Page 433 - 2018 National Home Improvement

2018 National Home Improvement Estimator, All Rights Reserved Page 346

Sometimes you’ll see homes where a pantry, large closet or open area under a stairway has been
converted to a bathroom. Depending on the location, converting space like this into a bathroom can be
either a good choice or a poor choice. Don’t convert a space into a bathroom simply because two
fixtures happen to fit there. A bathroom in an entry or off the kitchen, totally removed from the bedroom
area, is only good for a half bath or powder room. There’s little practical advantage to a three-fixture bath
that’s remote from bedrooms.

Finding Space for a Bathroom
You may find bedrooms in older homes that have a walk-in closet that’s at least 5' by 7'. If a wall below
that closet includes a plumbing drain, waste and vent lines, that closet is an ideal candidate for
conversion to a three-fixture bathroom. Any bedroom that measures at least 16' in one direction is a
good candidate to be partitioned for a new bathroom addition. See Figure 13-1. If all the bedrooms are
small, consider converting the smallest bedroom into a bathroom and adding a new bedroom outside a
perimeter wall.

In a one-and-one-half-story house, there’s sometimes enough space under the shed dormer for another
bathroom. See Figure 13-2. If you choose this area, remember that the plumbing wall in the new
bathroom requires a wall directly below for pipe runs. Water supply lines to the new bathroom can be
copper or poly and will snake through nearly any wall or ceiling cavity. Vent stack and waste lines aren’t
so flexible and may be 4" in diameter. Hiding a 4" drain pipe in an existing wall isn’t easy. Any line that
can’t be enclosed in an existing wall will need to be framed into an enclosure within a room.