Keep separate bathroom & loo, or knock through?

[CoffeeCakeAndALattePlease]

We bought a fixer upper and are (very slowly) working through our plans.

Upstairs is a (fairly small) bathroom and separate loo and we can’t decide whether to keep them separate or knock together to create a more spacious room. I guess I’m worried as the landing will be smaller and it may feel a bit cramped.

we do have a separate downstairs loo so it’s not a problem really if someone needs to go when the bathroom is in use.

what have other people done?

thanks 😊

I would knock through , as if you need to use the loo whilst in the bath you don’t have to walk across the landing. 🤣

Pic attached for reference.

We have separate but it's the only loo so brilliant if someone is in the bathroom and another needs to go.
We're planning on adding a downstairs loo in the future and will keep it separate upstairs because we're used to it

We had a similar set up and knocked through the make a larger family bathroom. Strangely, the toilet was in a separate little room, and the bidet was in the bathroom next to the bath. 😆
You will have more room, because the current design has 2 doors taking up space. I would always have the door hung on a bathroom to swing outwards for safety. Another option could be a sliding door running along the wall next to the current toilet.

Sliding door is a good idea. The current loo door drives me mad!

I would add a loo to the existing bathroom, looks as if there is room and rip the single loo out to make room.for a spacious airing cupboard!

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Definitely knock through, that way you are going to add square footage that is currently being taken up by the door in between them.

Everyone knocks through, I personally think separate is much better as you aren’t waiting for someone else to get out the bathroom for the loo.
it’s also slightly more hygienic.

You can get wash basins that are part of the toilet cistern if that helps the space issue

Is it more hygienic? People have to unlock and open a door, and move to a different room to wash their hands?
If I had to have it separate, I'd want the sink in with the toilet.

I love having a separate loo and bathroom. Long relaxing baths with no interruptions! We have a downstairs loo also, but certain people prefer specific toilets. 🙄

Set ups like this freak me out. All I can think of is people unlocking, opening and closing door handles with unwashed hands until they get to the sink in the separate room. If you can get a sink in there, that answers any worries for me and would probably be a heck of a lot cheaper. The current set up actively puts me off properties.

Knock through so it's not a bathroom with no window.

Definitely knock through - that will free up space for a standalone shower as well as a bath.

Ignore this. I hadn't seen the other window.

Yes this is what I hate about them too.

I'd never buy a house like that. The people who talk about how it's great because you don't have to wait if someone is in the shower, where do you then wash your hands? Downstairs in the kitchen?

Separate

There are toilets that include a basin inbuilt on top of the cistern, recycling the water for the flush.

My ILs had an almost identical setup to yours, OP, and when they knocked through I couldn't believe how spacious it was. They were able to fit in a big corner bath, good-sized shower cubicle, heated towel rail, built-in vanity storage under the sink and behind the loo. And still loads of floor space. They bricked-up the window in the separate loo in order to accommodate the shower cubicle plus bathroom window is pretty big and lets in plenty of light.

I would want to ensure a long private bath were possible so a separate loo is probably my choice.

I wouldn’t change our separate one for the world! I love it.
ETA the toilet is a lovely size with a full size basin and the bathroom is large enough for a bath and separate shower (and still room to add a loo had we wished to). So there would be no “feeling of space” benefit by knocking through (not that we could because the stairs are in the way).

Is there not room for both? You have a cupboard at the end of the bath. Could you put the sink there and put another toilet where the sink is? If you leave the toilet as separate you must put a sink in with it otherwise people still have to come into the bathroom to use the sink. All these unwashed hands opening and closing doors. Another idea would be to replace the bath with a shower so you have room for a toilet and still keep the separate toilet ( with a sink over it).

Bathroom and loo each have a window so if we knock through it’ll have 2 😊

We had a house just like this and chose to knock through. The bathroom was really
small before and it started to be an issue once we had a baby to bath as there wasn't room to turn around even.

As long as there is a downstairs loo so that you don't get disturbed when having a bath I would
always want to know just through for the space.

Is the cupboard in the bathroom a hot water tank? If so you could replace your boiler with a combi one and you wouldn’t need the hot water tank.