Turn a toilet 90-degrees

[Jadnashua]

I'm planning on turning a 1/2-bath into one with a shower. The shower would end up being too narrow unless I do something with the toilet. To have enough room in front of a toilet, the easier thing to do (rather than making the room larger or tearing out a wall) is to turn the toilet 90-degrees. It is now in a corner of the room, and would stay there, but be turned a 1/4-turn. I can give it more than the minimum width and have plenty of room in front of it, but there would not be enough in front to make a shower a decent size. I think relocating the drain shouldn't be too bad, but I'm not sure how to handle the vent. There is a bumpout behind the toilet now that I'm pretty sure holds the vent pipe. Turning the toilet 90-degrees would put the back on an exterior wall, and there is a window there as well. There have been some discussions here in the last few days about venting a toilet and the allowable turns, etc...how would you handle connecting to the existing vent line? The walls are plaster and in good shape - I'd rather not tear them out. The floor on the other hand could be sacrificed (as I don't want to deal with the plaster ceiling below, either).

What's the likelyhood I'll get through this without cracking the plaster all over the place?

 

[Randyj]

As far as cracking plaster.. who the heck knows?... Don't touch it and you shouldn't have a problem. I did a similar job several years ago. If you have an 8' space you should be able to squeeze in a tub/shower and a toilet. If you have PVC then it's relatively simple to cut out the sanitary tee and flange then install a "y" or tee on its side to route to the new toilet location. There's a difference between a "coupling" and a "repair coupling" the repair coupling doesn't have a stop in the center and can slide up a pipe and out of the way while a replacement section is put in place then you can slide the coupling over the new pipe ends... helps alot when remodeling and moving toilets. Biggest problem I've run into is having to place a toilet where a floor joist runs which calls for boxing off the ends of the floor joist that has to be cut and sometimes having to patch the floor to cover the big hole made to get to the floor joist.

 

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[hj]

toilet

Your toilet already should have a vent. All you should have to do is move the opening about 3" sideways and 3" out, or something close to that which is a simple process using a single fitting, not a 90.