Is it worth squeezing a small downstairs shower in?

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Getting downstairs loo put in. There’s enough room, just to put in a 800mm shower, quadrant.

I think I’d rather have a loo with more space in it than having a shower that will be tight.

It’s a 5 bedroom house, family bathroom with shower and an en-suite with shower. The downstairs loo willl be in in a utility space off the kitchen. It’s right next to back door and you’d access it from the hall.

I don’t think we’d use it except for dog washing and maybe occasionally after a v muddy bike ride or walk.

With 5 bedrooms and only two showers I would definitely add another shower if you think all 5 bedrooms will ever all be occupied.

Why not put in a wet room. I have seen this done elsewhere so you have a shower but still the feeling of space.

We had a downstairs shower in our old house and I miss it so much. We have two lovely upstairs showers but there is something great about shoving muddy husbands and kids in the shower without them trekking through the house.

I love our downstairs shower. Mucky kids straight in there when they were small. DH after work and sweaty exercise. Showered and clothes in the washer

Put in a steam shower! That way you are adding value in a new way.

I have a downstairs shower from the hall but it's a 90cm quadrant rather than 80. We use it all the time as it's nicer than the other bathroom but we only have the 2, no ensuites.

I would vote for the above suggestion of making it a wetroom instead of a loo with squeezed in quadrant cubicle. Would be much nicer.

I never understand it when I find downstairs showers. Have you sufficient storage for shoes and coats? I wd think it is better used for this or just a nice airy room. I hate wey rooms

I’d put it in but design it so that is it doesn’t take away from the space of the loo- either wet room style or low profile shower tray and no massive door (either a half screen, concertina or no door).

Depends - how many of you live there?

5 bedroom house could mean 6+ people. If your house is quite full I would definitely want another shower.

Tbh I would add another shower if only for washing the dog. Why do you need extra space in the loo, you only sit on it briefly!

At the moment it’s 2 of us and a dog, but I do have one eye on resale but also just would we use a shower downstairs?

I think a wet room might work as most of time shower is unlikely to be used. But I’m thinking it’s going to be a gardeners loo mostly rather than posh downstairs loo.

A downstairs shower wouldn't be a selling point to me but we don't have kids or dogs. I also grew up in a draughty Victorian terrace so just the thought of downstairs showers make me feel cold! If we did have dogs and kids I think I'd still rather a big Belfast sized sink that could double up as a dog bath or somewhere to soak things (muddy clothes pre-wash, cooker grates, oven shelves).

We're just changing our downstairs loo and have enough space to put a shower in it. We've decided against it. No dog and we have 2 bathrooms with showers (plus downstairs loo) in a 4 bed and it would just have made everything seemed cramped. If you don't need it, then I'd far rather have a loo that doesn't feel squashed. I don't think a downstairs shower adds to resale value at all. For all the people that it might appeal to, there will be a similar number put off by a potentially cramped loo and another shower to clean!

We had a downstairs shower and got rid of it in favour of more utility space. I think it was used twice. Too awkward to come out in a towel straight to loving areas

We extended our downstairs WC this year to create a downstairs bathroom. The additional space it now takes up was previously dead space in the utility so now instead of a strange L shaped utility and small rectangular WC we now have 2 square rooms with usable space. We went for a bath instead of shower but that's due to having 2 toddlers. The bathroom gets used more than our upstairs bathroom (3 bed house with one bathroom upstairs). I don't think the room would be used as much if it was cramped though.

It depends a bit on the style of the house but I definitely wouldn't want one, and if I was looking to buy it'd be a negative for me as I'd be wondering how much it would cost to remove! I think they're really odd. The previous owners of our (also 5 bed) house took out a downstairs shower to make a larger utility, which is much more useful imo. Who wants to traipse through the house before/after a shower? I also think wet rooms can be a bit grotty and permanently damp in practice unless you live in a hot country where it all dries off quickly.

I think the time people put a downstairs shower in, is when they only have 1 bathroom upstairs and it’s easier than trying to add another upstairs.

Showering downstairs is never too choice for people, but if there’s only 1 upstairs bathroom, it’s gives a valuable extra.

That said, you only have 1 family bathroom between the 4 bedrooms which don’t have the en-suite, as the other bathroom is en-suite, so not really available to the other rooms. In my mind, that’s the same as a 4 bedroom hosue with only 1 bathroom, and that’s not enough in this day and age, so I would say an extra shower room will add value without a doubt. Typically, it will be larger families looking at a 5 bed house. The parents will have the en-suite and then there could be 4 children including older ones, or 3 kids and an elderly relative and 2 shower rooms or bathrooms for that lot would be wanted/appreciated.

If this were a 4 bed or 3 bed house which already had 2 shower rooms, I’d say a big Belfast sink in utility would be better. But given the number of bedrooms, it’s extra shower room won’t just be about hosing dirty dogs or people after messy sport, but day-to-day showering too, if the house was full, which could easily be 6 people.

Depends on the type of area you live in. Most have put one in in our road as the kind of road that people stay in so future-proofs the house for them. Plus, useful if have older relatives to stay who can't use stairs.

YES
I'm shouting because I've recently had an injury (which could happen to any of us any time) and I'd have given my teeth for a downstairs shower room instead of washing at a sink for 2 months
Also, if you may have children there, my DSis used hers a lot with dirty children from rugby, muddy biking etc and DH from dirty bike rides

We have a shower in the downstairs toilet, off the utility. It never gets used and is a waste of space.

I would add a shower but as a wet room so you have a more spacious toilet room when not used.

It’s really handy having a downstairs shower option if you ever get injured and can’t use stairs a while. Also handy for children coming in muddy from garden so dirt isn’t traipsed through the house

Aside from a downstairs toilet I really dislike any form of downstairs bathroom and surely no one plans their house around the theory that at some point they may be injured and unable to use the stairs . I have a dog and a husband who comes in dirty from working , neither of them traipse mud / dirt round the house .

I think a downstairs showers in your house would be useful. But a 800mm quadrant shower enclosure is small. We had one in a previous house and it was too small for DP to shower in comfortably. Can you post a floorplan? I'm wondering if there's a way of getting more room for a shower so it's not a compromise that is awkward to use.

If put in a shower but I hate wet rooms - everything gets wet!! 800 is fine, though hard to wash a dog in there.

I wouldn't. You've already got 2. I'd rather have a reasonable sized toilet and utility - maybe storage.