Minimal Full Bathroom
 

I'm working on the design of my next house and have come up with what I think is the minimal full bathroom that can nest efficiently for adjacent units (keeps all the plumbing together). You could always make it bigger of course, but I don't see it going much smaller. Trying to do the same for a stall shower, but it creates dead spaces I haven't figured a good use for yet.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...0261c5f882.jpg

Flip the tubs around. That will reduce the hot water plumbing, you can tee off right near the sinks. There's plenty of room for entering past the tub faucet even when you have to go around the toilet. It could possibly get tight with a two-piece sliding shower door, I guess...

Why minimalism with bathrooms? That's an important room, IMO!

I agree about flipping the tubs. I was thinking about clearance as you say, but you're right. I am designing with minimalism in all regards. Less to build, less to heat/cool, less to clean, lower property taxes. It may be a design exercise more than anything, but I may want to go that route. Working on a combination coffee table/dining room table/computer table to go along with a combo Murphy bed/sofa (those exist already). The kitchen is the tough part, since I want the units to be separate so I can't combine anything (in theory I could use one compressor for both freezers, but that's unlikely to be worth the effort).

A good design and I also was going to suggest you change the bath taps (faucets) to the other end.
By the way there is on the market a "handbasin over the toilet cistern" set up which does double duty and allows a water saver function too.

One final thought is to have a common "tap and outlet" to serve both the bath and the hand basin. Save the costs of one set and is just as convenient as having a set for each. You may have to redesign the layout to get it all to work though.

Have a look at the bathroom set ups in RV's , motorhomes , etc. Also some of the stuff out of Japan (small bath (and other) room specialists for generations) might be worth look.
If you can , get a look at the equipment used in aircraft and submarines as well. Really small spaces but some good ideas for utilising what little space there is.

Pete.

Great suggestions! I wish resale value wasn't part of the equation. Makes me compromise on a lot of stuff.

Speaking of resale value... whenever I think of combined toilets & sinks I can't get the image of a prison toilet out of my mind... That may effect resale value.

https://www.litesourceaustralia.com/w..._and_Pans.html

Bet those SS units aren't cheap!

Don't forget the instant water heaters! Cold only to the bathroom(s) and kitchen/washroom saves you half the work of plumbing. However, unless you use low-flow heads your typical small instant heater won't be able to keep up with both showers at once.

I would personally just make it a shared bathroom with an instant heater and no tub if it isn't a master bathroom. You'd be surprised how little most people care about a non-master full bath instead of a 3/4 bath when it comes to buying a house. You'd also be surprised how many people like the master bath to have a regular tub AND a shower. People don't take as much time out of their days for baths anymore and a shower is easier to keep up. I wish my apartment had one!

Plus, there is NO extra room in that bathroom. If you go that route you'll have a problem selling to any heavy set people i.e. half the world population. I am by no stretch of the imagination someone you would call fat and I have a toilet setup similar to that in my apartment and I hate it.

Oh yeah, back to the washroom thing, if you are putting a washroom in the house, toss a small shower stall and wash basin in there. A LOT of people don't look for that but once they see it they love it because you have a place to wash the dogs/cats without getting water all over the good bathrooms!

My Grandparents had a simple setup... cold water in the kitchen...


That was it. Grandma had to fill the "Gas copper" with a bucket for hot water...


Actually by the time I was old enough to remember very clearly they had a plumbed in bathroom and water heaters.

No, I don't think they would be cheap, but I think the A8847 is pretty cool. I could design a bathroom around that...

-Jay

If resale value is a concern, there's no way such a tight bathroom will do. That will turn off most people, even if they're not portly. People like to have stuff in their bathroom, and space.

This is the minimal bathroom design; I can expand it from here as required. I like to take layouts to their extremes as a design exercise. For some more background, I want a very small house, but that increases the surface area to volume ratio, so I'm considering two separate units so I can rent one perhaps. Or I may just beef up the walls on a single one.

Make a 10ft wide 50ft long 2 story apartment between two nice large 40x50 places you can rent for a good sum... let them pay for heating and AC :D

As long as I sound proof it! I want to try and put bathrooms and closets between the units for some deadening value. I could modify this design to use an along the wall door as well (rest beside the toilet). I did that with a half bath I added to an old house at the top of some stairs (safety hazard otherwise).

Built in bookshelves will work pretty good too.... as long as you make them small enough not to stand a stereo on...

Hmmm...I've been thinking of noise from them, but what about my machine tools? Have to ponder that one.

What about noise from the bathrooms? https://www.gmfullsize.com/forum/imag...lies/uhoh2.gif

hahahahahahaha!

What about Insulated Concrete Foam walls? A local company, Rastra, makes whole buildings out of that stuff. I only know of them because we take the truckloads of foam that our insulators come in to them for recycling. Great product though and should more than block any noise.

Not sure how expensive it is now but when I was working construction back in Texas we found that having exterior walls made of that plywood laminated foam at 6 inches thick and 12" ceiling(they put 2x12 beams in them) came out to only a fraction more than typical building after labor is calculated in. It's stupidly fast too. Foundation poured and set and 2 days later the roof was being put on. Even had the window and door holes pre-cut so we started laying things on the foundation Monday and by Friday it only needed half the siding left to pass as a real house(if you didn't look inside). Mind you, this was a 5 guy team that only contracted out the siding work but unlike traditional building if you decided you wanted an extra window you were SOL.

Definitely second place to noise from bedrooms, IMO. :D

I do my own labor, so that changes things a bit. Some places ban those concrete forms for termite reasons (or so I've heard). Nifty tech, though. I'm researching sound proofing in general and it's pretty encouraging.

I was thinking that getting rid of my loud machines and putting the rent money towards paying to have parts made may be a smart way to go. It's not like I enjoy machining.

What about brick? You can sheetrock over it like a normal wall but it'd be far from it and if it is the wall between bathrooms and closets you don't have to worry about people messing up the wall trying to stick a picture on it.

Maximilian,
I just remembered there is a book called "The Compact House Book" edited by Don Metz which showcases about 50 ( I think ) designs for houses less than 1,000 Sq Ft.
They were the best of those submitted for a national competition many years ago and all have two bedrooms minimum.
Some great ideas there as well.

Good luck , Pete.

I'll see if I can get it from my library. Thanks! I have a small house plan book (someplace), but I can't recall off the top of my head how small they actually were.

Something which may be of interest to those following this general topic is there is enveloped into Microsoft Word a design package.

To access:
Open a M/S word document.
Click on "VIEW" then on "TOOLBARS" then scroll down to "Drawing" and check the box.
You should have another menu bar starting "Draw"
There is a dropdown marked :"Autoshapes" and "More Autoshapes"
In the second there is one marked "Office" (look for the paperclip icon) which has a range of basic items well suited to drawing house plans.

My preferred scale is 1/16 to 1 foot which is large enough to show details but still have one floor on the house fit on the screen.

Good luck,

Pete.

A quick update:
The compact house plans book has a many of the same plans as the later book: The big book of Small House Designs.ISBN: 1-57912-365-1. Published 2004 by Black Dog Publishers.

"75 award winning plans for your dream house , all 1250 sq ft or less."
Sectional drawings and detail design points for insulation specifications , flooe plans , site drawings , perspectives , elevations , etc"

There are even a couple from Australia!

Pete.

I asked my library for both the old and the new version, along with a couple other related books. VT's library system is pretty poor, so I'm not real hopeful, unfortunately. There's no way for me to check availability myself through their system as it all has to go through the librarian. I used Google Books to do some searching, but that doesn't always match what the library can get via inter-library loan.

The 1988 version arrived today! It hasn't been checked out since 1990, so they let me have it for a couple months. Amusingly, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies arrived the same day. That they gave me for two weeks. :p

Now there IS an interesting mix !

Enjoy the reading and viewing.

Pete.

Here's yer ultimate small footprint crapper.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...45acfe716d.jpg

Rent for the upper unit is a bit higher.

If ya wanna live all cramped up why not just get an RV?

I want small, not ugly. Besides, I've seen RVs and they're a lot more cramped than my designs are.

That's awesome :thumbup: