Combine utility and WC or keep separate?!

casper_gutman

I'd keep the wall, personally. I'm not sure you gain that much storage by having a bigger room which has to fulfill more functions. You might gain some flexibility in how things are arranged, but you lose wall space to store things - e.g. at the moment you can have little shelves or an iron and ironing board hung on the wall backing onto the shower.

Doozergirl

I don't think your proposal is going to make the biggest of differences to any potential buyer, so if it will help you keep a neater house, then just go for it. 

I like the visitor loo to be an attractive space without clutter so I don't really like the fact that the loo is currently through the utility anyway.   

I would do what some others would do and lose the store, access the loo from the hall and create a much bigger utility room - which you could use for some additional storage lost from the store room and even cut in a side door to outside, if you're detached.  

theoretica

If you just combine the utility and loo then you would have a loo right off the kitchen with only a single door between them.  I think building regs used to frown on this but it may have changed.  My preference would probably be for the loo to remain in its own room, and not just off the kitchen - but it could be just a tiny corner room.

theonlywayisup

My pet hate in house design is a cloakroom accessed from the utility.  I do not want people over for dinner to have to walk past my dirty washing to use the loo.  There are parts of a house that only the residents should access and the utility is one of those. Certainly do not make the space one large loo with washing machine in, keep it separate and if funds allow move it out of the utility area. 

Doozergirl

theonlywayisup said:

My pet hate in house design is a cloakroom accessed from the utility.  I do not want people over for dinner to have to walk past my dirty washing to use the loo.  There are parts of a house that only the residents should access and the utility is one of those. Certainly do not make the space one large loo with washing machine in, keep it separate and if funds allow move it out of the utility area. 

I don't like it either, but things can be disguised and made entirely discreet.  My own laundry area is in the kitchen and it's the messiest bit, but it's behind doors!  

That would be a perfect solution where there is no other space available.  

Current situation in our house:

theonlywayisup

Doozergirl said:

theonlywayisup said:

My pet hate in house design is a cloakroom accessed from the utility.  I do not want people over for dinner to have to walk past my dirty washing to use the loo.  There are parts of a house that only the residents should access and the utility is one of those. Certainly do not make the space one large loo with washing machine in, keep it separate and if funds allow move it out of the utility area. 

I don't like it either, but things can be disguised and made entirely discreet.  My own laundry area is in the kitchen and it's the messiest bit, but it's behind doors!  

That would be a perfect solution where there is no other space available.  

Current situation in our house:

Oh that dog! 

Looks nice and is way more preferable than walking through that area to go to the loo (especially if you don't live there).

On a side note.  Ditch the twindos and put your own washing detergent/softener in the containers.  It is very easy to change the menu and have it dispense something better (and cheaper)!

Doozergirl

theonlywayisup said:

Doozergirl said:

theonlywayisup said:

My pet hate in house design is a cloakroom accessed from the utility.  I do not want people over for dinner to have to walk past my dirty washing to use the loo.  There are parts of a house that only the residents should access and the utility is one of those. Certainly do not make the space one large loo with washing machine in, keep it separate and if funds allow move it out of the utility area. 

I don't like it either, but things can be disguised and made entirely discreet.  My own laundry area is in the kitchen and it's the messiest bit, but it's behind doors!  

That would be a perfect solution where there is no other space available.  

Current situation in our house:

Oh that dog! 

Looks nice and is way more preferable than walking through that area to go to the loo (especially if you don't live there).

On a side note.  Ditch the twindos and put your own washing detergent/softener in the containers.  It is very easy to change the menu and have it dispense something better (and cheaper)!

Thanks!  That's timely, I just bought washing tabs yesterday...

What would you recommend and how easy is it to decant?  

phoebe1989seb

In two previous houses we've combined the ground floor loo with the utility (although in one of them we had a second ground floor loo for guests, lol!) and with the benefit of hindsight I'd now not choose to do so.

One of these was directly off the kitchen - it housed a loo, butler sink unit for washing hands/pet bowls etc and storage, washing machine and free standing boiler plus shelving. It was a good space, but although not near the seating or cooking parts of the kitchen, I did always feel that the - architect designed 🙄 - space was badly located. Especially as it also contained the door from kitchen to garden, meaning that unless you went round to the other end of the house (where we had bi-folds from a living room into the garden) this was your access point to the outside space...past the toilet and washing 😮

It created a hideously embarrassing moment on moving day when I came in from the garden to find one of our removal guys sitting on the loo!!!

I'm with Doozer in so many ways - I'd rather my guests had access to fabulous facilities, which is why in our current home we're creating a downstairs loo that will be just that 😉

Due to the awkward layout in our 400 year old home, we also made a laundry area off the kitchen. We do have a boiler room that we were planning to convert into a utility (still keeping the loo separate), but once the boiler was fitted we realised it wouldn't give us enough space for everything else.

I'd definitely keep them separate if I were the OP, and I certainly wouldn't want to walk through one to get to the other. If there are ample upstairs bathing/showering options I wouldn't worry about losing a ground floor shower either. We previously installed one of these for our dogs and rarely used it, preferring to either hose them down outside or bathe them in the bath....

rob7475

OP - I'm not sure how accurate your drawing is so not sure if this is possible or not.

I'd be looking to create a door to the WC from the hallway. Thihs would allow you to block off the door between the WC and utility which would in turn give you more usable space in the current utility.

Personally, I wouldn't want the WC and utility together. I think regs may have changed so you are allowed only one door between kitchen and WC but it's not ideal in my opinion.

If you're planning on staying there a while, I'd try and find a way to get the WC door coming off the hallway - it'll make it more useable.

Ajmason42

As others would not want a loo straight off a kitchen unless it has amazing ventilation. Better to keep separate in my mind