First of all. what are the physical dimensions of the existing laundry room?

Unless they are at least about 5 feet by 7 feet your hopes of fitting a toilet, vanity and shower in this area are practically nil.

Second, depending upon the size of the existing floor joists, and where your the existing soil stack is located relative to this laundry room, you may or may not be able to install the require 3" or 4" soil pipe required for the toilet...or require such costly structural alterations to make it possible...it might not be practical.

Adding a laundry stack on slab plumbing is no picnic. It involves jack hammering or concrete saws cutting into that slab. If you have a crawl space, it gets a bit easier. Do you know what foundation type the home has?

Then there's the septic issue. Septics are sized for the existing home, not one with more waste producing fixtures. You might not even be allowed to add a bath without replacing the septic to something with more capacity. Is there room on the lot for a new leach field? Do you know what size the tank is?

Your best bet is to contact a local plumbing firm that also deals with Septics and pay them to come out and do both a septic inspection and system evaluation for you. Write the right of refusal pending inspection into any offer you may be considering.

Adding only a shower can be much easier than a whole bath, but you really need a plumber familiar with local codes for information.

Showering in the laundry room would be weird.

Yea, it'd be kinda weird, but possibly worth it to me :) And, yes, I will definitely consult licensed plumber if I get the place and decide I want to do this--thanks again for the input

I've actually seen a couple houses where showers were added in the laundry room. In both cases they were older houses, and it was because there was a single bathroom that had only a tub, with a large window over it, and rather than convert the tub they added a shower elsewhere.

So while I wouldn't do it in a more expensive house, because it's odd, (I'd spring for a tub-to-shower remodel) for a more budget-friendly house it might be a good solution. And it would also depend on where that room was relative to the bedrooms. If it's upstairs, it would be less weird than having to walk through the kitchen to get to it, for example.

I wouldn't think it would help resale because it would be a little weird. For your own use, only you can decide.

The laundry room is on the second floor but the half bath is on the first floor. The half bath is right next to the entry way with a large closet. I'm wondering if I could take some of that space and reconfigure the half bath? This house has no storage (it's over a crawl space) so closets are critical, so I don't know.

I think I need to live in the house awhile before I do anything major--thank you all for your input---it's been super helpful! :)

Sounds like this house may not fit your needs. Keep looking?

For the most part, it fits my needs-----it's waterfront and that's my most important criteria, so I will make the house work :)

Not a big deal having shower in laundry room. Just have the door going into the laundry room lockable for privacy while showering. Ive seen toilet, shower, and utility sink in laundry room before.

Yes, Vith, I've seen bathrooms that have the washer and dryer in them. I will need to live in the place a bit before I make any decisions

Hi, we are in the process of adding a full bath to my laundry room. Mine is 8'X32', runs the length of the house. We decided to take up the concrete and tie in new plumbing. My home was built in 1929 as a community store so it has 1 tiny bath. We are doing all the work ourselves. Permit office gave us a copy of codes to meet for inspector. Good luck

Just wondering what it would cost to move half bathroom and laundry room move to the other side of the house. It would back up to the master closet and bathroom. Right now as the home is you have to go through the kitchen and laundry room just to get to the half bathroom. I want to convert an office into two separate rooms one side laundry the other h bathroom.

It will be less expensive because it backs up to the master bath, but it's still going to be relatively expensive. I wouldn't believe any bids under 20K.

Thank you