In the US, a "bathroom" is usually a 3-piece (bath/shower, sink, toilet). A toilet/sink (no bath) is usually called a "half bath" in real estate listings (2.5 baths is common in suburban homes - one master suite, one serving the other bedrooms, and the "half" near the kitchen or living area).
A full bathroom includes four components: bathtub, shower, sink, toilet. A half bathroom is just a sink and toilet. A 3/4 bath is a bathroom without a bathtub. It's very common in shitty apartments.
Odd, in the western US I'm accustomed to a "half bathroom" being a room with a toilet and sink but no bathtub or shower stall. Listings look like "2br 1+1/2ba" meaning two bedrooms and one full and one half bathroom.
In my country we don't call that a bathroom. You can't take a bath in a "half bath". It's just a toilet.
A typical Dutch house has a toilet + sink downstairs for guests or for convenience of the owners. Upstairs there is a bathroom with a toilet, shower, sink and shower for the owners of the home to use.
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.
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.
3/4 bathrooms are quite common in some places, but listings may be not obvious because if you have 2 of those you will see 1.5 bathrooms and believe there is 1 + 1/2, not 2 x 3/4. My place has such an arrangement, I don't like bathtubs and I find it perfect for me.
My first apartment was that kind of unit bath, but my current apartment has a separate sink and toilet, but the bath is definitely one manufactured piece of plastic that contains the full shower area; my wife's mom's house, and my friend's house are both the same, so I figure it's pretty common.
You mean an actual bathroom or a room with a toilet and sink in? If it were the latter I would understand but three rooms with an actual bath? In a three bedroom house? That is absurd.
The overloaded term "bathroom" is not very helpful. What do these bathrooms have in them? Do they have a bath, or a toilet, or both, or what? I think we should be told!
More toilets than bedrooms - e.g., the 20:8 ratio mentioned in the article - makes perfect sense for a house that might see large numbers of guests at once.
One bath per person surely can't hurt, if you can afford it, though averaged out this is probably going to mean a bath:bedroom ratio of around 1:1.
We always had one bathroom for a family of five (5) growing up and, honestly, there was never an issue with it. Since it was always that way we learned from birth (practically) that you can't hog the bathroom, so everyone learned not to, so nobody ever did. I always toweled off, dressed, and did my hair in my bedroom. There was certainly no reading on the toilet or other activities going on in the bathroom. Plus, it was normal, I can't think of a single person I knew growing up that had multiple bathrooms (grew up poor, everyone lived in older construction, mostly smaller apartments). My dad actually grew up in a family of ten (10) with only 1.5 bathrooms.
Even now friends comment on how little time I spend in the bathroom.
Nowadays I have 1.5 baths, which is usual for this area (old construction). The half bath it totally unnecessary (just myself and my spouse here) but it's sometimes nice not having to go upstairs to pee. And of course the half bath isn't original to the house.
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 live in a 3/1 in the US, and having a 2nd bathroom was on our list, but when it comes down to it, we all end up sacrificing something.
As you mention, an en suite master bathroom would be incredibly nice, and if we remodel, it's _the_ #1 non-negotiable item on the list. Private bathroom for us, 'clean'/separate bathroom for guests/visitors.
My sister lived in a 4/1 with an odd feature: a toilet on a wooden pedestal in the (full-size) basement. No wall around it, not even a curtain. Just sitting there in a corner.
As she put it "you only need it every once in awhile, but when you need that second toilet, you're REALLY GLAD you have it!
I don't find the proliferation of bathrooms/toilets in large houses surprising at all. If I lived in a 4000-5000sqft mansion, I might not mind a 2-3 minute walk to get to my bedroom at night, but I sure as hell don't want to have to do so every time I have to use the facilities. It simply makes sense to have a toilet and sink, at least, near the rooms you use regularly.
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