If you want to add a new toilet, but shrink at the thought of adding plumbing, Boston homeowners rejoice! A macerating toilet may be just what you’ve been looking for. Before you break any concrete or open up a floor, consider this elegant solution that will allow you to add a toilet in any room of your home without adding any significant plumbing.
Adding fresh water lines to a room in your home is easy. Adding a waste line… not so much. Adding a toilet in the basement can be a major hassle because it normally requires you to break the concrete foundation and add a waste pipe under your home. Don’t forget the vent stack! On upper levels, a traditional toilet requires a hole in the floor for waste disposal, a new soil pipe, (which could be hard to disguise on the lower floor(s), a new vent stack and a fresh water supply.
A macerating toilet can be installed just about anywhere, even in tight spaces like attics and closets, or under a stairwell. They’re the ideal solution for adding a toilet to a basement, where you have good access to your home’s fresh and waste water lines. Macerating toilets are relatively quiet and use less water than a conventional toilet does. (Most macerating toilets use about 1 US gallon per flush.) They’re also 100-percent safe for septic systems.
Macerating toilets don’t work quite the same way conventional gravity-fed toilets do. A macerating fixture operates much like a garbage disposal does. While some units still have the fresh water supply at the back of the toilet to flush out the waste and clear the bowl, a box at the base of the toilet catches the waste and grinds it into a liquid slurry. A pump forces the waste liquid into your existing soil pipe via a small-diameter pipe that can be concealed easily in a wall, or in the case of a basement, run overhead. Some models conceal the macerating unit behind an access panel in the wall; other designs incorporate the pump and allow direct access to the mechanical unit. You can even find one-piece (tankless) designs that attach directly to the wall, like a commercial toilet would.
A macerating toilet is more expensive than a conventional toilet, but if you’re planning to add a bathroom to your home, the savings you’ll see from avoiding extensive plumbing rework will more than make up for the cost of the fixture. Generally, you can expect to pay anywhere between $700 and $1,000 for a macerating toilet fixture, but when you compare this to the increased plumbing costs associated with adding a conventional toilet, the macerating toilet turns out to be a really fast and economical way to increase the number of toilets in your home.
If you’re interested in adding a macerating toilet, or just want more information about the process, call us at Boston Standard Plumbing & Heating at (617) 362-0377 . We’ll be happy to help you choose and install the right macerating fixture.
Categories:
DIY Blog, DIY Plumbing, Tips and Tricks, Toilets
