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To en suite or not to en suite?


patp

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10 hours ago, AliG said:

I agree on keeping a bedroom cosy, I think the way to think about them is the sleeping area, storage/wardrobes, relaxing space and then an en suite. Each of these requires some floorspace. So the sleeping area with the bed in it probably only needs to be around 3.3x3.3-4x4m, more than this and the space starts to be wasted. Then if you want storage that is extra space, then if you want a sitting area that is more space again and then you have an en suite. My daughter's and main guest bedroom are very large as we planned to have sitting areas in them for example, without that they would just be a bed sitting in a pointlessly large space.

 

I suspect that if you default to the family bathroom versus the en suite to relax at the moment, it is because it is a nicer room. My wife loves to spend hours in the bath and getting our ensuite right was very important to her. No change was made to the house design after we started to build, except our ensuite which we redesigned three times. The bath is in an alcove with a TV in the wall, not only does she love it, but our daughter prefers it to her en suite and likes to use the bath so she can watch the TV.

Think you're hitting nail on the head here, ensuites we have/had have all been installed later in life ie are small box rooms. Suspect if made large enough for full suite it would be a game changer.

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I think that there may be two (or more) reasons behind the desire, or not, to have an en suite. In a large, family, house I would imagine I would want an en suite to protect my bathing space from other members of the family. We are building, in essence, a retirement bungalow. Our only daughter, and her family, are the only ones likely to stay over. She is well trained to leave a bathroom as she finds it as is her husband. They do have an infant daughter but who knows if she will ever stay before we depart this world and we will deal with that nearer the time. Our design has two bathrooms and a further cloakroom/dog shower/utility room in a 3 bedroom bungalow with a separate dining room (possible fourth bedroom in estate agent speak).

 

More important is our reason NOT to have an en suite. It is the disturbance to the occupants of the bedroom. If it is a double bedroom then one person using the bathroom (which could, as one ages, be more than once each night :) )  might well cause a lot of disturbance to the other.

 

Perhaps, if we design in an en suite, it should be given to the guest room? If I am a guest anywhere I would love an en suite to avoid travelling the corridors in states of undress.

 

I do think that they are regarded as status symbols in some quarters with no thought given to the, possible, down side of having such a noisy room in what should be the most restful area of the house.

 

Funnily it was a conversation with an architect that first made me even question whether or not to have an en suite. He designs high end ultra modern houses with en suites to all bedrooms but says he doesn't like them. He lives in a very old house so I assume he does not have one. In our old cottage (c 1830) we only had one, ground floor, bathroom . It was installed in one of the down stairs living rooms and so was, in bathroom terms, very large 11m x 11m. When we did a re design we managed to get a shower room off the upstairs hallway for occupants of all three bedrooms to access. We could have fitted an en suite in the master bedroom but felt that visitors would appreciate it being upstairs and available to them. All we have to do is leave our bedroom and take a few steps to it. No hardship at all.

 

Someone above has designed in a very large bathroom and I would comment that our experience of an over large bathroom was that it made us feel restless when using it. We carpeted it in the end to make it feel more cosy.

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We’re having two bedrooms with en-suite and two that are close to the family bathroom. 
 

We're having an en-suite because 

6 minutes ago, patp said:

I would love an en suite to avoid travelling the corridors in states of undress.

And so is the guest bedroom.


Our en-suite is large enough to accommodate a full suite and separate shower. It’s also soundproofed the wall with 120mm of Kingspan between it and the master bedroom. We’re installing 2 very small LED floor level lights,  activated by a motion sensor, that give just enough light to be able to see and find the loo etc without having to switch on main overhead lights.

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Perhaps I am selfish but I wanted the ensuite fir my bedroom (I do have to visit the loo during the night, an age thing), I live here all the time. An Ensuite fir guests is ok if you have the room But IMO an adequate bathroom fir occasional guests is fine. Plus we have a third bedroom which doubles as an office so if more guests arrive they share the bathroom. 

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10 hours ago, Triassic said:

It’s also soundproofed the wall with 120mm of Kingspan between it and the master bedroom.

 

Wouldn't acoustic insulation roll be better? PIR is poor in terms of sound insulation as it is light and rigid.

 

The point is correct though, if noise is a concern it can be dealt with in the design.

 

I would have thought someone getting out of the bed is more disturbing.

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On 19/08/2020 at 22:27, joe90 said:

Well I have an en suite but it’s bigger than the “family bathroom”. Our en suite has a large shower, toilet, basin and a large bath. The family bathroom has only toilet, basin and shower. Downstairs cloakroom also has toilet and basin.


Ditto, my master en suite is larger than the main bathroom (the guest en suites are smaller). The master has 2 basins too, and a larger bath and shower. Ironically I use the bath in the main bathroom as the one in my en suite is really too large ?

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, AliG said:

 

Wouldn't acoustic insulation roll be better? PIR is poor in terms of sound insulation as it is light and rigid.

 

The point is correct though, if noise is a concern it can be dealt with in the design.

 

I would have thought someone getting out of the bed is more disturbing.

I’m using up off cuts! 
 

luckily my partner and I sleeps like logs! so no problem getting up in the night. The thing that wakes me is the light going on, hence the PIR activated small LED bathroom lights, they give out just enough light to show you the way to the loo and sink and that’s it.

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I have block walls with dot and dab plasterboard on them.

 

I thought they would be good for sound transmission due to the mass but actually they are not. The issue seems to be that the small gap behind the dot and dab actually amplifies noise.

 

I actually found internet articles that suggested a block wall becmae quieter when the plasterboard was removed.

 

Thus if you have block walls, they will probably work better for sound transmission if they are wet plastered.

 

With an en suite though the main transmission area for noise will be the door. I think the best way to reduce this is probably a rubber draught seal or intumescent seal around the door. I specified fire doors almost everywhere as they are more solid and reduce noise transmission, they were only a few pounds more expensive. However most of the transmission probably comes around the door.

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On a slight tangent to this thread, the only regret about my new build is the sound transmission between floors despite 100mm sound insulation, in hindsight I would have double boarded the downstairs ceiling and/or resilient bars.

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18 minutes ago, joe90 said:

On a slight tangent to this thread, the only regret about my new build is the sound transmission between floors despite 100mm sound insulation, in hindsight I would have double boarded the downstairs ceiling and/or resilient bars.

 

I've got the perfect solution to this. Live on your own then you have no idea how any sound transmits ?

 

 

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