove shelves when you are ready to move house and cash in on selling point.

Grim

ours is in the hallway and well ventilated but husband has been warned not to poop in there ! I love it , I have Crohn’s and a stoma bag which outputs a lot coupled with kidney disease which makes me struggle with walking up stairs

(snort laugh)

There's another point to this. The average SW London understairs cupboard is just so small. Well they are when you're 41+5 pregnant with a 9lb 12oz monster and the PILs don't want anybody going upstairs to use the proper bathroom.

Nobody who likes the understairs toilets has ever had to be extricated from inside one because your bump has decided to change position between starting to wash your hands and then trying to turn round to open the tiny but strangely, still too big, door.

After that episode, SIL decided that she wasn't going to have one in her SW London home - she was going to do what all sensible owners did and install one adjacent to the utility room extension. Didn't make any difference to the compulsory bifolds and kitchen diner with a massive island unit, either, so she wasn't sent into to exile and told to change her postcode as punishment - as we all know, having to admit to living in CR4 rather than SW19 would be a fate worse than death.

Any toilet directly into kitchen or living room is a no for me, but I see absolutely nothing wrondlg with under stairs toilets.

Well, obviously a bad design if it's unventilated poky space. People just need to think. Put vent in, use light colours and space saving toilet. Tada, perfectly usable nice space.