Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - toilet

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09-17-00, 05:43 AM
I'm in the procees of remodeling my "small" bathroom, and one of the things that make it even smaller is the position of my toilet, how? and can I reposition the toilet???
thank you. Laura bravo


09-17-00, 01:43 PM
Laura:

You can't move a toilet without a lot of work. The drain pipe from the toilet is about 4 inches in diameter. This is far too big to run through a floor joist without severely weakening the floor joist, so the toilet is always located near the main drain from the house (called the "stack") so that the drain pipe can go between the floor joists and into the stack. Also, this drain pipe is kept short because there is no way of clearing that pipe without taking the toilet off if it clogs. You have to rely on the force of the toilet flushing to keep the pipe clear, and that means using a fairly short pipe.

If you change the location of the toilet, the most feasible way is to have it at a location where the drain pipe remains between those same two floor joists, and that really limits your options. Otherwise you have to run the drain pipe UNDER the joists because the pipe is 4 inches OD and running it through the joists would severely weaken the joists. However, if you run the drain pipe under the joists, not only do you have to box that pipe in on the ceiling below so that it doesn't show, you also have to modify the stack that the toilet drains into because you can't have the toilet water running back up between the original two joists to get back into the original opening in the stack.

Unfortunately, moving a toilet is not at all something you want to tackle unless you have a lot of both carpentry, plastering and plumbing experience.

09-21-00, 08:56 PM
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nestor Kelebay:
Laura:

You can't move a toilet without a lot of work. The drain pipe from the toilet is about 4 inches in diameter. This is far too big to run through a floor joist without severely weakening the floor joist, so the toilet is always located near the main drain from the house (called the "stack") so that the drain pipe can go between the floor joists and into the stack. Also, this drain pipe is kept short because there is no way of clearing that pipe without taking the toilet off if it clogs. You have to rely on the force of the toilet flushing to keep the pipe clear, and that means using a fairly short pipe.

If you change the location of the toilet, the most feasible way is to have it at a location where the drain pipe remains between those same two floor joists, and that really limits your options. Otherwise you have to run the drain pipe UNDER the joists because the pipe is 4 inches OD and running it through the joists would severely weaken the joists. However, if you run the drain pipe under the joists, not only do you have to box that pipe in on the ceiling below so that it doesn't show, you also have to modify the stack that the toilet drains into because you can't have the toilet water running back up between the original two joists to get back into the original opening in the stack.

Unfortunately, moving a toilet is not at all something you want to tackle unless you have a lot of both carpentry, plastering and plumbing experience.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dear Kelebay, Thank you for responding to my problem with "moving toilet", I have 15 inches that need to be move, do you still think I can't do it? sincerly Laura Bravo.


09-22-00, 08:08 AM
The key is the drain. There are two critical questions you need to answer first.

(1) What's under the bathroom, i.e., is it finished living space, unfinished space, or a concrete slab?

(2) What direction to the floor joists run, i.e., do they run parallel to the direction you want to move the toilet. You may need to drill a exploration hole in the floor to find out.

If what's under the bathroom is a concrete slab, then you can move the toilet with a moderate amount of excavation.

If what's under is unfinished space, then moving the toilet is probably pretty easy.

If what's under is finished space, then the second question becomes important. If you want to move it parallel to the joists, then it's not hard. If it's perpendicular to the joists, I suggest you abandon the idea of moving the toilet (although you still may be able to move it a few inches if you're lucky).

There are two other lesser concerns: venting and the water supply line, both of which can probably be dealt with once you figure out whether the drain issue can be dealt with.