Understairs toilet in open plan layout

[agentscully]

I’d welcome your views on this.

A second toilet would be valuable in our house of 4 but the only place we can have one would be under the stairs.

This would open into our open plan living/kitchen/diner so not much privacy at all.

Having just had family/friends round over christmas i can’t imaging any one of them feeling comfortable going to the loo whilst we’re all hanging around the same area.

So, should i knock this idea on the head? Bearing in mind we can’t have one anywhere else.

Thanks for your help

I agree that's not great and i wouldn't like using it as a guest. Can you add a small room off a back door or to one side of your front door?

Let them use the upstairs one then and just use the downstairs one when you have no guests.

We're in the process of doing this (room has been made but no fittings yet). It's fine. If people don't want to use it they can go upstairs, but it will be more than handy for us living there

Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately not, it’s a mid terrace house so hallway and front lounge then all open plan out to the back patio doors.

We’ve never had a second loo and personally i’m not keen on downstairs toilets full stop but I wondered if this would be an asset but if nobody uses it, it’s pointless i guess.

@anon2022anon @Diyextension

Yes i suppose that would be the only scenario, the kids would use it if nobody else was around. Maybe that’s enough to do it.

The plumbing is already there so it’s not a big deal. We had intended the hallway to stay separate but now it’s part of the open plan space.

The full family would use ours when we're in the lounge, I imagine that if I'm at home with the preschooler during the day I would use it. It's just if we're sat having dinner, I can't imagine someone using it.

Honestly I'd keep the hall. Open plan with no ability to close the door to the upstairs is noisy and means all the heat goes upstairs. And bonus is that you get a downstairs loo that's properly useful

It’s be a no for me. You’ve only got 4 people, you’ll manage just fine with 1 toilet.

I’d keep the hall too, for heating, noise reduction and to have somewhere for coats and the toilet door to open into

@anon2022anon yes i can see how that would work. We do live at the back of the house 90% of the time as it’s south facing but i guess it’s better to have one than not to.

I think i’m coming back round to the idea now. Thank you

@Weefreetiffany I have thought of this but it makes the hallway/ stairs so dark and really reduces the feeling of space. I don’t think i’d give that up for a more comfortable second toilet but i take your point.

I’ve just had my kitchen redesigned to include the dining room and make it more open plan and that has included an under stairs loo. However the design included a wall to separate the kitchen from the loo and kind of extend the hallway. We also have a separate lounge.

@Weefreetiffany even though it’s open it’s very warm as gets lots of south facing light. It’s not a massive space.

I think building regs mean that you need two doors between a kitchen and a toilet. It came up when we did something similar (but went for the ‘toilet in the hall’ option).

@AdmiralJaneway that looks fab.
We could leave part of a wall but it would give us the look we’re really going for. I’ll see if i can find a plan.

@MolesOnPoles I think it just has to have an extractor fan, which it will.

Not any more they don’t.

We’ve got a downstairs loo that family use but I send guests upstairs simply because the downstairs one is a bit of a squeeze and has a glass door!

So it would look like this with toilet door behind the sofa

@MolesOnPoles I think it depends where in UK OP lives. In Scotland there still needs to be 2 doors between food prep and loo space ❤️ unless it has changed in the past 18months

Are you absolutely committed to the opne plan downstairs? Its not very practical, liveable or comfortable

It puts me off properties that have done this.

I would love a downststairs loo personally

@bellac11

Yes, we are. We have a large front room which we never use as we all like to be together at the back of the house. We’re here for 10+ years so not worried about selling.

Sorry @MolesOnPoles meant to tag @PriamFarrl 🤦‍♀️ my brain is fried tonight, will be putting myself to bed shortly 😂 ❤️

Hmm looking at that picture I can see why you wouldn’t want one there - I wouldn’t. If there were a way to have a wall somehow then that would offer more privacy.

@AdmiralJaneway Its definitely not ideal but it’s a spare space so i’m thinking it’s better to have one, even if it’s just used occasionally.

A wall would definitely give more privacy but i suppose that’s what i need to decide. Do i compromise on the open space for a more private downstairs loo, or, a less private downstairs loo within the space i want.

I absolutely wouldn't be comfortable using it even if it was just my family at home. I don't know why I'd feel so awkward. My granny used to have a loo off her dining room when I was a kid and no one thought anything of it though. Admittedly the 90s was a different time.