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new bathroom in opposite side of house to where water feeds and drainage are


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Thinking of installing a bathroom at front of house upstairs, but water sources and drainage are to rear side of house.


I?m sure I?m not the first and it?s entirely possible, but any experiences requested.


Things that spring to mind as potential challenges?

1. What sort of shower is feasible with combo boiler at other side of house ? (Water pressure/impact on other bathroom)

2. How to route drainage to back of house ?

3. Planning reqd ?

1. Not a fan of combis in houses/multiple bathrooms so will leave that to others.


2. Biggest problem will be the 4'' waste pipe if you're having a loo, if so, might be easier to go straight down to the ground floor and run it under the floor void to the nearest drain. If you've got a solid ground floor then requires digging a trench etc, messy.

The other option is to try to run a waste pipe within the depth of the upper floor (depends on direction of joists and depth of fall required to get to a vertical stack), or run it below the ceiling and box it out (can look ugly).

You might be able to use a macerator and have a smaller bore waste pipe, again not a fan as they can be noisy and prone to blockages.


3. You shouldn't need planning if no material change to elevations e.g. modifications to a window, but you will need Building Control to sign-off the new works.

you need to do some measuring, the fall needs to be 1 in 40 which is 2.5cm drop per horizontal metre


a soil pipe is 110mm diameter, the most common joist depth on old houses is 200mm


you'll need some fairly serious structural joist work if you're going at right angles to the joists (can't cut a 110mm hole in a 200mm joist)


I'll second that a macerator is a no-go

You could run the waste pipe externally but that would definitely need planning, and if it's as you say, at the front of the house, you might not get approval if it spoils the character of the property.


Is it a semi or detached property? If so, could the waste go out to a side elevation and down the side of the house?


Do you know where the main sewer is? Usually they are in the road at the front of a house, so you may already have drains running under the house or down the side, which you could connect into. This can be done internally, but would require a double-seal internal manhole, not the most aesthetically pleasing unless it was in a utility/boot room or similar...

I?ll take all the plumbing /drainage from/to the rear of house.

Agree on macerator.

May have to build platform to get the waste pipe fall reqd to outside rear wall.

Waste will probably be to side of rooms (terrace house) partly under floor and possibly right through a chimney breast.

Shower may have to be electric, are they as shit as they were when I lived in bedsits years ago ?!

If there is drain/sewage near the front of the house it might be possible. Box in the soil stack in the corner of your front room, then excavate to connect to the drain. But I think it's fairly unlikely in a terraced house, where the sewers are all at the back.


Otherwise... running a full size soil pipe internally along the length of the house is pretty much impossible. Even if your joists run in the correct direction, you won't get enough of a downward trajectory to run it between the floor and ceiling. Boxing it on the ground floor will look awful, and again probably impossible if you have chimneys.


So... reconsider the macerator perhaps. Or find another location for the new bathroom. Or just put in a shower without a loo, then you can use a flex hose for the waste.

Our house is a conversion with bathroom at front of house. Soil pipe boxed in and drops down through kitchen which is also at front of house (we have a weird layout!). We do have a macerater for the loo but not the bath/sink, the drop is fine for that. The poo chewer has been totally fine and they are loads better than they used to be. To be honest, to mitigate risk, we have a ?liquid only? rule for that loo and really crappy thin loo paper but with another loo in the house that?s fine?. (I feel I am straying dangerously close to Foxy?s thread so will stop now!)


Actually, the only real downside is that we don?t have an extractor fan as we?d need to put it on front wall of house and I think there is some weird planning rule about not having an extractor on the front?

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