Building Second Bathroom

Discussion in 'Renovation & Home Improvement' started by Angel, 4th Oct, 2016.

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  1. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    Does this seem feasible?

    Our home is a custom-built 3/1/2 on a great block of land that slopes away from the centre of the house. It is all enclosed underneath and half of it was dug down to make two levels. The back half is used as a workshop, laundry and office... And wine cellar - one corner is partially underground. It is not quite legal height to claim the room downstairs is a bedroom, but we can get away with calling it any of the other names thus described. Or an artist's studio.

    I want to turn the now unused office into a bathroom/laundry, send Hubby and all his paraphernalia to another house and turn his workshop into a true man cave with a kitchenette and sofa-bed rather than a bank of metal-working tools, cobwebs, iron filings and several classical motorbikes.

    I've demonstrated to him that installing a toilet will be easy: you should have heard all the passive aggressive reasons why it could not be done. However he tells me that in order to drain the shower we would have to do earthworks around the foundations to dig down into the sewerage drain. This would involve cutting up concrete paths and floors including all the reo, and penetrating the water barrier.

    Online suburb data for Eatons Hill tells us that a 3 bedroom house rents for $420 a week and a 4 bedroom house for $100 more. The median values are around $485K and $605K. The way I see it is a $10K reno will get us another $100K equity. We would do a lot of the reno ourselves. We would then move into our other rental house so that we can reno it while we live there, having this completed beforehand and revalued afterwards. What do you think?
     
    Angel, 4th Oct, 2016
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  2. Magoo

    Magoo Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]

    It's a yes from me ;)
     
    Magoo, 4th Oct, 2016
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  3. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    Sounds about right. I did this on the weekend. My plumber showed me where to cut and dig and loaned me a jackhammer to do the work. Slab wasn't too bad but the footings were difficult. I know have a large hole in my slab, footings and wall. Water barrier well penetrated and reo is gone. I have my concerns.
     
    Perthguy, 4th Oct, 2016
    #3
  4. Tonibell

    Tonibell Well-Known Member

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    There are systems that allow you to up-flush.

    Company called sani-flow had them at the home show.

    Basically it pumps thing up to connect to existing sewer pipes.

    Probably expensive - but better than cutting up your slab.
     
    Tonibell, 5th Oct, 2016
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  5. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    Neither of us like the idea of a pump failing, are there potential problems with pumping shower water up above the footings? A toilet can go straight outside at floor level, but the shower would need to be a decent man-height below the bearers and floor joists above.
     
    Angel, 5th Oct, 2016
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  6. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    We had a quote of about $1,200 to saw cut the dodgy, handyman slab under a house to add a shower to the downstairs (yucky!) toilet that was there. This was in a room that was not legal height, was not well sealed (brick walls and windows, but low ceiling height and not closed off from a tilt-door and car area).

    The figure our plumber gave us (ballpark) to cut the concrete, (we would frame up a new room), waterproof the room, add a shower, vanity basin and swap the toilet for a new one was about $20k.

    We chose not to go ahead because the room was not legal height, we would get no more rent from it because the room was fairly dodgy and not really inviting and the stairs down to this "under the house" were semi open to the air, so nobody would have gone downstairs in winter. We also looked at closing that stairway with weatherboards and windows but we still had all the other issues so it just wasn't worth it.

    About that time, we had no idea how soft rents had become and didn't know that when the tenants left, we would be faced with a drop in rent of $115 per week. Thank goodness we didn't spend $20k and the rest to make it nicer :eek:.
     
    wylie, 29th Oct, 2016
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  7. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    Further to the above, I'm thinking that your figures are for a four bedroom house that is legal height. I know in our area, it doesn't matter how nice the renovation is... if it isn't legal height it just won't get the same money as the same house, exactly the same but legal height.

    I've seen it many times. The non-legal height is always used as a bargaining tool.

    I truly think you should add the toilet if you can without cutting the slab, forget the shower, make the room as nice as you can without the big spend. It would be good to ask the agents with the four bedroom houses for $100k more whether your reno will put your house into that bracket without if it isn't also legal height?
     
    wylie, 29th Oct, 2016
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  8. Marg4000

    Marg4000 Well-Known Member

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    Also, a 3 bedroom house with another bedroom downstairs will not really compare with a purpose built fully integrated 4 bedroom house. And if it is not legal Head height then the valuer won't consider it a bedroom. And you probably can't legally advertise it for rental as an extra bedroom.

    We looked at a 4 bedroom house once, the trouble was that the 4th bedroom had been cut from the living area, leaving an eat-in kitchen with a very small living area beside the front door, only room for a 2-seater and a TV. Clearly the house had been modified to suit students, and totally ruined for anything else.
    Marg
     
    Marg4000, 29th Oct, 2016
    #8