Increasing size of bathroom - architect or designer needed?

GarretC

Hello,
Was wondering if people with more experience can help me with my plans for a house I'm buying.

The house has a toilet and shower downstairs, and a tiny family bathroom upstairs. Currently is a 4 bed, but really we only need 3 for now, and will go into the loft in time.

A really nice bathroom is important to us, so we were considering knocking the bathroom into bedroom 3, and maybe moving the wall with bedroom 4 so as to add an extra foot or so for bedroom 4.

For planning this type of renovation, would you engage an architect or a designer? Or just get a good builder & bathroom fitters involved?

Teapot55

As your utility room  is under Bedroom 3, possibly you could make Bedroom 3 into a new bathroom and use the existing bathroom to make an en-suite bathroom and a dressing room for Bedroom 4. 

Depends where the soil pipe is though. 

Possibly building firms handle projects as a whole and use an architect and/or structural engineer and/or designer as they feel is necessary. 

Doozergirl

You don't need an architect.

I don't think you'd  need a structural engineer either as there's no reason why any of those smaller walls should be structural, but a builder needs to confirm.  

I don't do imperial measurements.  Is the floorplan not in metric?   It should be.   

On the face of it, you need about 170-180cm (to fit a bath perfectly) by about a minimum of 240cm.  As long as the door is in the middle of the room, you can have a lovely layout in the area where Bed 3 is.   You only need a bit more room, (mind you, taking a wall out and replacing it costs the same wherever you move it to)   

Your layout should have the bath to the left, door in the middle (window opposite it) and then the toilet and sink on the right hand wall.   Toilet nearest to the external wall facing the bath (preferably a back to wall pan in a unit or within a stud wall) and a lovely large sink unit with plenty of storage next to it.   You can have a great big mirror that fills the entire wall.  

That's all you need for a room that feels spacious.   For me, the most important thing is that the bath fits wall to wall so that you don't have any unusable space at the end.  

GarretC

Yes, unfortunately it's in imperial (taken from marketing materials). 

 - Bedroom Three (2.21m x 2.64m (7'3" x 8'7")
 - Fitted Bathroom (2.13m x 1.63m (7'0 x 5'4)
 - Bedroom Four (3.35m x 3.12m (11'0 x 10'3)

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I think an experienced builder and bathroom fitters should be able to give us all the guidance we need (and my much more stylish other-half!)

kdotdotdotdot

And don't forget to get building control involved at some point!  I always thought that the builder would do that, but apparently not always.

Rosa_Damascena

kdotdotdotdot said:

And don't forget to get building control involved at some point!  I always thought that the builder would do that, but apparently not always.

It's a good measure of the builder hired.

Rosa_Damascena

Your kitchen is just begging for a side return, OP! Think about it in time.

Dvnfermling

I increased the size of my bathroom about 12 years ago. On the advice of the builder I submitted my plans to a structural engineer who carried out the weight calculations because I wanted it fully tiled. It ended up that I had to reinforce the floor joists. Depending on your design it may be worth getting an engineer to put your mind at ease.