Hall and Kids' Bathrooms: Durable Choices for Shared Baths

The hall bathroom works harder than any other room in the house. It is shared by children, guests and sometimes the whole family on a school morning, and it takes splashing, wet towels on the floor and steam several times a day. Planning it is less about style and more about choosing things that stay safe, clean up easily and still work as the people using it grow up.

Keep the tub, or not?

For households with young children the answer is usually to keep it. Bathing a toddler in a walk-in shower is awkward, and a tub with a showerhead over it serves children now and teenagers later. The usual tub-and-shower combination fits a 5-foot alcove on one wet wall.

If the hall bath is the only tub in the house, removing it is a decision for your household and for a future sale, since some buyers with children look for one. If you have no young children and another bathroom has a tub, a walk-in shower can make the room easier for everyone. Our page on tub or no tub covers the choice in more depth.

Scald protection is required, so check the settings

The plumbing code Washington uses requires every shower and tub-shower combination to have a pressure-balance, thermostatic or combination valve that protects against scalding and sudden temperature changes, and it limits the water from a showerhead to 120°F. Water from a bathtub filler is also limited to 120°F.

These valves have a limit stop that the installer must set. ASSE, the standards body for these valves, notes that 120°F is usually the code maximum but the stop can be set lower at the homeowner's preference. For a children's bath, ask your plumber to set and test the stop before the job is signed off, and keep the instructions for adjusting it. ASSE also warns that low-flow showerheads should never be used with valves that do not compensate for pressure changes, which matters if an older valve is being kept. Valve types are covered on shower valves and controls.

Surfaces that take abuse

Choose for cleaning and for wet feet:

• Porcelain tile absorbs 0.5 percent of water or less by definition, which makes it a practical floor and wall tile for a family bath.
• Slip resistance. ANSI A326.3 sets a wet dynamic coefficient of friction of 0.42 or more for level interior floors expected to be walked on when wet. TCNA notes that the number does not predict whether a given person will slip, but it is a sensible floor for a bath where children step out of the tub. Ask for the rating on the spec sheet.
• Grout. Epoxy grout (ANSI A118.3) and high-performance cement grout (ANSI A118.7) are denser options than standard cement grout. A mid-tone or darker color hides daily wear. See grout and sealing.
• Vanity top. Quartz and solid surface tops shrug off toothpaste and makeup better than porous stone. Marble and other calcite stones etch with acids, which a family bath will supply.
• Paint. Use a moisture-resistant bathroom finish on walls and ceilings. Sherwin-Williams recommends satin or semi-gloss for bathrooms.

Splash zones and water on the floor

Kids splash. Plan for water outside the tub, not just inside it. Waterproofing should extend properly around the tub and up the walls, and the code requires a nonabsorbent wall surface above a tub with a showerhead to at least 6 feet above the floor. Tile the floor rather than using a material that can swell. Run the floor tile under the vanity toe kick where possible so water cannot get behind it. Our page on waterproofing explains the systems behind the tile.

Glass or curtain

Glass in any tub or shower door or enclosure must be safety glazing tested to the federal CPSC standard and permanently marked. A sliding or hinged glass door keeps water in well but is harder to reach a child through. Many families start with a curtain or a single fixed glass panel and add a door later. Glass details are on shower glass and doors.

Storage for several people

A shared bath needs storage that keeps one person's things away from another's:

• A vanity with drawers rather than doors, ideally one drawer per person.
• Hooks instead of towel bars, at heights children can reach. Hooks dry towels well enough and get used.
• A recessed niche in the tub or shower wall for bottles, set where small hands can reach but out of the spray.
• A tall cabinet or linen tower if the room allows.

Two sinks help on school mornings if the room is wide enough; the NKBA guideline is 36 inches between sink centerlines. See bathroom storage.

Ventilation for a busy bath

Washington requires a fan ducted outdoors for every bathroom: 50 cfm intermittent or 20 cfm continuous, with a control the user can work. The Home Ventilating Institute recommends leaving the fan on for 20 minutes after using the bathroom, which rarely happens in a kids' bath unless the fan does it on its own. A timer or humidity-sensing control solves that. See bathroom exhaust fans.

Plan for children who grow

• Choose a standard-height vanity and use a sturdy step stool for now rather than a low vanity you will outgrow.
• Add a handheld shower on a slide bar. It rinses toddlers in the tub and adjusts for teenagers and adults.
• Ask for solid blocking in the walls around the tub and toilet so grab bars can be added later without opening the tile.
• Pick lever handles that small hands, and later older hands, can operate easily.

Budget and next steps

JDI's bathroom cost calculator gives these planning ranges for a full or hall bath with toilet, vanity and tub or shower, before sales tax: Essential $20,000-$32,000; Signature $32,000-$58,000; Luxury $58,000-$95,000. A full-bath Signature project typically runs 4 to 6 weeks on-site after design and permits. See bathroom remodel cost in Vancouver, WA for what changes the number, try the bathroom cost calculator, or start with bathroom remodeling in Vancouver, WA.