Where to put bathroom

Teapot55

Wondering where we can move our bathroom to. 

Here’s the downstairs, showing the existing tiny bathroom right at the back:
(The dashed lines indicate where the drains are). 

Would like to add small extension and combine with existing kitchen to make a kitchen-diner with views onto the garden. 

Here’s the upstairs:

We could definitely have a small shower room or a bathroom with a bath incorporated into the upstairs layout, but ideally we’d like to keep some sort of downstairs toilet (wc plus wash handbasin). 

Seems sensible to engage a builder when we have a firmer idea of what we want. 

A lot of houses in our area are designed like this. 120 years old. Would rather not move as area and immediate neighbours are great and we’re near everything: parks, local shops, good bus routes, station, superstores, coast etc. 

Suggestions please!

Doozergirl

The simplest way would be to bring the bathroom into where the kitchen is now.  If you can make it 2.4m wide with the door in the middle, then it only needs to extend 1.8m into the existing kitchen area from the rear reception room.  Extend into the side return and take the rear extension as far as you need it to be.  

Or, if the back room is to become somewhat redundant, bring the bathroom into the top left of the rear reception room and then you can knock out the whole of the back wall and extend as far as you want.    The rest of the rear reception becomes part of your new kitchen diner.  

Teapot55

Thanks, @Doozergirl we will have a look at that 😊
Teapot

Teapot55

Hmmm. 

Might we be ‘onto a sticky wicket’ extending over the sewer? For information, where the dashed lines meet, bottom right hand side of the drawing (in my original post) is where the inspection hatch is. 

Doozergirl

Teapot55 said:

Hmmm. 

Might we be ‘onto a sticky wicket’ extending over the sewer? For information, where the dashed lines meet, bottom right hand side of the drawing (in my original post) is where the inspection hatch is. 

You can't build over an inspection chamber, you would ordinarily have to divert the sewer or move the chamber along the line.  You can build over the pipes, just not a chamber.  

If the neighbours have inspection access close by then you may get away with building over if you can acceptably connect your waste to the sewer.  

You're going to need some creative professional advice to advise on what your best options are.  

If you went with my option 2, you could still gain a huge amount of benefit from a full side return extension. 

Even if you then put a new inspection chamber right at the edge of the boundary you could extend further and cut the corner where the chamber is.  Have a diagonal wall/window even.  

You've still got plenty of options.  

ashe

Have you priced up your extension already and looked at properties that are already extended and solved this problem / don't have it?

i often see extended properties for sale and they've not got what the cost of an extension is these days added to their value. 

Teapot55

Doozergirl said:

Teapot55 said:

Hmmm. 

Might we be ‘onto a sticky wicket’ extending over the sewer? For information, where the dashed lines meet, bottom right hand side of the drawing (in my original post) is where the inspection hatch is. 

You can't build over an inspection chamber, you would ordinarily have to divert the sewer or move the chamber along the line.  You can build over the pipes, just not a chamber.  

If the neighbours have inspection access close by then you may get away with building over if you can acceptably connect your waste to the sewer.  

You're going to need some creative professional advice to advise on what your best options are.  

If you went with my option 2, you could still gain a huge amount of benefit from a full side return extension. 

Even if you then put a new inspection chamber right at the edge of the boundary you could extend further and cut the corner where the chamber is.  Have a diagonal wall/window even.  

You've still got plenty of options.  

Thanks, Doozergirl. 

I hoped that would be the case, that you can build over sewers. But that access to the inspection chamber still needs to be kept. 

My reservations about building out into the side return are mainly based on us then only being able to access gutters etc from our neighbour’s property. Maybe too loss of light to the existing rear reception if we kept that, which would be our preferred option. Maybe velux-type windows in the roof would overcome this? We would welcome lots more daylight!

Additionally we are on good terms with our neighbour and we have discussed building out with him in the past. He was quite taken with the idea and there’s a distinct possibility he would want to go for the same plan at the same time. Currently he has a ramshackle lean-to in his side return that was erected by the previous occupant. 

Professional advice sounds like a good idea. 

Teapot55

ashe said:

Have you priced up your extension already and looked at properties that are already extended and solved this problem / don't have it?

i often see extended properties for sale and they've not got what the cost of an extension is these days added to their value. 

Thanks, ashe. 

We’re not pricing up until we know what’s feasible and what’s not. At research stage. 

Have been looking at many identical properties for sale. Have found many being sold with original uninspiring layout but none that have been modernised that we could use as an example to discuss with a builder. 

Any extension and/ or alterations would be done to improve our quality of life - eg having a toilet upstairs as well as down, being able to sit looking out onto the garden, having more light in the place. Although just moving might have been an option we love everything about the location and plan to stay. We have looked at moving in the past but not found anything we liked. Our alternative is to put any money into improving what we’ve got. 

Doozergirl

Teapot55 said:

Doozergirl said:

Teapot55 said:

Hmmm. 

Might we be ‘onto a sticky wicket’ extending over the sewer? For information, where the dashed lines meet, bottom right hand side of the drawing (in my original post) is where the inspection hatch is. 

You can't build over an inspection chamber, you would ordinarily have to divert the sewer or move the chamber along the line.  You can build over the pipes, just not a chamber.  

If the neighbours have inspection access close by then you may get away with building over if you can acceptably connect your waste to the sewer.  

You're going to need some creative professional advice to advise on what your best options are.  

If you went with my option 2, you could still gain a huge amount of benefit from a full side return extension. 

Even if you then put a new inspection chamber right at the edge of the boundary you could extend further and cut the corner where the chamber is.  Have a diagonal wall/window even.  

You've still got plenty of options.  

Thanks, Doozergirl. 

I hoped that would be the case, that you can build over sewers. But that access to the inspection chamber still needs to be kept. 

My reservations about building out into the side return are mainly based on us then only being able to access gutters etc from our neighbour’s property. Maybe too loss of light to the existing rear reception if we kept that, which would be our preferred option. Maybe velux-type windows in the roof would overcome this? We would welcome lots more daylight!

Additionally we are on good terms with our neighbour and we have discussed building out with him in the past. He was quite taken with the idea and there’s a distinct possibility he would want to go for the same plan at the same time. Currently he has a ramshackle lean-to in his side return that was erected by the previous occupant. 

Professional advice sounds like a good idea. 

Building a new party wall would be good.  You don't need the neighbour to build at the same time, but if and when he does, he should pay you half the cost of building the wall at the going rate at the time.  

You'd not put guttering to that side, your designer will design accordingly.  You'd have a small parapet to that side. 

Absolutely, you would have rooflights to help bring light to the rear reception if you kept it, but I wonder if it would be overdeveloping the property to have three reception rooms vs two bedrooms.