New builds. Do you really need three toilets in a 2 bed mid/semi?

ArbitraryRandom

housebuyer143 said:

Always need a downstairs toilet for so many reasons but no need for an ensuite in a 2 bed house unless it's a massive property and it has plenty of space for it, which we know new builds do not have.

I've been thinking the same reading the thread as people have posted. My preference is for a full bath/shower room and separate a toilet/sink. I don't really care which is upstairs or downstairs, but I do dislike en suites. 

lookstraightahead

It's quantifiable at dinner parties and purely a marketing gimmick to sell houses. 

We have one big bathroom and we are converting it to a smaller full shower room and then a toilet and sink (probably one of those where the sink is the cistern).

mi-key

lookstraightahead said:

It's quantifiable at dinner parties and purely a marketing gimmick to sell houses. 

We have one big bathroom and we are converting it to a smaller full shower room and then a toilet and sink (probably one of those where the sink is the cistern).

I guess telling people you have an en suite at dinner parties scores more points than saying you basically have a toilet in your bedroom 

mi-key

sheramber said:

Downstairs loo is ideal when you have children running and out to use the toilet.  It saves them trailing muck upstairs.

My last two house had a toilet in the garage which was handy   when needing the loo while woking  outside and appreciated by the workmen working on our garage.

My friends dad had a very big garage / workshop / man cave at the end of his fairly long garden. He installed a urinal so he wouldn't have to walk back to the house to go

MobileSaver

RelievedSheff said:

We were never bothered about an en suite until we bought this house. Wouldn't be without one now.

^ This. I suspect the vast majority of people who say they don't like en-suites on principle have never actually lived in a house with one.

The advantages are so numerous and the negatives so few (the one exception being in the OP's case where the space could perhaps be put to better use) that few people would go back to a shared bathroom in their next home.

In a similar vein I predict with utmost confidence that boiling water taps in the kitchen will eventually be de rigueur in new builds.

Sapindus

mi-key said:

 fairly long garden. He installed a urinal so he wouldn't have to walk back to the house to go

Is this not what compost heaps are for?

lookstraightahead

MobileSaver said:

RelievedSheff said:

We were never bothered about an en suite until we bought this house. Wouldn't be without one now.

^ This. I suspect the vast majority of people who say they don't like en-suites on principle have never actually lived in a house with one.

The advantages are so numerous and the negatives so few (the one exception being in the OP's case where the space could perhaps be put to better use) that few people would go back to a shared bathroom in their next home. In a similar vein I predict with utmost confidence that boiling water taps in the kitchen will eventually be de rigueur in new builds.

I think it really depends what is meant by en suite. 

Proper size is nice, the feeling of being locked in a wardrobe isn't though. 

Enough toilets for lifestyle I think is useful. 

I agree with the boiling water tap scenario. It's the way to go.

lookstraightahead

mi-key said:

lookstraightahead said:

It's quantifiable at dinner parties and purely a marketing gimmick to sell houses. 

We have one big bathroom and we are converting it to a smaller full shower room and then a toilet and sink (probably one of those where the sink is the cistern).

I guess telling people you have an en suite at dinner parties scores more points than saying you basically have a toilet in your bedroom 

This is true 

peter3hg

Some of you go to very strange dinner parties if you're discussing the bathroom situation in your house.

There is a very weird attitude that if you personally don't like something and it doesn't fit your lifestyle then it is just a marketing gimmick.

My grandmother refused until her death in the early 90s to have an inside toilet installed in her farmhouse as it was "unclean" and just a fashionable gimmick that would soon disappear.

Silvertabby

peter3hg said:

Some of you go to very strange dinner parties if you're discussing the bathroom situation in your house.

There is a very weird attitude that if you personally don't like something and it doesn't fit your lifestyle then it is just a marketing gimmick.

My grandmother refused until her death in the early 90s to have an inside toilet installed in her farmhouse as it was "unclean" and just a fashionable gimmick that would soon disappear.

When we bought our house my late mother initially refused to believe that we had 3 toilets (bathroom, en-suite, downstairs cloakroom) "because why on earth would you need 3 toilets when you've only got 2 *rses between you".

She was like peter's gran - "indoor toilets are unhygienic" - and a friend remembers her dad talking about neighbours, who had just had a full bathroom installed, and calling them "filthy b*ggers who sh*t indoors.

Times move on.  Having an en-suite and a bathroom is an absolute boon when we have guests, and the downstairs loo is easily accessible from the back door, so handy when I'm gardening.