Hello everyone, my name is Markus, I’m new here ;-)
My wife and I are currently planning a single-family house, and we’re stuck on a small detail in the design. Maybe someone here can help us!
We are building without a basement, so the utility room (with an internal air-to-water heat pump) will be on the ground floor.
Since we also want to have a home office on the ground floor located on the sunny side, the basic layout of the rooms is basically decided: the living/dining area faces the garden to the southwest, the office is in the southern corner of the house, and the utility room is in the “dark” northern corner. Sorry that the floor plan is not oriented to north. For reference: the front door is northeast. And please ignore the windows, they are just placeholders.
We now have two options for arranging the utility room and the guest bathroom on the floor plan:
Option 1: Utility room followed by guest bathroom followed by living room
Advantage: the guest bathroom acts as a sound buffer between the living area and the utility room
Disadvantage: you might hear noise from the bathroom directly in the living area...
Option 2: Bathroom adjacent to the utility room:
Advantage: the bathroom is nicely separated from the “living area”
Disadvantage: the utility room is now directly adjacent to the living area.
My question: Does anyone have experience with a utility room that shares a wall directly with the living room? Should I expect disturbing noise, or am I overestimating the noise level generated by the heat pump?
My personal favorite is definitely option 2, especially since the access to the utility room leads straight through the hallway, which is a big advantage when carrying bulky items in or out. For this reason, option 1 also includes an exterior door to the utility room – otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to get the heat pump in or out in one piece if needed ;-)
If anyone has a completely different suggestion, I’m open to that as well!
Thanks in advance and have a great afternoon,
Markus
My wife and I are currently planning a single-family house, and we’re stuck on a small detail in the design. Maybe someone here can help us!
We are building without a basement, so the utility room (with an internal air-to-water heat pump) will be on the ground floor.
Since we also want to have a home office on the ground floor located on the sunny side, the basic layout of the rooms is basically decided: the living/dining area faces the garden to the southwest, the office is in the southern corner of the house, and the utility room is in the “dark” northern corner. Sorry that the floor plan is not oriented to north. For reference: the front door is northeast. And please ignore the windows, they are just placeholders.
We now have two options for arranging the utility room and the guest bathroom on the floor plan:
Option 1: Utility room followed by guest bathroom followed by living room
Advantage: the guest bathroom acts as a sound buffer between the living area and the utility room
Disadvantage: you might hear noise from the bathroom directly in the living area...
Option 2: Bathroom adjacent to the utility room:
Advantage: the bathroom is nicely separated from the “living area”
Disadvantage: the utility room is now directly adjacent to the living area.
My question: Does anyone have experience with a utility room that shares a wall directly with the living room? Should I expect disturbing noise, or am I overestimating the noise level generated by the heat pump?
My personal favorite is definitely option 2, especially since the access to the utility room leads straight through the hallway, which is a big advantage when carrying bulky items in or out. For this reason, option 1 also includes an exterior door to the utility room – otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to get the heat pump in or out in one piece if needed ;-)
If anyone has a completely different suggestion, I’m open to that as well!
Thanks in advance and have a great afternoon,
Markus
DerMarkus schrieb:
and regarding a small issue, we just can’t make any planning progress. You’re not the first and certainly won’t be the last to underestimate how a small issue can hold things up here ;-)
What is the purpose of the shower on the main living floor?
The children’s desk (or lady’s desk for love letters?) in the office also puzzles me a bit :-)
Realistic furniture changes everything.
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11ant schrieb:
What is the purpose of having a shower on the main living floor? Probably to have a second shower in the house. I often see people questioning the need for a second shower, which I honestly don’t understand. Especially when you have children who eventually go through puberty or regularly bring their partner home, it is very practical not to have to figure out every time who gets to shower when.
Yosan schrieb:
I often see people questioning the purpose of having a second shower... Not me; I only have doubts about the location in the guest bathroom next to the front door. To me, showers should not be placed in the farthest corner of the house, where using them is like an obstacle course, but rather preferably close to the bedrooms. I shower before getting dressed or changing clothes, not when I’m just grabbing bread or the mail.
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J
j.bautsch14 Feb 2019 07:28What would bother me the most is having to buy everything twice: bath towels upstairs and downstairs, shampoos, facial care products, deodorant, hairdryer, and so on... (in other words, all four people with their individual toiletries need their stuff downstairs). I prefer having two bathrooms upstairs, clearly assigned as a parents’ bathroom and a children’s bathroom, and that’s it. Waiting for one more person there isn’t a problem, but if four people upstairs all want to shower at once, there will be arguments about who has to go downstairs. No, thanks.
We actually have three showers, including one in the basement. All are stocked with shower gel and similar products, but we don’t have separate ones for everyone—there are simply boys and girls, we’re not that particular.
It’s convenient that the kids use the shower on the ground floor when they come home from swimming or being outside, and they shower before dinner.
They wrap the towel around themselves and then go upstairs to get dressed.
We don’t have delivery people or others sitting in the kitchen that much.
Everyone has to decide for themselves what is practical. I didn’t want a kids’ bathroom on the upper floor. When the children are grown, that room becomes useless.
There are no universal rules.
I prefer option 2, although I think option 1 is better for sound insulation in the living room.
Noise from the bathroom wouldn’t bother me since it’s not the main bathroom.
It’s convenient that the kids use the shower on the ground floor when they come home from swimming or being outside, and they shower before dinner.
They wrap the towel around themselves and then go upstairs to get dressed.
We don’t have delivery people or others sitting in the kitchen that much.
Everyone has to decide for themselves what is practical. I didn’t want a kids’ bathroom on the upper floor. When the children are grown, that room becomes useless.
There are no universal rules.
I prefer option 2, although I think option 1 is better for sound insulation in the living room.
Noise from the bathroom wouldn’t bother me since it’s not the main bathroom.