Plumbing - how difficult to install temporary loo?

[appleeaters]

We’re thinking of buying a house with only one loo, without a sink. We need two toilets and the house needs updating, so not a problem long term. However, even short-term it would not work. Has anyone got any idea about how complicated and costly it might be to add an extra toilet to the existing bathtub + sink room..?

It could either be put just inside the door, so you’d have to walk round it (not great but not a problem temporarily). There might be a radiator on the wall – can a toilet be fitted more ‘free standing’ on the floor if there’s a radiator behind..?

Alternatively it could perhaps be put next to the tub. It’s a bit confusing cause the floor plan says the door opens outwardly but in the picture it looks like it goes inward. If it does go inward it might not be possible to fit it on the wall to the loo… If it’s put next to the tub there might need to be pipes along the tub/floor, not great again but would be ok temporarily.

Or we could add a sink to the toilet next door – would that be easier? Would need to get pipes through the wall (warm + cold) and sewage pipe back presumably? If this would be easier/cheaper and we could limit the time we’d live like that very much it might work, we’d then stay with family and friends mainly, which is not a preferred option.

So grateful for any thoughts :-)

Sorry, I’m not very up on plumbing, but my new place only has one loo and I’ve been thinking this too.

if long term you will be doing a major overhaul and redoing the plumbing then I see your point about a temporary fix.

Ive thought about a chemical loo (ie for caravans) or an incinerator loo (it just needs an electrical point), but they are expensive.

Thank you so much for your ideas, that's super useful ! I'm not sure I'd even heard about incinerator loos but looked it up and that could definitely work as a option :-)

Yeah we'd start renovating asap but would need to wait for planning permission so would likely take a few months.

A toilet would need to connect to the soil pipe (which is for the contents of toilets) and not a waste pipe (which is for bath/basin water). Where is the existing toilet?

The difficulty with a toilet is the waste. It should be on an outside wall and needs to be near the drain outside so you can connect to it.

The current toilet is where it says 'Radiator?' - I put an arrow above it (but may not show without clicking the picture). So the second loo would either be on the wall to the loo room - or, if the door stops that, it would be further away.

The outdoors wall is where it says 'sink', so if the loo could be on the wall to the loo room, it's close to the outdoors wall!

a/ where is the soil stack?
b/ what are the dimensions of these rooms

The toilet in the loo room is at the back against the wall (so where the arrow is) so the soil stack (sewage pipe?) must be going straight out there.

So I assume a waste pipe would need to go through the wall... That wall will go anyway so doesn't matter if there is an ugly hole but maybe it's a much bigger thing than I thought...

Would a sink in the loo room be much easier..?

Forgot, dimensions - there are no dimensions on the floor plan, but the loo room is a tiny standard loo room, rectangular with a loo at the wall. The bathroom is perhaps 1.80 ('tub length') times 2.5??

Generally, adding a sink to a room that already has a toilet is far simpler than adding a toilet to a room that has plumbing for water and sink/bath waste only.

That's really useful to know DataPup, thank you :-) May need to consider living elsewhere for a while (or some of us!) if the alternative is too complicated...

I know going down to one loo sounds stressful but it's doable for a shortish time, with a potty for smaller kids as a standby (kept in non loo bathroom)

It will be loads cheaper and easier to add a sink to the room with the loo in. Someone would just need to drill through from the bathroom and t off the existing water supply for the bathroom sink and route those into the loo and then put a waste in. If you wanted cold water only then that is even easier as there will already be a cold water feed in the loo.

Adding a loo to the bathroom ,the easiest plan would be to remove the sink and put a loo there because it is an external wall. Would there be space for a loo and a sink on the wall where the sink currently is?

Yes get one of those toilets with a sink where the cistern is and put that in the current loo room, just temporarily see if you can get a cheap second hand one or somethign

You could replace the toilet with a space saving one with a sink above. Cold water already has to get to the toilet so cold water shouldn’t be a problem for the sink.

something like this

https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/seattle-close-coupled-cistern-basin?s_kwcid=AL!15853!3!!!!x!!&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw99e4BhDiARIsAISE7P9hOSJo6i3KIs69gndDeD_d_jgIpb2H2oTW4OURyvDZyN2SfzLsRbcaAr0tEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thank you so much for your ideas and sharing your knowledge! Really excellent food for thought. There would be space on the outside wall for both loo and sink if we move the sink to closer to the bathtub but then that's a second thing to move I guess.

Also a good idea with the loo with a sink, if you could get a cheapish second hand one, because we wouldn't want that for a forever one, so to speak (I thought they were quite pricey!). Will check it out!

And yeah only one loo for a brief period of time just might work, maybe up to a month, but given need for planning permission it might be 3-4 and that would be hard... IBS in family so lots of time spent on toilet :-(

I also wouldnt discount a really good quality camping loo, same height as a normal loo, not smelly, easy to dispose of.

Perhaps you have that in the bathoom and its wees only in that one and then get a new toilet/integrated sink one for the loo room for the bigger jobs

https://nomadicleisure.co.uk/product-category/toilets-and-plumbing/toilets/portable-toilets/

Thank you for the link @soupfiend ! I didn't actually know that camping loos were that good/nice to use. Definitely worth considering, and very cheap compared to the incinerator loo :-)

So grateful for everyone's advice! Definitely makes us less concerned about toilet arguments :-)

When we used to go camping (shudder), we had a loo like that, I made sure it was as high as possible, it was really good quality. Some places we camped didnt have any onsite facilites, we preferred those and others that did have facilities, well Im up in the night going to the loo a lot, first morning wee as well and in any case I would rather use my own nice clean loo than horrible campsite loos

It didnt smell, easy to empty, used the right toilet paper and cleaner.

During the day I put a throw over it and it became a table for storage. Couldnt quite bring myself to eat off it!

Well, if the soil stack is on the same outside wall as the window, then it would be perfectly possible to put another loo on that wall and have it connecting into the soil stack. If there's room to move the sink and fit a loo in, it is probably the cheapest way to add a loo. It's quite full-on for a "temporary" job though.

Thank you so much, @Tupster, that's great to know! Yeah it seems quite a big project, I realise... If it will take a long time to get the ball rolling with planning permission etc it may still be worth it, but otherwise the camping loo was a great idea!

Thank you very much everyone!