Advice Please? Family bathroom with shower over, or large walk-in shower?

[Yotisme]

Hi

We've recently moved into a 3.5 bed house. The master bedroom has an ensuite bathroom (complete with spa bath - not that we use that function very often!). It has been done really nicely fairly recently. However, the family bathroom is in dire need of a makeover. The shape and design of the room means that a corner bath is really the only option (and what it currently has), however I think we could get a large-shower cubicle in the space easily. As we will still have a bath in the house, for children to use while younger, what would your views be on having a family shower room only, with the bath in the master ensuite?

As far as I see it, guests nearly always have showers, as the children get older they will have more and more showers and we would still have a bath that could be used by visiting young children (and others) as necessary.

Any views on whether it would put you off buying a house in the future? Not really very concerned about it, as we'll hopefully be here for years, but before we go ahead and spend money, I thought I'd ask for advice and thoughts on the subject.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Do what works for your family.
Once my DC got beyond about 5 our bath has rarely been used, we all shower. For us decent showers (with pumps if necessary) are essential.
If the bath is a standard 1700 you would be able to get a lovely big walk in shower in the space.
As you say, there would still be a bath in the house.

As long as there is a bath in the house, I think a shower only main bathroom would be fine - but make it a really nice one with lots of space.
We have a big corner, curved wall cubicle in the main bathroom, and a huge glass walled one in our ensuite and they are bliss

Id go with the shower seeing as you already have a bath elsewhere.

We had this dilemma recently and opted for the 'safe option' of shower over bath.

TBH it is not that good (partly due to the crap bathroom designer that went bust, but that is another story) as the bath is not the best of shapes, and no one to date has used the bath. I would have preferred a safe, well designed shower that is easy to clean.

(have 22y and two 20y using it, when they are at home)

I was always told by estate agents that a bath in the main bathroom was expected, but I do wonder if that is still the case. We have a usual size bath in the en suite.

We are about to put in a second bathroom. I'm going for an over-bath shower as it is going to be the children's bathroom, and our existing bathroom is going to be for me adults. Everyone I've asked about this (a lot) has liked the idea. I canvassed lots of opinion as my builder disagrees!

I would be put off a house with no bath at all but would prefer a fantastic shower to a corner bath in a second bathroom.

I would love the shower- and a house with no bath wouldn't put me off anyway!

Thank you for your thoughts - all pretty similar to mine. Definitely would put a good quality power shower in - that's the main reason for the update as the current over bath shower is not great. Nothing worse than a dribble to wake you up in the morning

Can you not get one of the shower baths - P shaped? They tend to be smaller. I can't understand that the main bathroom in the house only has room for a corner bath- have you thought about completely re-arranging the lay out?

We are slightly the reverse of you- we have a large en suite with a bath, over bath shower, basin etc. we wanted a full shower unit as well as the bath but there isn't room so we decided to continue with the bath / shower over bath arrangement.

In the house bathroom we have just replaced everything but we moved the bath to the other end of the room, which made it possible to have a decent shower over it.

So we have 2 baths and 2 over-shower baths.

The only thought I have about yours is that anyone with a young family might want a bath for toddlers etc and would not want to use their en suite.

It partly depends on whether you are doing this for your family or as a selling point. If you plan to stay a while a new owner may well gut and replace anyway- so go with what you like.

We lived in a place with only showers and it surprisingly drove me nuts. Showers are fine for day to day but those times when you really need a bath, you really NEED a bath.

Do you think your kids will do sport when they're older? Imagine cold, tired, achey teenagers after rugby/hockey/cross country in the winter will definitely want a nice warm bath. If you're happy for all this to happen in your en suite then choose accordingly.

Might be a bit TMI but when I was a teen with terrible period pains a warm bath was a godsend.

We have almost a similar dilemma, spa bath in master and quite a shallow bath upstairs with shower over in small bathroom. If we ever get the cash together to refurbish both of them, my plan is to keep bath in master and turn upstairs into a walk in shower.

We have exactly this dilemma. Our ensuite has a bath and separate shower, but the bath is not the best because it is very slow to fill, so only suitable for evening or weekend use. And more importantly, it's MY bathroom so I would rather my grubby DCs stayed in the family bathroom.

Currently they prefer showers, but they all like a bath every now and then (particularly DS, who's 14, after a muddy, cold football match). So we've decided not to remove the bath but to go for an over bath shower, and make it a good one (we have an Aqualisa Quartz in the ensuite which has been brilliant).

Even though we have no plans to move, I wouldn't want the only bath to be in the ensuite.

I vote shower only. I only like baths if you can fit both in separately. Can't stand showers over baths (sadly that's what we have, bleurgh!)

Apatite - I'm not a huge fan of showers over baths either, but if it's the choice between that and having a sweaty, muddy teenage boy stewing in the bath in my ensuite, I know which I'd prefer...

Please could somebody explain to me the hatred over showers over baths? It's obviously a symptom of living in London that I've never had anything but as the bathrooms are always too small to fit both.

I'd prefer a bath in the main bathroom for all the reasons already mentioned. I don't want DCs in my ensuite ever!

Thanks all. Period pains and muddy teenage boys had nor been considered! . I don't want either to happy to my babies of 10 & 6

I think we'll look at all possible options. I don't mind bath over showers per se it's just I'm trying to make most of available space so considering options. Definitely been good to get some other perspectives so thank you!

Happy?? Happen!

I would not like a shower over a corner bath though! Go for a super luxurious shower!