Remove an unused basement bathroom

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Dear BP community,

I'm a beginner at this landlord stuff and have owned a multifamily for just about a year and a half. I'm looking for guidance on a pest/bathroom issue.

I  live on the first floor of the unit and my basement is split up so that front of the house has a small bedroom + bath then is a section for the furnace/boiler, then a medium sized studio w/ bathroom in 2nd half towards the back. The front room + bath is unused. It is directly below my bedroom and I do not want to rent it out nor offer it up to the basement studio tenant. We have had a bit of a roach/waterbug issue lately and I've had multiple extermination companies tell me it's due to the unused bathroom. I'm thinking about removing the bathroom. 

My contractor has told me that I can put caps on the bathtub drainhole and remove the showerhead and put a cap also. That's easier enough. Also, it's easy enough to remove the toilet and vanity/faucet but he'd have to cover it up with cement and he assures me that if i ever want to add the bathroom back, breaking up the cement to get to the piping would be easy enough. As long as I own this house, i will never use this bathroom so i dont mind removing it. However, in case i ever want to sell (which i have no plans for at this point in my life), i'm worried that i'm taking away value from my house by removing a full bath. Also, i'm not sold that the cement would be easy to break up and worried that breaking it up would also harm the toilet/faucet piping beneath it.

My question to you is:

1. What do folks think about removing a unused bathroom as far as house value is concerned? The basement still has a full bath in the studio and I can't imagine this bathroom being used unless the small bedroom is rented out also which besides being tiny, is illegal.

2. What do folks think about removing the small bedroom AND bathroom in it's entirety and just have an open space? I'm hoping that a more open space with fresh paint would provide fewer places for roaches to hide.

3. I use a well reviewed exterminator company that comes once a month. I also use advion on my own as it works well and i have a hard time trusting companies that makes regular money off of my need of them. Does anyone have any further suggestions on how to get rid of my roach problem? Any way to get rid of these things for good? 

4. Any thoughts, feedback, guidance is appreciated.

Thanks so much!

[JD Martin]

I have never heard of an unused bathroom being the source of roaches. Roaches may like the moisture of a bathroom but they still need to eat. 

If you don't need the bathroom there are ways of closing off everything without making it permanent. 

1. Turn off all the supply valves. 

2. Pull the toilet and cap the toilet flange.

3. Cap the sink drain pipe.

That's pretty much the sum of it. And it's totally reversible. The vent pipes don't matter because they all attach through the drain pipes. The plumber is full of crap (no pun intended😜)  because you can cap toilet flanges - it's done all the time to pressure test new drain pipe plumbing. You don't need to break up the cement.

As for your pest problem, that's coming from somewhere else. Roaches are generally attracted to food and animal waste. If you don't have either of those you will be unlikely to keep roaches.