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we recently bought a home and in one of the downstairs bedrooms there is a shower next to a closet right there in the room. very strange! anyways we were thinking of ripping out the shower and the 7x6 closet and adding a jack and jill bathroom with an adjoining bedroom. i don't know what it takes to add a bathroom to a house but we were thinking it may be doable since there is already plumbing in the room. the 1st floor is a walk out basement btw...
I am thinking a shower like that was very much a DIY project, and in my experience the short cuts that DIY guys take end up costing quite a bit to "make right".
Please be sure you measure out all the dimensions well ahead of doing ANY demolition so that you understand how the DIY project was done. If they moved doors or reframed anything to get the place to work with the shower it would be a nightmare to find out that you need to reinforce supporting beams.
My guess is that you may end up with a very undersized room if you need to shift around space for a traditional Jack & Jill bath setup BUT with all the nice kits for pocket doors, more compact vanities / fixtures, even the "custom closets" that can reduce need for a dresser or other clothes storing furniture you could do a really really nice project, but those non-standard items will take a big bite out of materials budgets...
need to get some pics. we haven't moved in yet so i can't take any atm. it's pretty bizarre though the area we have to work with is approx. 32'x13'. i think its big enough for two rooms and bathroom. we are mostly concerned with the plumbing...toilet etc...
My take - an extra bathroom "en suite" never hurts. I converted a 1/2 bath to a shower/sink/vanity in a 6'x6' space that is quite workable, all to code (minimum bath sizes in new additions require larger footprints in my area.)
I suggest you research your local plumbing code (in my area its run by the county folks who were very helpful) first to determine what is allowable in your area and go from there. I'm "religious" about conforming to code and suggest you do it all to code standards. My project didn't require a permit because I was modifying two existing bathrooms, be sure and check your locality.
A bath sans a tub does not require any concern regarding floor loads, the standard 40 pounds per sq.' floor is adequate for a typical prefab shower configuration.
With an existing shower in place you already have an accessible vent stack to tap into which makes your project fairly easy. I don't know what your heating system is but there are several options that are workable, more information is needed before I could comment on that issue. Does the shower also have an external exhaust vent in place? That is another consideration. The waste piping for the toilet is also another factor you need to explore, its a bit larger than the shower & sink piping. A 30 minute visit by a competent plumber could answer a lot of questions regarding the hassle factor.
I've a fair amount of experience with small bathrooms (just a personal opinion, I'm not fond of anything but bathrooms being as small as practical, many folks have different preferences.)
Chet above (as usual) is correct, some of the less common space saver bath configuration items (pocket doors, wall hung tank toilets) can be a bit more costly than off the shelf stuff but overall its not a big absolute dollar amount.
I wonder if there were tax or zoning considerations why this was done?
Very good point!
I think that has to be it, OP make sure you don't get a nasty surprise when the time comes to pay your property tax after you make this change.
If I read the OP correctly- this is actually in a basement and not what we typically think of as a first floor. If so the big issue is going to be cutting into the slab for any added plumbing & specifically the toilet.
A spare/random shower could have simply been a room a previous owner used as their mudroom from outside and wanted to bath before walking through the house. Or where they washed the dog. Or an amateur porn studio... I'm just sayin...
In a basement situation a slightly raised false floor can be a workable solution to tie into the existing waste drainage pipe above the floor Thats how I had it down in a previous house. It depends on the horizontal distance of the toilet from the main drain line to be feasible, assuming 8' ceiling height.
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Be careful...
the area we have to work with is approx. 32'x13'. i think its big enough for two rooms and bathroom. we are mostly concerned with the plumbing...toilet etc...
