Ensuites instead of family bathroom?

[Dreambow]

We have recently bought a new home in SE London! It was a HMO (around 4000 sq ft) so needs a lot of work to get it back into a family home. We could make it into 5 five bedrooms with 4 ensuites and 1 family bathroom or alternatively 6 bedrooms with 6 ensuites (with one bath in the principal bedroom). What would you choose? Would it be hard to resell in the future without a family bathroom? Thank you!

Honestly I would not choose to have that many bathrooms. We have two and a downstairs toilet and I hate having to clean them all.

@umbel

All that cleaning!!

Exactly what I was thinking!

En suites, then no one has to wait !

6 ensuites seems nuts to me.

I would have 2 ensuites, a family bathroom and a downstairs toilet.

We have a four bed, four bathroom house: one downstairs WC, main bathroom and two en suites. So two of our bedrooms have no en suite. My plan is to extend one of the bedrooms without an en suite, close off the main bathroom, make the main bathroom the larger bedroom's en suite and then use the smallest box bedroom as a study. I don't see why you need a family bathroom if all other rooms are en suite.

That being said, you have 6 bedrooms in your house, which does sound a bit like overkill but if they're not all being used I'm sure they wouldn't need to be cleaned that often?

It would be 5 bedrooms and a family bathroom for me.

@GoodnightGrandma

En suites, then no one has to wait !

I guess I was assuming that not all of the bedrooms would be used as bedrooms. Not many families with four kids so presumably at least one is a spare room, possibly another is a home office. Also what else can be done with the space - I would rather have more storage

We were out off by houses with loads of en suites. All that cleaning! With 5 bedrooms 2 en suite and a family bathroom seems about right.

I hate en suites. Absolutely loathe them.

However since you seem to like them and it's your house, I'd say the questions for me are:

Who's cleaning them? Because that's a full-time job
What happens with guests? Teenage kid has their friend round who needs a poo, that's mortifying in an en suite.

We had the same dilemma, architect told us you don't want visitors traipsing through bedrooms to use the bathroom so bad 3 en suites and a main downstairs bathroom - I'm so pleased we did it that way too

if it helps my parents 5 bed had a downstairs toilet, master bedroom with shower, toilet & bath en-suite, the other en-suite didn't have a bath & then there was a separate family bath & shower room with a separate toilet.

I absolutely agree with the majority so far, saying that I would absolutely hate a set up where all bathrooms (especially toilets) are accessible only by walking through bedrooms. This is very intrusive when all bedrooms are occupied and there are guests visiting who aren't staying overnight in a bedroom.

I'd also hate the only bath to be in one of the ensuites - all kinds of scenarios where this also creates the awkward, makeshift feeling of people adults or older children having to walk through someone else's bedroom. It might be fine to bath your own toddler in your ensuite, but if you have friends with small children staying do you want them walking through your bedroom to use your ensuite to bath their baby or toddler?

People who can afford 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms in London won't want a makeshift, make the best of it set up unless they're also intending to rent out rooms.

Definitely a family bathroom with a bath in it, for bathing small kids. Not accessed via a bedroom.

I would do 2 bedrooms with en suites - one for the master bedroom, one off a guest room. Then 3 or 4 further bedrooms sharing 2 bathrooms (one of which should have a bath). Plus a downstairs loo. That’s already a pretty luxurious number of bathrooms and means it’s unlikely anyone will ever need to wait. 5 or 6 bathrooms is madness IMO.

There was a thread on MN recently where a poster’s DD was heading to uni. She had always had an ensuite and was worried at the idea of having to share a bathroom. Shared bathrooms build resilience

Unless you're paying a cleaner, do not have that many bathrooms!
We've got 5 bedrooms & 3 bathrooms plus a downstairs toilet. One bathroom is en suite and the one that was the main family bathroom is now a family shower room with full length shower tray. The 3rd was an en suite but we reconfigured to make it accessible from the landing instead of the bedroom so that 4 bedrooms can share 2 bathrooms. (Bathroom 3 has bath with electric shower over).
I don't have a cleaner, however, and wish I didn't have 4 toilets to clean!!

Large bathroom required should any ensuite (even if every bedroom has one - which I don’t think they should at l) become unusable in need of work or being redone etc.

Anyone with enough children to need at least 5 bedrooms will at least have one or two still in primary school. So at least one family bathroom is necessary.
The teenagers will appreciate the ensuites (or ability to hide their mess from everyone)

@MoveAhoy

Anyone with enough children to need at least 5 bedrooms will at least have one or two still in primary school. So at least one family bathroom is necessary. The teenagers will appreciate the ensuites (or ability to hide their mess from everyone)

This is very true! We have 5 beds. Three En suites (master abs two children's rooms) but our 9 year old never showers in his own room, he's always in the main bathroom. He'll enjoy when he's older ... so will I lol... his own bathroom space but definitely need family bathroom for younger ones

20 years ago, we bought a house with five bedrooms, four en-suite plus a shower room on the landing

The whole house needed work, especially the bathrooms which had puny electric showers

Initially , we fully expected to axe some of them and have at least one more big communal bathroom. In fact, we never did: everyone loved having their own, especially visitors

Only if somE relied on macerator toilets and pumps would I get rid

(My richest) friends with 4 children built a 6 bedroom house with 5 ensuites and a family bathroom.
The master bedroom has a full ensuite bathroom with jacuzzi bath and walk in shower. All the other ensuites are wet rooms with a shower but no bath, and the family bathroom has a bath with shower over.
The youngest child had the room without the ensuite, but as soon as the oldest child moved out, he moved into their room. There is also a toilet with washbasin downstairs.
To me there just seem to be so many toilets (7 in one house!). They have had problems with three of the wet rooms leaking into the family room below - I suppose multiplying up the plumbing multiplies up the potential for leaks.
Their other problem was that the kids (all teenagers at the time) got their ensuites on the agreement that they would each clean their own rooms and bathrooms. But they didn't. In the end the parents (both of whom worked full time) had to pay a heck of a lot for a cleaning team to keep all those ensuites gleaming and disease free.

We have a 4 bed with two ensuites and one family bathroom - cleaning three (plus a downstairs toilet) is enough!!!

Their other problem was that the kids (all teenagers at the time) got their ensuites on the agreement that they would each clean their own rooms and bathrooms. But they didn't.
That wasn’t predictable at all! Bet they promised they’d always walk the dog and clean out the guinea pigs as well

In a big house I would want a big family bathroom. I think it’s nice to have the master with an en suite, and also an en suite for the guest room if regularly used. But my kids all prefer baths to showers, so all the kids bedrooms with en suite showers only would work for my family.

We have 1 ensuite, 1 main bathroom, and 2 toilets/cloakroom. That is more than enough cleaning for me but I suspect most of MN have a cleaner so if that's not an issue it's just your preference. I personally would think 2 or 3 ensuite would suffice as long as there was an accessible bathroom on the same floor.

Quite refreshing to see the words grim and boak, or the mention of DH doing a stinker in the middle of the night havent occured on page 1 at least!

Oh and not sure if PPs have said this already but space is important.

3 or 4 spacious bathrooms where you have space to put things down, storage and you don’t feel you’re about to bump your elbows or knees, is far preferable to 5 or 6 tiny shower rooms.

3 or 4 spacious bathrooms where you have space to put things down, storage and you don’t feel you’re about to bump your elbows or knees, is far preferable to 5 or 6 tiny shower rooms.
Goodness yes. If you’d be disappointed to have a bathroom that small in a nice hotel room, then why put one in your house for everyday use?