Why does it seem that most houses have more bathrooms than they need? People sometimes wonder why a house that has 4 bedrooms may have as many if not more bathrooms in it.
Houses often have more bathrooms than bedrooms since peak bathroom usage for people who work and go to school is in the morning so more bathrooms are needed. It’s convenient to have at least one bathroom on each floor and houses are generally built with at least 2 bathrooms for every 3 bedrooms.
The funny thing is that you if you have kids or have visitors staying with you, you will quickly come to appreciate having a extra bathroom or two in the house that might otherwise seem unnecessary.
Let’s take a closer look at why modern houses have as many bathrooms as they do and what people tend to expect them to have.
When did the number of bathrooms increase in homes?
There was a time when indoor plumbing wasn’t even a thing and homes didn’t have a bathroom or running water full stop.
Up until around World War II, plumbing materials were very heavy and expensive. Think cast iron pipes cut by hand. Cast iron bathtubs weighing hundreds of pounds. Copper piping. Toilets were often still outside the house in many cases. Bathrooms were simply designed and served a basic purpose and options were limited.
After WWII, bathrooms started to become more common in homes and you might have even found a second bathroom in some houses if the owners had money. Jack and Jill bathrooms started becoming more popular too.
But it really wasn’t until the 1960s and 70s that bathroom design really modernized. Plastic (PVC) piping, lighter bathtubs with showers, second bathrooms and things of that nature. Costs were coming down and people were expecting more options for toilets in the home.
Bathrooms become a central part of the home
By the time the 1980s and 90s rolled around, it was a standard expectation that real estate ads for houses would immediately and prominently refer to a home’s number of bedrooms and bathrooms so you could quickly decide if the house met your needs.
Bathrooms are now a central part of any home where the inhabitants of the house spend significant time and money on not only the bathroom itself but on haircare, bath and body products on an ongoing basis, more so than ever before.
Our modern bathrooms also have more room to store all of our high end moisturizers, shaving gear, lotions, serums and designer makeup brands.
Basements are commonly built with rough-ins to add a bathroom in the cellar if desired. It’s easier to build another bathroom when the plumbing work has been accounted for than to have to start from scratch after the home has been built.
How many bathrooms should your home have?
There are several ways to think about this question:
- How many bathrooms do you need for current usage?
- How many bathrooms might you need for future usage i.e. having children, having more children, having visitors.
- How many bathrooms might a buyer of your home expect in the future?
Once any kids in your home get to the teenage years, they’ll probably want their own bathroom especially if they are of the opposite sex and/or spend significant time in a shared bathroom showering, shaving, doing their hair etc.
If we consider the golden rule than homes should be designed with 2 bathrooms for every 3 bedrooms, that’s a good start. Also consider how many floors your home has and if having a bathroom in the basement or having two bathrooms on the upper bedroom floor would benefit you.
Houses are getting bigger and require more bathrooms
According to the US census bureau, the average sized US home is 2,493 sq. ft. which is actually down from previous years when slightly larger homes were being built (Source: Census.gov
). While homes might be slightly smaller than they were in previous years, they are still much larger than in the past when they averaged 1,660 square feet in 1973.
While smaller homes of under 2,000 square foot used to be the norm, people have larger families these days, have more disposable income, have more stuff to store and just like bigger houses. At some point though, the average size of a home will peak. At some point, the average home size just won’t get bigger and we may have reached that range already given that the average home size has dipped.
A larger home with more bedrooms naturally means you have will more bathrooms. And it’s also a much different era as stated above with many new options that are available, some of which are not only desired but demanded.
Bathrooms are no longer just a simple toilet, bath and sink design but feature many other great options such as whirlpools, separate bath and shower, heated towel racks, heated flooring, double sinks, bidet, linen closet and much more.
What features do buyers expect in a master bathroom?
While you want to ensure you have enough bathrooms for your own usage, you should also consider what you need in each bathroom and in a master bathroom specifically since it’s the most prominent. More features are available in master bathrooms than ever before and are great selling features when the time comes to put your home on the market.
The National Association of Home Builders ran a survey where they asked readers to rank their most important desires in the master bathroom of their house.
Below in the table is what the survey found:
| Master Bathroom Feature | Desirability percentage |
| Linen closet | 78% |
| Separate shower stall and bathtub | 73% |
| Double vanity | 71% |
| Private toilet compartment | 65% |
| White toilet, tub and sink | 63% |
| Ceramic tile walls | 62% |
| Granite vanity | 61% |
| Multiple shower heads | 57% |
| Body spray panel in the bath | 56% |
| Whirlpool bathtub | 54% |
Summary
The bathrooms in your home are a key selling feature along with bedrooms and one that is prominently displayed in a real estate ad for a reason: Adding another bathroom after a home has been built is a costly endeavor when you consider the money and work involved to add plumbing among other charges. Buyers want to know that they have enough bathrooms in a home along with enough bedrooms up front before they make a purchase.
A modern bathroom will receive daily usage so you want to ensure you have enough well-equipped bathrooms when you buy a home for current and future expected usage.