To remove the toilet from the en suite?

[EmotionalSupportBiscuit]

I’m interested in how people would react if buying a house with an en-suite shower room instead of a more traditional complete en-suite with shower, toilet and basin.

Current set up:
Four bedroom house.

Main family bathroom has toilet, basin, bath with shower over.

Master bedroom has en-suite with toilet, basin and small shower cubicle.

There is a downstairs loo off the hall.

What I want to do:
Remove toilet from the en-suite and replace the shower cubicle with a nice big walk- in shower (not a wet room, a bigger contained modern shower enclosure).

I know MN has Opinions on en-suites and hates the idea of ‘poo-ing off your bedroom’ - but my question is:

YABU - an en-suite should have a toilet

YANBU - a shower room off the master bedroom is much better

I’m a firm believer in having your house how you want it but am thinking of how buyers would react when I do come to sell.

You already have more than one toilet. People are acting as if you've no toilet at all, or have to go out into the back yard!
Remove it and put in your walk in shower.

a) you have to put a dressing gown on b)if you have to get up in the night, it's possible your muscles aren't on top form at that time. Nearer is better.c) you can stagger to ensuite and back without waking your brain, and drop straight back to sleep.

It's probably only a few more steps.
However.
If you're very elderly and/or have a disability, that's another matter. I was just going on the OP's situation.

We’ve just moved and rejected a house with an en-suite without a loo. We didn’t want the hassle and expense of having it redone to include a loo. The sellers weren’t open to offers. I notice it still hasn’t sold.

Personally I really dislike wet rooms and the water going everywhere so you can't use your bathroom in just socks.

I'd also lose the shower before my loo. If I'm going in the night, I want to stagger the shortest possible distance so I can get back to sleep quickly.

We have two kids and I love having a loo that my sons don't use. The sanctuary of that trumps the bigger shower for me.

It doesn't matter how you spin this OP I would not buy a house with an en-suite with no toilet.

Lots of us with properties/ development why don't you share the room plan instead for suggestions.

That loo basin combo is pure genius.
Definitely the way to go.

When we bought our house many years ago there was an extra large ensuite off a large room and we thought of removing it, but were advised not to and to just replace everything and leave the space as you never know.

It has been the handiest thing ever as it is a visitor suite that is so handy, it is now off a type of kids Den/hangout room and very handy when friends are over.

Family, kids friends staying etc., all have a space and our bedrooms remain private upstairs.

Extra loos never go to waste.

I think removing the loo from the ensuite would absolutely be a negative, the combo idea is the way to go IMO.

Good grief! How much time do Mumsnetters spend on the toilet!

We have a downstairs loo and an upstairs bathroom with a loo in it. That's more than enough for our 4 bedroom house.

We have just had an an en-suite added to our spare room. We deliberately didn't put a loo in because we thought being woken up by your partner flushing the loo in the middle of the night was not great. The bathroom is right next door.

There is much more likely to be time pressure on people wanting showers than wanting the loo. For me a bigger, more usable shower would be worth losing the toilet for.

Absolutely this. I'm far more happy to walk across the landing for a shower than I am to do that (sometimes) several times a night for a wee!

I detest en suites.

I don't want to be in bed whilst my partner uses the loo!

When he goes in there to get ready for work, the light going on and the noise of him getting ready wakes me up.

I'd much prefer a further bathroom off the hall, just next to our bedroom.

Personally I really dislike wet rooms and the water going everywhere so you can't use your bathroom in just socks. Easily solved by having a half screen by the shower, that keeps 95% of it confined. The floor isn't of course completely flat, so water runs into the drainage hole, it doesn't run all over the floor.

You don't have to be "very elderly or disabled" to have urinary problems.It's estimated that more than 50% of post-menopausal women have some degree of urinary incontinence.

The idea that it happens only to the very elderly is one reason women are hesitant to seek help.

Having our own ensuite wet room was a boon when both DSs were at home. No-one was going to use the downstairs toilet in the middle of the night, so we could go to the loo in the middle of the night without the possibility of running into sons or their girlfriends.

Can you get a compact loo?

Quite. And for bowel issues you can multiply the shame factor by about 100. Lots of people don't even seek help.

Could you make more space by flipping the door so it opens outwards? Or tiny rather than full-sized basin, like you’d find in a cloakroom toilet, or toilet with basin on the cistern and full-sized sink with mirror in the bedroom?

This wouldn't put me off buying a house if there was plans/evidence that a toilet used to be there so I could put it back.

Why do you “hate” en suites?

It would put me off, sorry. I wouldn't want the hassle of adding a toilet myself but it would annoy me too much not being able to have a wee before jumping in the shower.

It's the extra toilet that make an ensuite useful. And I guarantee you, having had to break two boys of the habit, if there is no toilet in there, they will piss in the shower.

We have a cat that does that. Very neatly, straight down the drain hole, not a drop on the floor. Which is probably more than can be said for your boys

I share your desire for a nice hotel style shower, your love of a bath to wallow in and your frustration at poky bathrooms in bigger (room number) houses.
We had the same issues and had first the bathroom then the en suite refitted by a local bathroom company with a designer I could work with. We couldn’t extend the rooms and had issues with silly bits of wall the builder had put in 37 years ago.
They took apart all the silly walls and reduced them to where it was essential, they worked out to the millimetre the largest fittings that would go in, they gave us the most minimal profile of shower frame available. We went from a corner quarter circle 90cm to a 80 x 120 rectangle and it is a massive change in feel. In both rooms we went for floating basin, not floating but swept back loo, tiled everything possible. It is doable, a good designer will look at with fresh eyes, and if you give free rein will come up with solutions. It will cost though. But worth spending what you can to get a comfortable home that gives you pleasure.

Because I think there’s really only two ways to do it:
remove toilet and have huge shower along the back wall
or
replace full size basin with smaller one and have the shower come out further ‘down’ the wall

It’s a smallish square room so not bursting with options…

My main query was whether removing the loo would put people off, which seems to be a resounding yes!

Yes, I think making the basin smaller might help.

We have a 5 bed house our En suite doesn’t have a toilet it just has a shower and a sink it’s never been an issue for us we brought the house with it like this and when we did the en-suite up we attempted to add a toilet but it just didn’t work so we left it with just the shower and sink never bothers us the toilet is only across the hall its a few extra steps and one less toilet for me to clean I don’t see it as a problem