What to do with small bathroom...

[Greenfairydust]

The house (3 bed 1930s terrace) I am buying only has a small bathroom where the elderly owners have removed the bath and installed a walk in shower due to mobility issues.

I am wondering whether I should remove the walk-in shower and put back a small bath but that might mean the bathroom is really cramped. Although I should be able to add space by removing the storage cupboards as in my opinion they have put in too many.

My other option is to turn the 3rd bedroom, which is really only a box room suitable for an office or similar rather than a proper bedroom, into another bathroom where I could have a bath and sink installed and keep the existing shower room too. So the house would become a 2 bed and 2 bathrooms home.

I don't need a 3rd bedroom so this might work for me.

I am not sure as to what would be wiser/cost effective and how much I might be looking at for either options...

You will lose value of the home removing a bedroom. How about making the bathroom a wet room so you don't have any doors for the shower making it seem smaller.

How long are you going to live in the house? You should make it work for you if you'll be there for a long time, but if it's a short stop then maybe yes keeping the third bed is safer.

Can you install a bath with a shower screen for best of both worlds if there was a bath in there before?

Do you actually want a bath? It's not clear if it's some you want or think you should have.

I have a small 1990s two bed semi with a small bathroom (technically a shower room, a no bath) and a tiny en suite. I don't think a two bed house needs two bathrooms although a downstairs loo would be nice.

I think you need to think about what actually works for you and your household, and how long you expect to live in that house.

Keep the third bedroom because it adds value, yes it's small but it could be a bedroom for a baby or a home office. Small houses don't have to have a large bathroom just stick with the shower.

How big is the current bathroom? I wouldn't lose a bedroom but would look to reinstall a bath with a shower over it.

It’s not that simple changing a bedroom into a bathroom, installing a new soil pipe isn’t always possible. My DH is a bathroom installer, the times he’s been out to see a house where the owner wants to do this without thinking about pipework. He has put in many walk in showers that have replaced baths. I personally couldn’t want to live without my daily bath.

I would put a bath into the existing bathroom, a bathroom doesn't need to be large. Maybe get the door re hung to open outwards to give more room inside? Losing a bedroom will lose value on the house even if it is small.

unless you're going to be there till death so not bothered about losing value I would not lose the 3rd bedroom.
However if you don't use a bath at all then keep it shower only. I've always had small bathrooms with shower over bath and they're perfectly fine.
Could you look at popping a small loo downstairs ?

Victorian cottage here and our main bathroom is in a ground floor extension that would have taken its original footprint from an outhouse and an outside loo. When we bought it the loo was separated from the bathroom with a sliding door and the shower was over the bath. We changed the layout slightly and made it all one room. Bath tub is not full sized but not small, shower fairly compact.

That was 10 years ago. 5 years ago we had a new sink and vanity unit because of sink crack. 3 weeks ago we had a refurb - new cubical, new radiator and boxing in twixt vanity and bath. The plumber expressed the view that he would take out the bath if he was us and move the loo to make way for a bigger shower. Personally, I would miss my bath as it’s rather relaxing.

Regarding storage, it really depends on how much stuff and what stuff you keep in the bathroom. When we changed our vanity unit we found going from a cupboard and drawers to a cupboard difficult. We also changed from a bathroom cabinet to a mirror. Honestly it’s made us more tidy. 2 little white caddies in the cupboard like one with the shower squeegee in, 3 toiletry bags in the cupboard and small rope basket on the windowsill.

What size is the existing bathroom?

I'd be wary of losing a bedroom to give a bigger bathroom due to devaluing the property and in the first instance I'd be looking to put a bath back into the existing bathroom.

Previous owners of our house (400 year old detached cottage built with no inside facilities) converted a bedroom into a huge shower room and separate landing/study area. I can see why they thought it a good idea, because in this particular case the bedroom in question had to be passed through to get to the third bedroom.

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Yes I should have make it clear that I really want to put a bath back.

I take part in a lot of physical activities, including riding, and I really need a bath to soothe my muscles sometimes! It might have to be a half-bath but that will be good enough.

Thanks for the reality check about turning the 3rd room into a bathroom.

I think I will stick to putting the bath back into the existing small bathroom and as people have suggested I think getting rid of the current bulky bathroom cabinets (which I really don't like/need) will make the room seem much less cramped as well.

Japanese soaking tub instead of a bath?

Is it an upstairs or downstairs bathroom? If downstairs it might be worth squeezing in a toilet and sink upstairs but not at the expense of a whole bedroom.

We have a small bathroom. I rehung the door so it opens against the wall rather than into the room which made it feel less cramped. Not sure how yours opens but worth considering.

If you shop around there are small baths for small rooms, ditto loos & basins. Perhaps stick up a drawing with measurements and we can have a go at re-fitting it?

My bathroom in my 1930's semi is 1.7m x 1.8m.
We have a gorgeous deep p - shaped shower bath with a curved screen under the window (we made the window slightly smaller so the shower water didn't hit the cill). DH insists on a bath. I never use it.
We put a 500cm vanity unit with a 450 bowl next to the widest part of the bath and the toilet next to that.
We also turned the door round to open against the side wall instead of into the room. Shiny white tiles all over and two massive mirrors.
It's tiny but it looks and feels really spacious.

I did not think about the door but that I think that is such a good idea as well.

I was looking at small vanity units and a small bowl and I think that will help too. At the moment it has a huge unit which take way too much space.

The bathroom is upstairs.

We moved into a small cottage and we moved the wall between bathroom and bedroom to give more space to bathroom and losing a bit of bedroom. So it's still one bath and three bed - and the bedroom which has been altered is still a good size.

Could that be an option?

The bathroom in our last house was tiny but we knew that keeping a bath was the best option so we opted for a p shaped bath with a shower over. You can often get away with a smaller sink to save space. I’d definitely keep the 3rd bedroom as a bedroom (or office etc) as it’s definitely a selling point when moving

Definitely don’t lose the third bedroom.

Another option could be a sliding door to maximise space. Sounds awful, but am sure you can get some decent ones. May be worth paying for a good one to really maximise the available space in the bathroom.

Work out the measurements of the room as if it had no cupboards and then create cutouts of a bath, shower and basic sink to scale and play around with the layout - I’m sure there is an app to help with this. It might surprise you how much you can fir in an empty box!

My bathroom has no cupboards, only a small vanity unit around the sink, I have a heated towel rail as the radiator and nothing else. My spare towels and bedding are in a chest in a bedroom. It looks huge although the dimensions are really quite small.

My bathroom upstairs is even smaller, just the length of a bath and has a toilet and sink as well. I’d convert it into a shower room but it is in a loft conversion and so the sloping room does not leave height for a shower.

I should add that my mum had her bath taken out and a shower put in even though she was warned that it would make the family style house hard to sell - but she said as she had no intentions to move out other than in a wooden box, it did not matter! The estate agent has just told us that the bathroom will not affect the value at all, as long as buyers can see that there is room for a bath, they will buy the house. So my mum made the right decision for her needs.

We took the boiler cupboard out of the bathroom and created enough space for bath with shower over it. You can get well proportioned suites that are just a bit smaller. And think about how much storage you need and can that be created elsewhere. We don’t have a cupboard under the sink as it took up too much floor space.