Finish the basement with full bathroom or not?

[emily_gracesmama]

I know it would be convenient and potentially nice when the kids get older with sleepovers and such but our house is already 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths and the half is right at the top of the basement stairs. It would be about an extra 4k for the bathroom (a full bath not just a half) but I'm just not fully sold and neither is DH. For those of you with finished basements who have or don't have a bath down there do you love yours or do you wish you had one? This is not a house we will be leaving for a long time, I guess I just feel like maybe it's overkill

[khalloc]

Our house is 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The 1/2 bath is on the first floor of the house. The other 2 bathrooms are on the 2nd floor. We do not have a bathroom in the basement now but we would love one. I guess if it were me I would put in a toilet and sink. I wouldnt care as much for the shower/tub, but it would be great to have a toilet and sink.

[amom526]

Don't live in a house yet so I can only comment based on my childhood-

Our guest room was in the basement so it was pretty necessary to have a full bathroom there. But as kids we used to play in the basement all the time, and having that bathroom there was great (especially for sleepovers) but It's definitely not necessary in any way. I had plenty of friends where you had to climb some stairs to get to the bathroom and its no big deal at all.

But I think it adds a lot of value to the house in case you or anyone else ever did want to put a guest room or another bedroom down there.

[american_mama]

If you have a guest room downstairs and it's used somewhat frequently, I'd get the full bath. For the first time in my life, I have a guest room and just having it means guests are more likely to visit. More importantly, my siblings live just an hour from me and my MIL 2 hours away. My parents initially lived 8 hours from me, but now live only 2 hours from me. We have family staying over maybe every other month and having the full bath is extremely nice for everyone. I grew up in a house with just one full bath, no guest room (and infrequent visitors) so I don't think these things are necessities, but I think they're very, very nice to have for certain house layouts and lifestyles.

eta: If there's no guest room, I'd probably put in a half bath just for re-sale and convenience, possibly plumb it to be a full bath for re-sale if that doesn't add a lot, but I don't think any of it is a necessity. People will go up the stairs to use the bathroom. I definitely don't see it as a necessity for sleepovers; your child may not even like sleepovers or you may appreciate the greater monitoring of what's going on with the guests being forced to go upstairs for the bathroom. But for your guest's convenience and your ability to enjoy having them, a full bath is great for that.

[emily]

I think if you're planning on putting a bedroom down there, then yes, it makes sense to put in the full bath. If it's just going to be an open play space (what we're more likely to do, if we ever finish our basement), I think you could get away without having one. DH doesn't think we need one but I would at least like a 1/2 bath in the basement. Our house is 4br, 2.5 bath tho.

[MSWR0319]

We are in the process of finishing our basement right now. We also have 3.5 baths currently. I didn't realize it, but after the studs are up, we are having a full bath down there. I feel like its total overkill and not sure how I missed it on the plans. BUT the toy room may eventually turn into a bedroom since it has a closet and egress windows so I guess it's ok.

[MissyAg94]

Our basement has a living area, bedroom and full bath. It is nice as we use that room as our guest room. If there wasn't a bedroom down there, a half bath would be okay. Is there any way that you could make it easy to add a full bath later if you don't add one now?

[emily_gracesmama]

There is going to be an unfinished ( for now) storage area we could turn into a guest bedroom area. If we have a third child that may be a need as I don't see my kids sharing rooms they are such different sleepers one reads for an hour the other passes out immediately! Sounds like I should bite the bullet and do it I guess thanks!!

[smilequeen]

Yeah, I wouldn't do a finished basement without a bathroom. We've had 2 houses with finished basements and full bathrooms. Our guest room is in the basement as well.

[mikala]

Each additional bathroom is also an additional bathroom to clean. If you plan on having guests regularly it might be worth it but if it's mostly a play space I'd leave space for it in the future but save the cash for now.

[daniele_ut]

Our guest room is in the basement so we put in a 3/4 bath when we finished it. Ours was a remodel so the plumbing for the shower was already existing.

[doberbrat]

figure out how high the water table is in your area. Where we are, a bathroom in the basement is also a point for the sewer/water main to over flow. Its happened once in this house - and it wasnt a huge deal b/c we have some sort of a special overflow drain there and we never use that bathroom.

But in our last house, water came up both the shower and toilet in the basement resulting in 5ft of sewer water in the basement. .... a significant problem since I was living in a basement apartment!

also, does having a bathroom affect your taxes in any way? If you are adding a bedroom, are you required to add the bath? I know the answer to both those questions can be yes in some towns around here.

otoh, it would be convenient to have a bathroom on every level at least. And it would probably add to resale value later on. .... unless the buyers are crazy paranoids like us ;)

[cono0507]

We have a guest room in the basement along with a 3/4 bath (with shower, no tub). I like that it allows our overnight guests their own space and privacy and given the choice (and if we could swing the cost) I would definitely add it in your position.