Making Small
Bathrooms Work
by Patrick J. Galvin
Few people are around now who
remember it, but there was a building
boom in this country in the 1920s
that established a standard with
which we are still saddled.
That was when a federal law first
prescribed that there be at least one
bathroom in every urban dwelling
unit. Everyone needed it but nobody
Figure 1. Standard location of drains
Figure 2. Typical 5x7-foot bath
liked to talk about it, so architects
and builders established the stillstanding
habit of tucking it away. The
result? Our standard 5x7-foot bath.
We often add a few inches, even a
foot, in either or both dimensions,
but the size is so minimal it is
difficult to