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 😊

Possibly.
if we open it up we would probably use the landing space as it feels quite a pokey bathroom and we want to get a bigger bath and a shower cubicle in. And probably move the loo to make the layout better. We definitely wouldn’t knock through solely to have the loo in the same room.

I was surprised to find that we can fit a bath into what is now the separate loo. It's easy to underestimate the space, as when you sit on the loo the cistern is behind you, and the door takes up space in front, so it all looks cramped and there is no useable space. Moving the bath in there has really freed up space for more options. There was no room for a sink before, but there is room for a large bath - it seems odd, but that is the case.

those talking about hand washing, we have a sink in the separate toilet, if we didn't we would definitely have knocked through!

Knock it through hundred percent

I’d put the bathroom in bedroom 3
then make the loo and bathroom into a bedroom

We put a basin in the room with the toilet, so you could handwash without needing to go elsewhere, and kept them separate. I much prefer them in two separate rooms. We then put in a downstairs toilet and I still prefer having the upstairs one separate!

Knock through. I hate separate toilets as everyone can hear what you're doing and you can't wash your hands.

Def knock through to make a bigger bathroom (how weird the loo doesn't have a sink) and use the landing space. DO NOT use a sliding door unless it has great sound insulation. IME sliding doors allow as much noise to float out as a door left open. Sure someone will disagree...

And also put in the bath and shower. Re. the hot water tank, even if you don't have one now, you might need one again as we switch over to air source heat pumps. Just a thought.

Same

Knick through

We had the exact same layout in
our old house. Bought the house confident we would knock through but actually once we moved in we realised how much nicer it is having the loo separate. The bathroom feels so much nicer without a toilet in! We changed the loo to one with a sink in it. Like this…www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/bun%2fbeba_26897%2f77418/legend-bunbeba_2689777418-toilet

I have been looking at these for the same situation- tiny standalone toilet with no sink and then a bathroom with no toilet. Assume the sink is cold water only? Or is it hot as well?

Yes it’s just cold. And the water you wash your hands wigh then goes into the cistern. They are a brilliant design.

There are many good reasons to not put a loo in the bathroom, the main one being that you should never have a toilet in the same room as your toothbrush or your towels, you can look up the reasons why, but you might not want to!

Or you could keep your toothbrushes in a cabinet over the sink. A lot of bathroom cabinets now tend to include charging points for electric toothbrushes.

OP what did you go with?

We spent the money on a holiday 😂 still not done the bathroom!

Think we will knock through though.

I would go with a holiday in most cases! Thanks for the update.

That’s the exact layout of my house before works. I knocked through, but put a huge walk in shower where your current loo is. I moved the loo to where your current sink is, then moved the sink to the wall opposite where yours is now. It works really well.

A downstairs loo and shower room is planned for when I have saved up to do the kitchen diner extension…

I was wondering where your loft hatch and access ladder would go, but then I read that you were planning a loft conversion, so the point is moot.

If it were me I'd knock the wall through, it's amazing how much space even a wall takes up and you can reconfigure the ceramics to fit the room more efficiently.

I’d keep them separate but put a sink in the bathroom

If your bathroom is small and you have a downstairs toilet then I would knock through.

I’d leave it but add a hand basin

I know this is an old thread, but if anyone is following for ideas, we got one of those integral-sink loos for downstairs, and put in a thermostatic tap, so you get hot and cold water.

The sink is tiny, but for washing your hands it is fine. The only snag is that if you flush first you have to wait for the water pressure to get high enough to run hot, but that could be because of our ancient plumbing. It's a lot better than no sink, though (our downstairs loo used to be an outside one, so there was just the toilet in there).

I have a separate loo, with a hand basin integral to the cistern. This, to me, is the perfect arrangement.
I think with some jiggling, you could get a shower into the bathroom, which would be my preference.