Layout

[peetieswie]

I was wondering people's opinions on our house layout options. It's hard to explain but basically we bought a house with a basement and have made the basement into kitchen diner and lounge. This means the upstairs small kitchen and dining room will be bedroom and bathroom. House is long and thin - one room wide and windows all on the back.

Options are - bedroom in old kitchen, but the saniflo pumps from downstairs up to the soil pipe just under this room so could be really loud. Positive would be it would have its own window and bathroom would be the room with no window, but may be impossible to sleep!

Or bedroom in old dining room but will have to put corridor in, so would have no window. Could put a window in the top of the internal corridor so it would get light from the window that is there now, but would have to be high up or everyone could see in the guest room when they visit the loo.

It's hard to visualise but do you think a guest room with no window would be ok, if it had a window in the top of the wall where we build the corridor that lets in light from the original window? There is no where else to put the family bathroom. We have a shower room in the basement but need a family bathroom on the middle floor as it's a three storey and only have en-suite on the top.

Thanks for any advice!

Is it just a guest room? How often would it be used.?

Also might work for you but hard to sell a windowless room on as a bedroom.

I’ve seen things like light tunenls, glass bricks etc, frosted glass. But I wouldn’t

Can you look into sound proofing for saniflow. We’ve got a saniflow and I don’t think it’s that loud. Maybe have a no flush rul3 when you’ve go5 guests.

I think a bedroom / reception room without windows may devalue the house. Potential owners may see it as something to fix.

How often do you need a guest room? Would a sofa bed in the lounge work? The space you are describing on the ground floor sounds like it will best work as a reception so it can retain windows.

Do you have a floor plan? Is there any option to add more windows?

Guest room would be used every few months I reckon. House will have 4 double rooms.

It will be three floors, we are talking about middle floor. However it will have natural light from the window in the corridor if it has glass along the top. Don't people just go to bed late when they're staying? Could put window in the front but felt it would look odd having one random window on the front where there are currently none. It's a weird house

I think it would really affect resale. I wouldn’t buy a house where one of the bedrooms had no window.

You definitely need a window in the bedroom. Looking at soundproofing/insulation options for the pipework is the better option.

It's a ventilation issue as much as light. Bedrooms, and all habitable rooms, need natural ventilation. Building control wouldn't let you call that a bedroom.

I think you need to have escape access from a bedroom - a window. I don’t think your plan will pass building control.

It might be a guest bedroom for you but any future buyers might want it for a playroom, or study, or separate living area, or everyday bedroom. All of those would be severely compromised by a lack of window. Don't reconfigure the house to have a windowless room.

Re the saniflow, does that go periodically through the night or just when someone uses the downstairs loo? If the latter can't you just avoid using the downstairs loo when guests are in bed?

I wouldn’t consider windowless room as a bedroom. You will use it as a guest room but most people will expect it to be a bedroom. The first option looks better for me as you can reduce noise somehow with modern materials.
I would do what works best for you at the moment and stay as long as it works for you then put it on the market with realistic expectations - not counting windowless room as a bedroom.

Saniflo and sump pump would go off every time someone uses toilet, kitchen sink, bathroom sink or every five minutes if it's raining. Plus soil pipe is right there for plumbing for a bathroom.

I can't put a pic of the 'windowless room' plan as I'm a 'new' user but it would have natural light, would just be a high up window in an internal wall that gets light from the outside window. I guess it might put some people off but it is an area where lots of people have awkward houses due to lots of hills and having a large Victorian house is a rarity, so may be ok. It's that or it becomes an upstairs lounge and we end up with at three bed.

So a 'window' to another room? Still not a window. Or a bedroom.

Could you have some sort of an open plan bedroom with ensuite? From what I understand, that would allow a window in the space.
Or dig up some ground to have a window with a bit of space in front of it?

I wouldn't want to sleep in a windowless room as a guest, and I think it will be a problem if/when you sell. Look into soundproofing for the Saniflow if you think it needs it.

A 1 minute Google says to me that PPs are right, a room needs 2 routes of egress to be called a bedroom. I think your windowless room could not be called a bedroom and your house would have to be marketed as a 3 bed. How the 2 routes of egress thing works with your top floor and no windows at the front, I guess you know more about than I do (fire escapes perhaps? Connecting door between rooms?)

It sounds very much like you've already decided though, and of course it's your house.

Please post a floorplan - it's really difficult to understand what it's like. We didn't convert the basement of our last house into a kitchen (part of it was at ground floor level, house built into hill so had natural light) because we the original ground floor wouldn't then flow and we'd have ended up with two rooms with no purpose.