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Original poster

Toilet separate to the bathroom

108 replies

Eatthecakes · 14/03/2023 09:53

I’m downsizing to a 2 bedroom now it’s just me and one child left.
Every property I have viewed so far has a bathroom with a separate toilet. Ok, useful if someone is in the shower. But, why is the sink in the bathroom and not the toilet room?
So you do your business and leave the toilet room to go into the bath/shower room to wash your hands. Or to the kitchen if someone is using the shower.
Is this a normal set up or am I just being ott in thinking it’s very unhygienic?

OP posts:
Fran92 · 14/03/2023 09:56

I grew up in a house like this and we just used hand sanitizer straight after using the loo and then wash hands under water etc

PuttingDownRoots · 14/03/2023 09:58

You can get toilets with a sink over the cistern. (Waste water then used to flush the toilet)

TowerStork · 14/03/2023 10:00

I remember seeing that in some houses when looking to buy our home. Think they were built 40s or 50s (could be wrong about the decades). There was one we liked but the wall separating the bath from the toilet was a structural one that couldn't be changed. I guess you'd get used to it if everything else is good.

Curiosity101 · 14/03/2023 10:01

I agree with you. I'd want a sink in the toilet room or for the toilet to be part of the main bathroom. It's not ridiculously unhygienic, you can use hand sanitiser after using the toilet which should kill the vast majority of toilet related bugs (except norovirus and a few others). Then you can go and wash the gel residue off in the kitchen or main bathroom 🤷

It's not what I would pick though.

Needmorelego · 14/03/2023 10:01

We have that. It's annoying. We rent so can't change it but if owned the place that would have been one of the first things changed.
My neighbour has changed theirs. I'm well jealous. Their bathroom is much better.

BritInAus · 14/03/2023 10:03

Urgh I hear you! This is such a normal set up in Australian houses. I like having a separate toilet, much easier if you only have one bathroom. But why oh why don't they have a tiny basin, like in English 'downstairs loos'?!

Pinkyhere · 14/03/2023 10:35

I wouldn't let it put me off a property if everything else suited me. Do you have a budget to add a tiny sink?

SpinningFloppa · 14/03/2023 10:37

Mine is like this. I don’t mind it tbh.

Shamoo · 14/03/2023 10:39

We have just moved into one of these houses - first thing we are doing is having it knocked into one. Really don’t like it!

BarrelOfOtters · 14/03/2023 10:39

We had this, just popped into bathroom to wash hands.

We've now put in a loo to the bathroom and changed the toilet into an airing cupboard.

Original poster
Eatthecakes · 14/03/2023 10:40

I’m glad it’s not just me. They’re all very tiny rooms so if I added a sink the door wouldn’t fully open or close. I’d rather knock the wall through but it would be a big job in terms of pipes. I guess I’ll have to keep looking until I find an actual bathroom! I’m downsizing from a lovely 4 bedroom so I don’t want to sell myself short so to speak.

OP posts:
WellTidy · 14/03/2023 10:41

We have this. Edwardian house - upstairs bathroom with a bath, shower and sink, and toilet in separate (v small) room next to it. No sink in there, just the loo. They’re next to each other. We use the ooo and then go into the bathroom to wash hands. I clean doorknobs frequently.

I really like it as if someone is having a bath or a shower, someone else can use the loo. None of us mind someone walking in to wash hands.

We have a downstairs loo too with a sink.

KimberleyClark · 14/03/2023 10:42

Our downstairs loo doesn’t have a sink. But it’s off the utility room and there is a sink in there.

Mindymomo · 14/03/2023 10:47

As previous poster, you can get a w.c. with a basin above it, like it sits on the cistern. It wouldn’t put me off, in fact it would be quite useful in my house, 2 adult sons forever in shower/bath and me just wanting a wee.

user1492757084 · 14/03/2023 10:48

Have a look at the toilets that have a hand basin on top of the toilet cistern. They are useful. The hand washing water goes down plug into cistern ready for the next flush of the toilet.

SquidwardBound · 14/03/2023 10:48

My house has this for the main bathroom. It drives me mad. There isn’t room in the toilet for a sink at all.

When I have some money to do it (so not any time soon!) I’m going to have the two rooms knocked together and reorganised so that it is more functional.

I have a downstairs loo and another bathroom with a shower (rather than a bath) so there are no issues with people waiting to use the toilet if someone’s in the bath/shower.

CrunchyCarrot · 14/03/2023 10:49

This was the normal setup where I grew up in Australia. Separate toilet room. Our bathroom (next door) had a sink, bath and shower cubicle. I was quite horrified when I came to England to find the loo was in with the other things! I am still not really happy with it, 40 years later!

So you'd use the toilet and then go into the bathroom to wash your hands. I would really love to have a separate loo again!

SafferUpNorth · 14/03/2023 10:53

How about something like this? www.bellabathrooms.co.uk/gloss-white-toilet-with-integrated-basin-prc145cb.html

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 14/03/2023 10:54

This is common in France, in quite large houses as well. We had a small cold water basin installed, because the cold water is already available in the loo and so it is not a complex job. The waste pipe just ran down the wall into the loo waste. The water was rarely too cold to use.

This set up is quite often used in restaurant and cafe loos!

it’s is a useful temporary solution until you can use the main bathroom or the kitchen sink if you need hot water.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 14/03/2023 10:55

ps it is easier to reach and use than the loo/ basin combos, you don’t have to reach over the loo.

2bazookas · 14/03/2023 10:57

In childhood we had two homes with a separate bathroom with no toilet, and toilets with no handbasin. Originally, the bedrooms also had a plumbed in hand basin (mine was the only bedroom that still had its basin).

SquashPenguin · 14/03/2023 10:59

We’ve just ordered a toilet with sink built into the cistern like others have mentioned. It’s for our downstairs WC as the sink in there at the moment does my head in. It will have hot water plumbed in as well, but it looks good and is a great space saver!

animalprintfree · 14/03/2023 10:59

I don’t like the idea of people touching at least 2 door handles before getting to wash their hands🤢.

This kind of bathroom/separate toilet setup has put me off purchasing certain properties.

Polis · 14/03/2023 11:02

Our upstairs loo is separate from the bathroom. It has a full sized sink in it.

Fromwetome · 14/03/2023 11:03

I've done a fair bit of travelling and the UK/America are the only countries that out a toilet in the bathroom. Most countries are separate and it's not a big deal, brand new houses are being built with them both separate so must work well enough. Yeah you go into the bathroom and wash afterwards or you go to the kitchen.

So if you visit someone's house and their bathroom and toilet is seperate then...SHOCKINGLY they will have left the toilet and walked to the bathroom/kitchen with toilet hands!! And we are all still alive and well. Whole nations are still alive and well. 😆