| They (prefabricated bathrooms) are sometimes used, but they do bring a number of issues (I am talking of "real" prefabricated bathrooms, concrete, not the plastic/fiberglass ones that also exist), a few of them: 1) they are heavy, the actual structural design needs to take this weight into account 2) since they have an "own" floor you either have a step to enter them or you need to have a somewhat thicker underfloor on the rest of the house 3) since they have an "own" ceiling, the internal height will be smaller than the rest of the rooms (here in Italy this is not an issue from the techincal norms as rooms are minimum 2.70 m and bathrooms and corridors can be only 2.40) 4) since there is the need of connecting the internal utilities, electricity is the lesser problem, but typically you have two or three (cold and hot + in some cases circulating) running water pipes, two (at least) drain pipes, two or more venting pipes and the radiator (or under floor) heating, you need some additional space on the outside or some (not really pleasing to the eye) boxes on one wall or in the floor (or both) In practice the only kind of building where they make sense are new multi-storey, multi-apartment buildings and hotels, hospitals, prisons, etc., and even then usually they are not usually much cheaper, they are only much faster and easier to put up, and definitely have an advantage for "luxury" bathrooms where local workmanship capable of a high quality work are not available or cost too much. An example, this is an Italian builder of such "pods" with experience in international projects: https://www.eurocomponents.eu/en/portfolio https://www.eurocomponents.eu/en/modular-bathrooms-for-inter... |
I agree overall with your point though.