Loft conversion layout dilemma

[Toots]

My stairs are on the left, so you can picture this: I had in mind initially, a bedroom with a shower room entered seperately (important) to the right as you come up, ie over stairs at front. Only seen this once (normally ensuite) Looked neat although did make for long skinny bedroom. Just me up there so less of a problem and plenty room for cupbards down the window end.

Builder's concerns about head height and soil stack mean we are about to sign for a much better proportioned bedroom and less head-height compromising shower room which will be entered seperately (still very important) along the whole of the new rear dormer.

The two times I've seen this, I've thought, very nice, but no proper window in the bedroom, apart from the velux.

His suggestion is to have a long thin panel of glass or glass bricks across the top of the wall seperating the bedroom from the shower room. I think this might be fab but I hve that gnawing churning thing going on.

I think which ever we do there is a bit of a compromise but which would bug you more? long thin room, slightly cramped shower room or second version with no proper window with curtains (velux blinds besides) but more commodious shower room and nicely proportioned bedroom?

Also, what's bugging me is all those people who have the shower room on the side, how is their loo getting to the soil? Or are they all macerators.

Don't want to kiss goodbye to first plan without more digging around.

I personally would hate to be in a room where you couldn't look out of the window at the view. It would make me feel claustrophobic, so I would go for your original plan myself. We are buying a house with a loft conversion already done with a separate shower room that is straight ahead of you at the top of the stairs and the entrance to the bedroom to the right. The room is long but doesn't feel narrow at all and is very sunny because of the the large normal window. I wouldn't worry about a small shower room as it isn't the main bathroom in the house. Personally I don't like the glass brick idea just for privacy really, but if it is just you using the bathroom then this might not matter.

do you have any similar houses in your road with loft conversions??
i couldn't envisage anything until I had seen one.
is it going to be your room?
I couldn't deal with it being cramped, but also not very nice to be too close to the bathroom

The proportions will be great. I am going for it.

Look out for questions about wet rooms... actually I will search the archives now.

The thing about velux windows is that they let light into the room and it really doesn't feel claustrophobic.

Spooky Mumsnet co-incidence. I am wrestling with this very dilemma right now!

To answer your question about soil, Toots, one way of doing it (as proposed by my rather cunning architect father) is to embed the soil pipe in the solid walls dividing bedrooms 1 and 2 on the first floor and sitting room/dining room on the ground floor. This solution obviously will only work if a) these walls are located straight on top of each other and b) they are 6" (or more) solid walls.

I think we might have slightly more room for manouvre than you, Toots, sincen our bathroom option b) involves the stairs turning towards the attic bedroom with a number of winder steps at the top, so that the last few flights are parallel to the back wall. The bathroom being squeezed into the 5 ft space between the head of the stairs and the back wall.

I'm not so keen on that, even though the bathroom won't extend across the whole of the back wall. Personally I prefer the option with the shower room at the front, under a velux window. I really don't like attic bedrooms where you can't see out easily. Provided the room is wide enough, I wouldn't be too bothered about it being long compared to its width - you could perhaps use some of the length for a balcony if you have a real excess of length.

Are you having a mansard/box extension at the back? If not maybe that's an option to look at. Although I know it is more expensive.

our lounge is in the attic with velux windows- no dormer and I have never once felt claustrophobic in fact it is my favourite room in the house- so light and airy- but that is because it has 4 velux windows. I do think you need to have either 2 big ones either side of the apex or 4 small ones for it to feel light and airy.

Oh and a word of warning about wet rooms, Toots - is the house an old one? If so, and if there's any sign at all of movement, it's really not worth considering on an upper floor. We put a walk in shower into our first floor bathroom in an older (and moving) house.

We've just spent another 3 grand to fix the resulting leaky mess. I know plumbers will tell you that these problems are all fixable with careful installation, but I'd urge extreme caution in taking their word for it!

Thats good to know Thandeka. We will have two velux over the front plus the light panel just below ceiling height letting light in from the bathroom.

Gizmo, there will be a full dormer at the rear. We do have solid walls between those rooms but not sure if the walls are directly on top of each other.

We are at the top of what we can spend. We're having an L shaped dormer over the rear addition for a study too. A real note of caution about the wet room. Yes the house is 1900. Does yours have tiles over a tray but not a watertight enclosure? Why did it leak so badly? Was it all down to movement. and yes, ours does move.

Sorry Toots only just seen this. To answer your question, the wetroom shower had a tray that fitted flush with the floor (so you had to cut down the joists to support it) and created the falls necessary. The entire shower enclosure (including the floor for quite some distance in front of the shower) was then tanked with a sticky, waterproof plastic lining that sealed around the drain. The tiles were cut to fit floor and shower and applied on top of the plastic liner with a flexible waterproof grout. And then sealed.

Six months later, the house had settled somewhat (to be fair the shower was right against the junction between old, moving part of the house and new, I'm not going anywhere, I have foundations to the centre of the earth, extension) and the damn thing leaked like a sieve - water appearing from under the tiles around the bathroom door every time you had a shower. Was very irritating.