Walk through bedroom layout to separate -floorplan attached

[EuTamm]

Obvious solution would be to make a corridor around bedroom 2 to have separate access to bedroom 3. B2 only window would prevent a corridor going across the room. This would make B2 alot smaller and create wasted space.

Other option I can think of is to remove part of the wall between B2 and B1, making B2 a long bedroom using half of the window of B1. B1 would also be smaller and a window could be added in current cupboard space. Then small corridor across. Imagine this would cost a decent amount.

House is semi-detached with the detached side stairs side.

Help/opinions please.

Is this your house or one you are thinking of buying?

Honestly this is a nightmare design.

A bedroom of a bedroom doesn't even count as a legal bedroom due to fire regulations. If their was a fire near the door of bedroom two, everyone in bedroom two and three would be trapped.

If you add a corridor your going to make the bedrooms small and bedroom two an odd nearly unusable shape as the original external wall (looks like it was extended?) and bathroom eat into it.

If your are considering buying it I wouldn't bother. If you own it an interesting solution might be to brick up the join of two and three and see if you can add a dedicated stairway into three depending on whats under that room.

Could the bathroom be moved to the front of the house, where the cupboard is in bedroom 1? The bathroom would then become part of the corridor and you would be able to create access to all three bedrooms from the corridor.

Moving the bathroom to the front doesn't solve the issue of a windowless bedroom. Are bedrooms legal if you put a skylight in? Is that enough of a window?

Using the image to check out the house via Google lens, that's never gonna work.

The audacity to call that a bedroom 😕

That’s a 2-bed.

It's all so pokey and just awful www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163633373#/?channel=RES_BUY

There's never going to be a good solution that leaves you with 3 usable bedrooms.

If you really need three bedrooms, the only option I can see that doesn’t involve too much expensive work, is to make the corridor between the landing and bedroom three by reducing bedroom two into a tiny box room like bedroom with an interior window..
Other than that, I would buy a different house.

If you can handle a two bedroomed house, you have the option of using bedroom two as as major storage, by building massive cupboards and making it into the corridor that it is. You could include an emergency Murphy bed for odd times when some one needs to sleep over.
But it should be priced as a two bedroomed property.

Many wont be, the reason bedrooms need a window is as a secondary fire escape.

I think the house should have been designed with the staircase on the other side. There's no reasonable solution to this that leaves bedroom 2 with a window.

Yes, I agree...

Although back in the mists of time, it would have been considered ok! But surely not when this house was built/extended?

Our last house was a 400 year old agricultural building that was converted to a house when it was still the norm to have outside facilities. At that point there were three bedrooms, one of which could only be accessed through the middle room.

In the late 1990s (or so we were told) a previous owner divided the middle bedroom into two - a bathroom and large landing/hallway. But they did it in such a way that the large bathroom was windowless (a pet hate of mine) whilst the landing had a window overlooking the 0.5 acre garden and surrounding countryside.

We reconfigured the layout so the bathroom had the window instead of the hall which involved creating a new corridor and moving the entrance to bed 2 too. It was a huge faff (fortunately we're good at building work!), but worked far better imo, although we had to lose a chunk off one of the bedrooms to create the corridor.

However, we weren't losing a bedroom as we bought it as a two bed. Whereas in the case of the house @EuTamm is looking at, I can't see it being possible to gain independent access to all bedrooms without severely compromising the size of one. This might be possible by making a circuitous corridor along the windowless wall of bed 2 to bed 3 which would then need its door relocated.

I like a challenge, but personally I'd be looking for a different house if three beds is a necessity.

Is there space in the room below bedroom 3 to add an additional staircase?

I’d avoid that house.

Who would be using the bedrooms? We made a partition wall in our big bedroom so the children had their own space but it did mean one had to walk through the others room. It has never caused any major issues as they grew up used to it.

Thank you, moving the bathroom could work or adding an additional staircase in the current dining room but I think it'll be too costly/hassle -it's a house we'd be buying.

it’s not the right house for you it seems

Adding a stairs is cheap enough, its just like a attic hatch hole and pre-made stairs which can be bought for a few hundred. Storage companies can often do it for under £1,000 as they do them for easy access attics etc...

The issue will be if their are any regulations to adhere to such as fire proof doors and creating hallways to make it a 'legal' and 'safe' solution. Depends what the room is going to be used for as bedrooms often have the strictest rules.

I wouldn't buy this house. It's completely impractical and would be very expensive to change.

I didn't spot the windowless bedroom issue. OP - do you actually need three bedrooms? I think the best option for this house would be to move the wall for bedroom three, making it bigger, then have bedroom as an open area for a study (or laundry area or something else useful that doesn't need to be in an enclosed room). If the bathroom was also moved there would be light from a window but it'd be cheaper to leave the bathroom as is.

This is no good if you actually need three bedrooms though. Basically, it's a really awkward layout and there's no easy fix. It's best as a two bed with a useful space separating the two bedrooms.

This is how the Victorians would do it - staircase on the other side and further back. This would be a big job though and would involve rejigging the downstairs too. I wouldn’t.

Window in bed 2 should be access to new bathroom extension attached to bed 3. Old shower room then is added to bed 2 and a corridor formed. Costly and probably not worth it. If that wall is the exterior one, it’s best to extend on that side and put in windows.