Do you feel a little envious when you see the large, luxurious bathrooms in newer homes? Bathrooms just weren’t a priority during the 1930s and 40s when many Pittsburgh homes were built. In fact, a home with more than one full bathroom seemed like an unnecessary luxury to mid-century home builders and buyers alike.
Although your home may have only been built with one or two bathrooms, there’s no reason you can’t update it to meet your needs. If you’ve been contemplating a South Hills bathroom expansion or a Shadyside bathroom remodel, you’ll want to consider these questions before you make your decision.
Will an Additional Bathroom Improve My Home and Life?
People do all sorts of extreme things to make sure they get enough bathroom time during the morning, from waking up an hour early to precisely controlling just how much time every member of the family spends in the room.
If a bathroom shortage makes your already hectic morning schedule even more chaotic, adding another bathroom (or two) to your home offers an excellent solution. When your family no longer needs to compete for turns in the bathroom, mornings are bound to become more relaxing.
Adding a bathroom also boosts the value of your home and may make it easier to sell one day. According to Remodeling’s 2018 Cost vs. Value Report, an upscale bathroom addition can increase the resale value of your home by as much as $45,991.
Where Will I Put a New Bathroom?
Finding space for another bathroom can be a little challenging. Luckily, your home renovation contractor can offer a few suggestions. For example, you might be able to turn a seldom-used pantry into a first-floor powder room or borrow space from a bedroom to create a new bathroom on the second floor.
Do you have a Pittsburgh potty in the basement? The toilet may look a little out of place in the middle of the basement floor, but it served an important purpose when the house was first built.
Pittsburgh’s rudimentary sewer system was prone to backups in the early days. Unfortunately, when a problem occurred, sewage overflowed through a fixture at the lowest level in your house. According to a WESA interview with architect William Martin, adding a Pittsburgh potty to the basement prevented sewage from backing up into the main living areas of the home. Fortunately, Pittsburgh’s sewer system has improved over the years, and backups are no longer a common occurrence.
If you don’t have any room to create a bathroom upstairs, why not take advantage of the plumbing already installed in your basement? Your contractor can build walls around the existing plumbing for the Pittsburgh Potty and install a new toilet, sink and tub or shower. If you’ve been thinking about finishing your basement, you can easily combine both projects.
When there’s absolutely no room in your house for a new bathroom, building an addition to your home may make sense. Although you may have a few space limitations when you reconfigure your existing floor plan to create a bathroom, building on to your house gives you the freedom to make the new room as large as you like.
Do you already have a few ideas in mind for your new bathroom? Master Remodelers can help you design a room that fits the style of your home perfectly. Why not contact us to discuss your plans?
Sources:
Governing: Cities with Oldest Homes
Remodeling: 2018 Cost vs. Value Report
https://s3.amazonaws.com/HW_Assets/CVV_Assets/2018/Consumer/pittsburghpa.pdf WESA: Architect Offers Explanation For Pittsburgh’s Basement Toilets (And It’s Not What You Think)
