New layout for two adjoining bathrooms

7 years ago

I'm getting close to signing a contract for a bathroom remodel and getting to the stage where there are lots of detail questions. The gardenweb community was a huge help in 2011-2012 when we remodelled our kitchen and I'm looking forward to your help and hopefully being able to contribute to some questions myself as I get better at this!

You may remember my kitchen with three working doorways and three floor to ceiling windows...well, now I'm back with two bathrooms that function like a hallway...

The house predates indoor plumbing (1850), so the bathrooms are an after thought. You can get from the front of the house to the back either by going through my husband's office (frowned upon when he is on conference calls) or by walking through the two baths. So, no, we don't plan to take out the door between them. It's also kind of nice when we are both getting ready to go out to be able to carry on a conversation without actually being in the same room.

Here are the two baths as they currently are. And below is the planned new layout. The tub bath stays the same (I actually really like it as it is, just need to replace things that are failing). The vanity in the shower bath moves to the other wall, toilet moves over, and shower stall expands. We are very excited to have a shower big enough for two for the first time since we got married. I'd like bigger still, but I think this is the best we can do given the radiator in the other corner and a window that goes almost to the floor.

This is the current wall of fixtures in the shower bath. Very cramped.

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Another view of same area.

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Wall of shower bath where new vanity will go.

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Adjacent Tub Bath--this will stay the same except need to replace the leaking tile surrounding the cast iron tub and the rusty pedastal sink (which I'm going to miss!) with as close a new one as I can find.

Bathroom Remodel · More Info

So, I think the new layout works, but know from past experience I should post it before I get into the other questions! I have a bunch of questions about laying out the shower, but first wanted to get feedback on the general layout.

Comments (4)

cpartist
7 years ago
Can you post the bathrooms in relation to the rest of the downstairs. I wouldn't want to walk through bathrooms or my DH's office to get from one end of the house to the other end.
njannabelle
Original Author
7 years ago
Sure, this is actually the upstairs of the house that we are looking at. Yes, it would be a disaster to have that layout downstairs! Downstairs we have a small half bath.

The other obvious location for a bath would be the library, but we only use that bedroom in the summer as it's ridicuously cold and there is no obvious way to run plumbing up there. Part of the reason for the existing plan is to get rid of the plumbing in the exterior wall that freezes fairly regularly. We had a pipe burst years ago before I learned to leave taps running and that was a mess! Planning to move the plumbing so that it comes up through the linen closet and the pantry below it. This will at least help with the problem. The basement under the main section of the house is concrete floor and functional, but under the smaller 1790s section where the linen closet is is crawl space. I just ordered a thermometer to put under there to track for the next couple months and figure out if I need heat tape.
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I'd love a critique of the new bathroom layout
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Comments (3)
I don't know what the original floor plan was like, but one of the more difficult or expensive things to relocate is a proper DWV for the toilets. If you can keep the existing toilet close to its current location and have the new second toilet in the same locale so they can share the existing stack, that could be a significant financial factor in your favor. If you know which way your floor joists run, the new toilet could be moved away from the original, but if you can keep it aligned so the horizontal run from the new toilet can be in a single joist bay (directly east-west or directly north-south from each other) and then join up with the old waste stack, that'll help too. Those are simple guidelines. There is no hard and fast rule that you need to adhere to them. Just a way to economize and minimize changes to the framing of the floor. I try to "isolate" the toilet stack(s) on an interior wall if possible. Right now you have one on an exterior wall. A large 4" diameter stack in an exterior wall could result in a loss of insulation on that wall. The other toilet is on the stairwell wall. If you simply use PVC for that waste stack, you could get "toilet noises" reverberating through that wall whenever the toilet is flushed. Or use cast iron for the verticals for sound deadening. As to the specific layouts, I think they are both okay as is. The pink bathroom, I'd reverse the swing of the entry door so it opens into the bathroom. Some folk are bothered by the toilet being the right in the line of sight when you open a bathroom door, but hey...it's a bathroom. If the blue bathroom is the teenage boy bath and the pink is for the girl, I'd probably reverse the two and have the tub in the girl bath and the shower in the boy bath. Here's a very rough idea of backing up the toilets on a common wet wall, as well as backing up the tub and shower on a common wall. the linen closet was moved and enlarged. Not perfect by any means. With my revised drawing I'd still consider altering the blue entry door and the pink shower door. But it's just a quick shuffle.
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Concerning the master bath. You could keep the fixtures where they are and just replace the vanity and add another across from it. You could move the California closet to opposite side and create a hallway into the bath which gives you more wall space for a second vanity. Keep the tub and shower. Save plumbing cost. Concerning the new bath addition. Be careful you have enough room for a toilet across from the vanity in the new bath. Maybe a pedestal sink across from a small toilet in a shorter length. Your layout seems tight. Even in my drawing with a pedestal sink, you may have trouble clearing the sink when you open the door. I put in a corner shower, but if you can fit a tub, that might be better.
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cpartist
7 years ago
Ah, for some reason I thought it was downstairs. Still not ideal, but old houses have their own quirks. What about making the office narrower to put a hallway there?

If you could steal 40" from the office, you could create a hallway so everyone wouldn't have to walk through the office or the two bathrooms to get to the back bedrooms. So the office would still be a generous 17'6" x 17'.
njannabelle thanked cpartist
njannabelle
Original Author
7 years ago
My first response was, huh, that would work! Then went to look and there are attic stairs that would prevent moving the doorway and a fireplace that would be cut in half by the end of the hall.

On paper, it looks good:) Thanks for the creative thinking.

I'm not really eager to make major changes to configuration of the house since I'm not really bothered by the current situation as it's just the two of us and we plan to be in the house for another 15 years, so not really worrying about what others are going to want.

Really just posted the layout because I know as I put other questions out there it will come up and did want to make sure I wasn't missing an opportunity within the existing footprint.

New layout for two adjoining bathrooms

Comments (4)

cpartist

njannabelle
Original Author

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New layout for two adjoining bathrooms

Comments (4)

cpartist

njannabelleOriginal Author

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cpartist

njannabelleOriginal Author

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njannabelle
Original Author

njannabelle
Original Author