En Suite or Not - Your Preference

[FolkloreEvermore1989]

Hi all!

I’d love to get your views on our options in our renovation.

We already have one family bathroom which we are refitting. It’s not that big and has limited storage, but it does have a bath and shower etc.

Our plan was to then build an ensuite in the corner of the master bedroom. It would be small - just a shower, sink, toilet. It would have a pocket door to save space.

Other people have done it in our house type. I know it’s possible… Our builder has cleared it and is due to start in a couple of weeks.

The problem is it makes the rest of the room quite small. We’ve done the maths and with fitted wardrobes on the opposite wall (we’d put drawers in here) you’d end up with about 65cm space to move around a king sized bed. And that’s it for floor space.

For storage, we also have a large wardrobe in the spare bedroom for the rest of our clothes.

We have two small children and I know it would make our lives easier to have a second bathroom, especially as they get older or at nighttime so we don’t disturb them after bedtime.

But thinking of resale in a decade or so - what would you prefer? En suite which makes the room smaller, or only one bathroom and four bedrooms?

thank you!

I'm a fan of en-suites, but it depends on your room size and bathroom size? If its shoe horned in and tiny, then its not so good. In a previous property, we put in a sink/toilet combo like the pic under stairs. It wasn't ideal, but if space is at a premium, its an option. You could then have the shower at 1 end and the toilet/sink at the other.

Get a sheet/towels or a rope and measure out the room size on the floor. Then pretend to bend over to dry your feet, body etc. If you end up hitting the 'walls' then its too small to be practical.

I also found this:
What is the smallest space you can fit an en-suite?
Generally, the minimum space that you’ll need for an en-suite that is fitted with a basin, toilet and shower is approximately 0.8m by 1.8m. With this size space, remember that the bathroom door will need to open outwards.

I don't want an ensuite unless the house is big enough for one, I don't want a caravan style shower room wedged into the corner of a bedroom. I wouldn't rip one like that out but I wouldn't buy a house with that set up , especially if it also made the main bedroom small. DH is 6'4 and a super king bed is necessary for us plus the usual bedroom furniture

I discount bungalows/houses where they have taken space off the bedroom, for an en-suite. I’d much prefer a bigger bedroom! Equally important though is a downstairs toilet!

Agree that if it’s going to be a windowless cramped en suite I wouldn’t bother.

Provided you have a downstairs loo (teenagers take FOREVER) what I would do is leave it as a bigger room. If, as part of the main bathroom refit it's possible to route the services to that corner of the bedroom, then it's there to make an easier job should you change your mind/wish to sell with that already a possibility.

I don't like ensuites because I like everyone to be able to access the toilets in the night. I even wondered if it would be possible to change our ensuite so that everyone can access it (move the door that goes from bedroom to bathroom so that instead it goes from hall to bathroom). I like having two toilets upstairs and one downstairs. If space constraints, though, would rather have decent size bedroom and one decent size bathroom upstairs than carve bedroom up into tiny ensuite. Also ventilation issues? Steamy shower, poo smells. And if you aren't going to shower or poo in there ... what's the point?

If you've got the space for it to have enough room to move around it, and its own window, that's one thing, but most en-suites I've seen are stuffy cupboards crammed into the corner of a bedroom. A poky en-suite would put me off a house.

I guess I just don't get the appeal of having a toilet in your bedroom. We've managed to raise three kids to adulthood with just the one bathroom between us, plus two separate loos, one of them downstairs. So between the three separate rooms, we managed ok.

Love our en suites, we have two plus a main bathroom. People are weird about them on mn

I don't for the life of me see the point of a en suite... utterly useless to have a private bathroom unless your a hotel or HMO.

Having 2 WC/bathroom with one upstairs and one downstairs is the best for a family home.

Not useless at all, we have our en-suite, dc 1 has their own and dc 2 uses the main bathroom. No fighting over toilets or showers and a god send now they’re older.

I love my en-suite and would prefer a smaller bedroom with one than a large bedroom without.

We’ve just bought a 4-bed flat and “more than one toilet or space to put one in” was a key criteria (there are 5 of us, and someone always wants to look when I’m in the shower!). That said, I also really don’t like en-suites (just personal pretence!). Sorry that’s not much help!

We have a four bed house. Two bathrooms upstairs (one ensuite) and a downstairs WC. Whilst I like the ensuite it was never a deal breaker. In some ways extra space would be nice. Our last house didn't have one, and we managed fine. I wouldn't pay extra for a house with ensuite. Now a walk in wardrobe would be the dream...

I would want two shower rooms upstairs in a four bedroom house , assuming the bedrooms are all upstairs. Whether or not one is ensuite is really neither here nor there.

65cm round the bed is really small. I wouldn’t buy a house that has done that.

basically if you ask on here you’ll get a million different responses so best off doing what suits you best!

If your bedroom is not very big and you are worried about making it smaller, is there any way you could lose the fourth (smallest) bedroom and create another decent sized bathroom out of that?

I'd much rather have three decent sized bedrooms and two bathrooms, than have four bedrooms and only one bathroom, or four bedrooms but where the master and the en-suite are both really pokey.