Second bathroom and no room.

[letsfaceitwhoisnt]

Morning, we live in an Edwardian semi with 4 bedrooms (one is a loft room that was built with the house) and one bathroom.

Kids are getting to the point where one bathroom is not cutting it. They have somehow managed to time their bowel movements so they need the toilet at exactly the same time every day, theres genuine fights breaking out over who goes first and quite frankly I'm sick to death of it.

We are in a conservation area and have looked into extending but for the size we can extend it is just not worth the money for us. We've also recently remodelled the kitchen which is where the extension would have been.

We have 3 large(ish) rooms downstairs, kitchen, a lounge and the other a playroom, 2 large rooms upstairs (master bedroom and kids room), one average size (other kids bedroom) and a tiny bathroom. Sharing rooms isn't an option as we have one child with ASD who doesn't sleep. We also have cellars that aren't converted and are just used for storage.

The loft has quite a low ceiling and slopes with the eaves so some areas you can't stand up in. We use this as a home office and guest bedroom. Outside the loft is a small space where we have storage cupboards / wardrobe etc.

I really don't want to move, I love our house and the road we are on, it's close to school and we're in catchment for a brilliant high school.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to put a second bathroom, would the best idea to be hire an architect to give us some suggestions? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Does it need to be a full bathroom?

We only had a downstairs bathroom. I managed to squeeze a toilet and sink into an upstairs cupboard with is barely more than a metre square.

It's not perfect but means you can go for a wee in the night without going downstairs and stops the door hammering.

Or can you section off some of the playroom or squeeze something under the stairs?

Do you have a floorplan as you'll need to consider where your plumbing is.

@UnderTheStairs51 yes we've got a floor plan. The plumbing goes up into the larger bedroom upstairs and the space outside the loft I think so I'm wondering if an option would be to put one there a tiny toilet and sink?
That's good for thought thanks so much. Would an architect be the best port of get a proper idea if this would work do you know?

I'd get in architect in to draw up some options and plans because they usually good at coming up with clever solutions.

A house I viewed recently had an outside loo attached to the garden shed as there wasn't any room inside for one. A friend had an office built in the garden with a shower room installed. There are lots of alternative options available. How much space do you have under your stairs?

An architect could help although a reasonable builder with experience in your area so similar sort of houses will know how its been done and be cheaper/more practical in my experience..

The main things with positioning toilets is sewage drains & ventilation
Draw floorplans and note where your soil stack is...

The easier a new toilet can connect to the existing plumbing the better ..

In a similar house we had few options... But our builder really helped

We extended over our kitchen - if your kitchen juts out (so that the footprint of your downstairs is larger than upstairs) you could do the same. Would be easier with a floorplan for people to comment?
Re: getting an architect in - we got a builder in, then an architect, asking 'how can we improve this layout, we want 2 bathrooms but no space, what are the options, how about a loft conversion?' and neither of them came up with the 'obvious' solution of 'put an upper floor extension over your kitchen'. Disappointing, as I had been expecting the architect in particular to have some bright ideas, but no - nothing.

Are you able to share the florrplan of your house? That way we can make suggestions?

It's hard to comment without seeing a floor plan, but I would look at converting the wardrobe area outside the loft into a shower room plus loo and also putting in a downstairs loo under the stairs.
You mention cellar space - I'm wondering if putting a bathroom down there is feasible, especially if you can't do a bathroom in the loft. It might be too expensive, but possibly worth floating it past a plumber.

You're in a semi - do you know if your neighbours have done anything similar? It's always worth looking at how others with the same floor plan have solved this problem.

If the road has identical houses, ask around and see if any of your neighbours have managed an extra bathroom. The area outside the guest bedroom sounds most likely though (and, if possible, I'd nibble into the guest room to get a shower in too).

En suite in the master bedroom

‘You mention cellar space - I'm wondering if putting a bathroom down there is feasible, especially if you can't do a bathroom in the loft. It might be too expensive, but possibly worth floating it past a plumber.’

you would almost certainly need a pump, as it would be below the drain level. Very noisy, not always very reliable ( and could have very adverse effects in high water level events.)

Additional toilet rather than full bathroom would be cheaper.

Under stairs is the choice for many, also possibly loft or cellar.

Could you carve an en-suite out of the master bedroom?

I just asked a plumber when he was round doing other things.

I think you'd only need an architect if you are significantly remodeling to accommodate it.

If it's a case of 'I want to put a stud wall here and is it possible to connect to the waste' a builder can probably answer that.

Just remember to take the depth of the stud walls into account when measuring up potential spaces.

You can also do quite a bit with say shaving the corners off a space to accommodate a door etc.

We go on a lot of static caravan holidays and seeing what they could fit in a space was what persuaded me our cupboard could work.

Can you just put on a washroom instead of a bathroom? It would take up far less space. We put a toilet and basin in on the second floor, converted from a large walk in wardrobe accessed from DS1's bedroom. Then we put another door the other side so DS2 could also access it, Jack and Jill style. But if there isn't currently downstairs I'd go for that, under the stairs possibly.

My builder designed my tiny en suite in the loft conversion, didn't need to pay an architect, and it's great. He even fitted a bath into it, which he was very proud of, hadn't the heart to tell him i only shower😂 the shower head went at highest point and toilet in sloping bit for obvious reasons. He fitted a cupboard, cut away to fit over the bulkhead of stairs with a bowl sink. The whole room probably measures 5 feet square (or whatever length of normal bath is but you can get shorter ones).