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Original poster

separate loo, with just a loo

103 replies

DonkeyHohtay · 15/06/2019 12:35

Having a "discussion" with DH while homes under the hammer is on. (As you do). One of the properties featured is in Birkenhead, not a million miles from where he grew up. The property had upstairs one room with the bath and handwash basin, and a separate room with just the loo, no sink. This to me is the height of weird. DH thinks it's perfectly normal as that was the configuration in the house he grew up in.

Is this a Merseyside "thing"? I don't get the logic. DH said his parents before they moved managed to squeeze a teeny tiny handwashing sink into the tiny room with the loo, but the main bathroom is still just bath and sink.

OP posts:
Eminybob · 15/06/2019 14:23

Oh and the loo room is so tiny that when I was pregnant I couldn't close the door while in the toilet as the stupid thing opens inwards with about an inch gap between the swing and the loo.
It drives me up the wall.

SingingSands · 15/06/2019 14:24

This was my configuration until last year! We lived with it for 15 years. Ours is a 1930s terrace.

We knocked through last year to create a beautiful bathroom, and now all we do is shout at each other to "hurry up" Grin

QOD · 15/06/2019 14:27

We have a tiny downstairs loo and put a sink topped cistern in

TheOpeningActofSpring · 15/06/2019 14:30

I live in a house like this. Three bed semi, 1970s ex-council.

scaryteacher · 15/06/2019 14:34

In my house in the UK we have a ginormous bathroom, but without a toilet in it. The loo is in a separate room (with a handbasin); ditto the downstairs loo.

The first house we rented in belgium had a bathroom with no toilet, but the loo was in the shower room, so two 'stalls' in the room, one for the shower, one for the loo, and the handbasin outside. Loo and handbasin downstairs as well (cold water only in downstairs loo basin).

House 2 in Belgium had a downstairs loo with a teeny basin (again, cold water only), then each of the bathrooms upstairs had a loo in them.

Third house in Belgium, downstairs loo with basin (and hot and cold water). Three bathrooms, each with a loo, and two with a bidet. Bidet in my en suite is not used for bidet purposes, but is rammed full of baskets with make up, as what shelving there is in the bathroom has been appropriated by dh and his stuff. Bidet 2 is sometimes filled with footsoak and hot water and I sit on a stool and soak my feet. It's great having four loos as if dh, ds and I all need to go at the same time, we can, in perfect peace and no-one hassling us to get a move on!

I really dislike having a loo in the bathroom, which is why I won't be putting one in the bathroom in my house in the UK.

bellsbuss · 15/06/2019 14:34

The house I grew up in had this layout too.

monsieurmarius · 15/06/2019 14:36

I had friends with houses like this growing up in midlands

fedup21 · 15/06/2019 14:37

Yep-we have that configuration in the south east. House was built in the 1930s. It’s very handy when someone isn’t in the bath to be able to access the loo!

Since we’ve been there, we have put in a downstairs toilet plus a loft conversion with a shower room/toilet so it’s less of an issue but I still like it like that.

PregnantSea · 15/06/2019 14:37

This is the norm in Australia. I find it very odd as well OP. I clean the door handle on our toilet very frequently!

BlueBrushing · 15/06/2019 14:38

It's normal here where I grew up (council estate in East of England). We installed a loo with a sink built into the cistern - perfect solution!

MsMarvellous · 15/06/2019 15:07

We had to knock our "just a loo" through when we did upstairs so we now have a bathroom with a loo in it. It used to be a pretty common set up I think

GrouchyKiwi · 15/06/2019 15:09

My parents' house, built in the late 80s, has a separate toilet, bathroom and handbasin area. The handbasins are open from the hallway and the other two rooms come off that little area. It's great. They've now added another toilet to the bathroom too, which is helpful. And it was all very necessary in a household of 9 people.

Lost5stone · 15/06/2019 15:12

I live way down south and there is a couple of estates that have this

wowfudge · 15/06/2019 15:42

We live in part of an Edwardian house built for a mill owner and it was built with indoor toilets - one downstairs and one next to but separate from the bathroom. It even used to have a staff toilet accessed from outside! The downstairs toilet is off the cloakroom where the basin is, so has its own room with just the toilet. I prefer having the toilet separate from the bathroom now.

Andcake · 15/06/2019 15:48

My configuration growing up. Mil has a look without a sink downstairs- she leaves a big bottle of anti bac gel on the loo window sil.

orangeshoebox · 15/06/2019 15:51

our house had the same set up.
we replaced the loo with one that has a sink integrated in the cistern.
so it's best of both worlds.

mrbob · 15/06/2019 15:52

I thought this was an Australian thing because I had never come across it but it makes sense that it was imported from the uk... I hate it! I don’t think I would ever buy a house with the design

fancynancyclancy · 15/06/2019 16:01

The house I grew up in had a downstairs loo with a sink & upstairs 2 bathrooms with sinks but no loos & then a separate toilet & sink near the bathrooms.
Imo this is so much better, no having to rush out of the bath/shower for others etc

TheCanyon · 15/06/2019 16:02

My parents victorian house was like this. Bath and sink on the middle floor. Tiny toilet in between the ground and middle floor and strangely a sink in one of the top floor rooms.

fancynancyclancy · 15/06/2019 16:02

Oh yes & as a previous poster said very common to just have a loo with no sink in France. When my mum specifically asked for the sink to be in the same room as the shower & toilet in a house renovation the plumber thought she was mad.

Haworthia · 15/06/2019 16:05

Both my parents and my in law’s houses had a toilet in one room and a sink/bath next door. One in a 50s new town terrace and one in a 30s semi in London.

My parents only knocked theirs through about 14 years ago.

woodhill · 15/06/2019 16:09

Perfectly normal, only recently knocked into one. Would only having another loo as well.

Couldn't bear to need the loo if someone was in the bath.

As it was dc always wanted the loo suddenly when I had decided to go.

Bringbackthestripes · 15/06/2019 16:12

My nana’s House, a boyfriends house and my second student house had the same set up. No house was in an area anywhere near the other. It’s more age of house specific than area specific.

woodhill · 15/06/2019 16:15

And now remember there was a sink in the back bedroom as well where the wall backed onto the bathroom and housed the water tank so that is there was another wash basin

woodhill · 15/06/2019 16:16

Terrible grammar

So there was another basin