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Original poster

Jack and Jill bathroom

27 replies

Shirkingfromhome · 03/12/2015 11:29

Our house (Victorian 3-storey semi), has a bit of a strange bathroom / bedroom configuration. Two separate builders have suggested adding a jack and Jill bathroom to make the most of the space. The bathroom will be adjoined by two children's bedrooms and the waste pipe will have to run through one of the rooms. There will be no external walls / windows to the bathroom and the extractor will follow the line of the chimney up through the attic room.

As we are turning the existing bathroom and office into the master bedroom and ensuite, this will mean there is no traditional family bathroom in the house. It's a slight concern but we only have guests staying over around 6 times a year so the rest of time we need the house for work us.

Are there any potential issues I need to consider? Has anyone else had a Jack and Jill bathroom? I really like the idea but I haven't seen one in RL and I'm struggling a little with the lack of traditional bathroom.

OP posts:
ThroughThickAndThin01 · 03/12/2015 11:38

I can understand why people possibly think they might like one but how does it work in RL. You would have to lock both doors in case someone walked in on you wouldn't you? Then remember to unlock the other one when youve finished.

Just sounds like a bit of a faff and not particularly advantageous over a normal one door bathroom.

Alonglongway · 03/12/2015 11:41

haven't had one but I looked at a house like this recently when house hunting and it put me off. So maybe an issue for selling.

Also how old are the kids? having a guest needing to go through a teen bedroom to get to the jack and jill bathroom would be tricky

namechangedtoday15 · 03/12/2015 11:45

So if you just had visitors (that weren't staying), do you have a toilet downstairs? If yes, then I don't really see the problem. If no, and anyone who wants to use the loo will have to access a bedroom to do so, no.

Pipbin · 03/12/2015 11:52

Not the same, but in my last house our only bathroom was off our bedroom.
As you say, when it's just you there it isn't a problem. It's only a problem when you have guests.
Could you direct guests to use your en suite and therefore saving the children having people walking through their room?

Pipbin · 03/12/2015 11:53

And as far as I was concerned, if i liked someone enough to have them in my house then I had no problem with them going through my bedroom. I've got nothing to hide.

Original poster
Shirkingfromhome · 03/12/2015 11:54

The locking doors isn't really an issue at the moment as DS is 2 and the other one is due end of March. But in future it could be a concern and I hadn't thought of that. We'd also be hoping to have the existing loft room completed by then with an additional ensuite, so when the children are older they won't have to share with guests.

At the moment there is no downstairs toilet (that is useable for guests) but another long term plan is to have the cellar converted and add a proper cloakroom / office.

One of the builders suggested putting a door from the hallway but it would result in three doors really close together which I think would look odd.

Apologies for unintentional drip-feed there, it's hard trying to the keep opening post simple!

What put you off Alonglongway?

OP posts:
Original poster
Shirkingfromhome · 03/12/2015 11:57

That's what we thought too Pipbin I'd be ok with letting people use our ensuite.

OP posts:
Alonglongway · 03/12/2015 12:17

I have teen DDs who hog the bathroom and fight over it. I thought a jack and jill arrangement would make things worse. And they go through stages where privacy is paramount. Siblings not very respectful of each others' wishes.....

wonkylegs · 03/12/2015 12:28

We looked at a few houses with them and I hated all of them but that might be me.
They were always between kids rooms and always a bit of a state (even with cleaning up for viewings)
I'm also not keen for kids having ensuites. When they are little there is the potential for flooded bathrooms, blocked toilets etc when they are bigger, the potential for fights is added, plus lots of mess.
We have an adults bathroom and a family (kids) bathroom but the kids one is shared with guests etc so they don't have free run.
Could you not put the bathroom between their rooms but only accessed from the hall to increase supervision and limit the potential for child mischief.

wowfudge · 03/12/2015 12:42

I would have the three doors to the hall to be honest. It gives you more usable wall space in all three rooms which having the Jack and Jill set up would not - two doors in three rooms. It also solves the problem of accessing a bathroom through a bedroom, which is never a good idea in my book.

nattyknitter · 03/12/2015 12:57

I saw a house I loved, location was fab etc, but it had a Jack and Jill bathroom and it really put me off.

We had one in a student house years ago and it caused no end of issues. I you have the option for a door in the hall then I would take it.

titchy · 03/12/2015 12:57

What wowfudge said. Three rooms each with 2 doors, or three rooms each with 1 door...

IShouldBeSoLurky · 03/12/2015 13:02

It would definitely put me off, sorry. Too much potential for a guest forgetting to lock the second door and a child barging in or vice versa. I think if you had another bathroom that wasn't en suite it would be less of an issue.

SoupDragon · 03/12/2015 13:03

If I were buying a house, a Jack and Jill bathroom would not be a positive.

namechangedtoday15 · 03/12/2015 13:06

If the layout lets you have a door to the hall, I'm not sure why you're considering having a door into each bedroom? I had kind of presumed that the reason for having it as a Jack and Jill bathroom was due to layout issues?

For me, just have it as a normal bathroom which is accessed from the hall. To have 3 doors into it (i.e. hall door and then a door into each bedroom) would seriously compromise the use of the space unless its a huge room.

I am also saying this as a parent of 3 children - there is so much scope for trouble from one child locking the other child's door Grin

toofarfromcivilisation · 03/12/2015 13:07

When I bought the house we have now I didn't realise it was a Jack & Jill bathroom! Viewed it and thought it had two.....& I'm an estate agent 😳 We chopped off a bit of hallway and made two.

Sallyhasleftthebuilding · 03/12/2015 13:07

You can get locks that lock both doors together. So not an issue.
Wouldnt put me off, if we had a downstairs guest loo.

Istanbulla · 03/12/2015 13:11

I've had a J&J. It was the 3rd one in the house but only one downstairs so always the one day/dinner guests used. It also contained a shower and was located near the swimming pool (not UK) so shower as well as lavatory used by guests.

The barging in on fully naked house guests having a wash was just par for the course at my placeGrin....also daily incidents of being caught short as someone forgets to leave a door unlocked and I'd have to dash up a flight of stairs, through 3 rooms and down another flight to get to the other entrance.

In an apartment it could work...

LillianGish · 03/12/2015 13:15

I think if you are intending to stay in your house then go ahead and configure it in whatever way suits you. If you think you might want to move again shortly then I'd reconsider. MIL had similar arrangement in her house (bathroom only accessible via a bedroom - though she did have downstairs loo) and I think that is one of the factors that made her house almost impossible to sell. She didn't care as she said she intended to leave in a box (which she did!) so it didn't matter. Redesigning your house to suit yourself is fine if you are going to live in it, but but it can take a bit too much imagination for buyers to see how it might work for them. I'd also think carefully about the waste pipe (presumably from a loo) running through the bedroom. We once rented a house with a loo like this and it would frequently get blocked (well not every week, but on more than one occasion) and was bit of a nightmare to fix (fortunately not our job as we were only tenants).

Hufflepuffin · 03/12/2015 13:18

It wouldn't put me off but I don't think anyone would be put off by an extra door in the hallway so I would go for that option to be on the safe side.

BessieBlount · 03/12/2015 13:18

It put me off a couple of houses when we were looking. You didn't need to go through a bedroom though. One had 3 doors, one to hall, and one to each of 2 bedrooms. The other was just one door to the hall and another to a bedroom. It just didn't like the idea at all.

OnePlanOnHouzz · 03/12/2015 13:22

You can have them where the doors both open into a communal basin and shower with frosted door area - then there's a door to the loo separately from that communal area - so less likely to walk in on someone on the loo that way !

MarkRuffaloCrumble · 03/12/2015 13:30

We had one in a rented house and it was excellent with little ones, at bath-time you could get one out of the bath and drying off in their room, with the other one in the bath and still keep an eye on them both.

We did have a main bathroom too, but like you, rarely had guests so that wasn't really the main concern. When I go to stay with family I usually don't bother with full shower etc, I wait until I get home the next day, so as long as I have access to a loo and somewhere to brush my teeth I'd be ok with that.

Anyone who expects their own en suite can fuck off and stay in a hotel!

MovingOnUpMovingOnOut · 03/12/2015 13:32

I have one in my house. We have small children and it's a bloody nightmare with them creating a rat run through the house - up one set of stairs, through the bedroom, into the bathroom, out the bathroom, tear down the other stairs, back through the living room, then the kitchen and back up the first set of stairs.

However the layout of our house is such that the bedroom at the end is our office/spare bedroom, so we don't need regular access and there is another bathroom near by, so we just keep the door between them locked shut. It is locked from the bedroom side so it's just a normal bathroom now.

I may turn the big bathroom into two smaller bathrooms at some point but I haven't decided.

To conclude, it wouldn't put me off if it worked for me and my family.

MarkRuffaloCrumble · 03/12/2015 13:32

but like others have said, a single door to the hall would be more useful to most families and also give you more usable space in the bathroom, as the two doors would leave little space for storage and would limit placement of fixtures.