18" toilet roughin - what is up with it?

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cwolters

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I had a plumber put the floor pipes in for a basement bathroom.

The drain for the toilet is roughed in at 18 inches from the back wall. I was planning on using an Eljer aqua-save which has a 12 inch rough-in suggested. Did the plumber just screw me on this? I have never seen 6-7 inches between the tank and the wall.

Now that the cement is down, what should I do with that extra space back there? Any suggestions so it doesn't look like crap?

Thanks in advance for 'feedback'...

chris
 

Jadnashua

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Short answer, yes. You've actually got enough room to turn the toilet 90 degrees (I think 15" is minimum), if that would help. You could box in that area behind the toilet, put in a shelf, or have him reset the thing where it should be. He may have been figuring a 2x4 wall behind the thing, but it still would have been long for a standard 12" rough. My unprofessional opinion.
 

hj

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pipe

How far is it from the side wall? He might have been given the wrong orientation, or gotten confused and put it in 90 degrees from the proper location.
 

cwolters

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orientation for 18 inch rough in

The toilet is just away from the wall. There is a 2x4 wall behind it that was new construction and marked off on the floor during install. The sink was also routed by him at the same time and the orientation was painted on the floor (cement) and laid out on the design plan for that room. Looks like he just goofed and didn't read the rule, but I found some pics of the piping before the cement was put in and it looks like it is almost joint to joint on the fittings (it ties into a cast cross pipe just a few feet from there and continues upstreem to the floor drain and the shower drain. I do believe that he could have saved 2-3 inches by putting the fittings to touch lip to lip with a very short piece to tie them together, but there is only about an inch between the fittings so he did keep it tight.

I picked up the eljer water save yesterday and it sticks out into the room a little and looks okay, the only thing is when you sit on the new location, you look straight down on the floor drain - hoep the kids don't look down it and try to spit in it when they are supposed to be going to the bathroom!

Thanks for everyones feedback, but I am just going to use it as is and buid a shelve or buy a storage cabinet to put behind it for some extra rolls or something.

I had seen an offset fitting (right now it is just a pipe - he had not put on the floor flange) that moves it two inches. Would that have been a mistake? I am not going to do it as it looked kind of restrictive to bend the way I would have had to make it and then back into an elbow the other way - especially if a kid tried flushing a racquetball (which our dog plays with constantly - or if the dog dropped it in???) - okay, that is an extreme but I am sure it has happened so I just put a straight flange in.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Chris
 

Toolaholic

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question

where did you find this guy? is he a wanna be hacker?


was his bid 1/3 that of a real plumber?
 

Gary Swart

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The guy comes back and does it right. A toilet requires a minimum of 16" on each side of center. An extra inch in the back wouldn't be too bad, but 6" is too much. Seems to me even without the diagrams a plumber should realize that the drain was not in the right position.
 

hj

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toilet

It is minimum of 15" on either side to the center of the drain and maybe the plumber was one of those who figures that the wall can be installed to fit his piping.
 

Toolaholic

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hay gary

it,s already been proven this guy is incompetent ,at best!

i wouldn,t allow him back on site ,myself!

this is a red flag for a real plumber to check out what he did for vents ect.

did an inspector sign his work off , CWALTERS?
 
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