Multiple bathrooms in houses is a relatively modern thing. And it's the sort of thing that's often hard to retrofit. So houses that are otherwise desirable may otherwise be short of bathrooms by modern standards.
Hm, article talks about new homes coming with 10 to 20 bathrooms. I have never seen or heard of such a thing. There's no way that's for normal houses. If the ultra rich want mansions with 20 bathrooms, that's their business. There are worse things one could spend their money on.
I have always lived in places with around 1 bathroom per 2 persons. Sometimes though you'll have say 5 people in the house and 2 of them are using both bathrooms, both doing things that take a long time. At this point when a third person needs to use the bathroom, they are stuck with holding it or having to go outside. So I can see that getting closer to 1 bathroom per person can be reasonable. Not all the bathrooms need to be full baths. Having a utility bathroom near the front door for guests with just a toilet and limited storage or room to do things helps maintain a bathroom that isn't going to be occupied for a long time.
I just built my house with three bathrooms. ("Two and half," by American standards.) I almost did four, but I just didn't want to have to scrub another toilet.
Why three toilets:
The "half bathroom" is by the kitchen, living room, ect. It's just a sink and toilet. This is the one that, by courtesy, guests use. Because there's no bath, guests don't see our towels, toothbrushes, and other mess that accumulates. (No toothpaste stuck in the sink!) We also put prettier fixtures in there, because it's the one we go in most often.
Then there's a normal bathroom (toilet, sink, and tub) that the kids and overnight guests can use.
Then we have our master bathroom, attached to the master bedroom, which has a toilet, shower, and two sinks. (Useful when my wife and I brush our teeth at the same time.) The point of keeping it attached to the master bedroom is basically so we don't have to walk around the house in "bedclothes" when we have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Another thing that this article misses: A lot of people like to loose track of time reading on the toilet. There's nothing wrong with that when you have extra toilets in your house.
Due to a water leak and repairs my family of 4 has temporarily gone from 2.5 bathrooms to 1. It's miserable when everyone needs to go at once. Plus guests now have to come upstairs to use a toilet.
> If you buy a hotel and convert it to studio apartments, that’s pretty easy, because every room already has plumbing. But when you buy a commercial building, your plumbing is in the middle of the building
Is it so unthinkable to have bathrooms "down the hall"? After all, dormitories do that. The bathrooms don't even have to be shared, they're just down the hall where the plumbing is.
Furniture and remodeling (and by that I mean projects as small as painting or installing a paper towel
holder) are a one-time cost while bathrooms (for renters especially) cost money every month.
And while we all use the bathroom multiple times per day, most of the day it sits there unused.
It’s not hard to stagger morning bathroom use with your significant other or family. I’m not saying that a family of six would want to share one bathroom. But when I see people insisting on one person per bathroom plus a powder room, that’s excessive.
One bathroom with a toilet, sink and bath/shower combo, one en-suite bathroom with toilet, sink and shower and one toilet + sink. I guess the technical term (as used by property people) is 2 1/2 bathrooms.
When I was young some friends of mine lived in a house where every bedroom (in a 6 bedroom house) had an en-suite bathroom, plus one additional bathroom. While I certainly don't expect every bedroom to have its own bathroom (or even close to it, really), I don't think its strange for a large house to have multiple bathrooms.
The toilet and shower being in the same room is the biggest issue. If someone is in the shower and someone needs to go to the toilet that's a problem. The worst is in the morning with homes where more than two people are living.
From what I understand many in the UK, European countries have separate rooms for toilet and bath.
The fact that it allows them to put the pipes needed for all those items in the same place probably also helps. In a lot of places near me, the kitchen sink shares a wall with the bathroom because it's cheaper to do the plumbing that way. If the bathroom and kitchen were on opposite sides of the place, that means more work plumbing wise.
Plus, walls take up a lot of space. If we put the toilet in a different room, that would mean losing more space to walls (and configuration options). In my bathroom, the sink is in the front followed by the toilet followed by the shower. Walls (and the clearance that the doors would need) would mandate using a lot more space. Plus, you'd need more space for each bit not to feel claustrophobic. You don't feel like you're in a tiny box at the sink in my bathroom because it's open to the toilet and shower. If each section was only 3ft wide, it would feel really claustrophobic.
> One joined floor for the shower and rest of the bathroom is a weird non-North American thing that is absolutely wrong and I sure hope isn't catching on here.
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