Commode / Bidet Combination

[Sum]

This house's master bathroom has a bidet near the wall and an adjacent toilet near the tub. In fact the tub is only one and a half inch from the bowl. Too close in my opinion. I think this is because it used to be a regular size tub and the previous owner installed a whirlpool tub that is much wider.

Since we will not be using the bidet at all, I am thinking of disposing the bidet and switch the toilet over in it's place. That will make the bathroom a lot less cramped.

Questions are:

(1) Do bidets and toilets have identical drains? If I pull up the bidet will I see the same drain opening as a regular toilet or will there be issues that could make it not feasible to remove the bidet and put the toilet where it is?

(2) How can I close the drain of the toilet in such a way that it will be flushed against the floor? Is there some sort of drain plug I can screw into the existing opening and still be able to lay a piece of spare tile over and have that be flushed with the rest of the floor? I don't want to seal it permanently in case we want to re-open that some other time. If this is not possible I guess worse case scenerio I can turn that into a floor drain?

(3) By closing one of the two drains could I potentially cause any problem with the vent stack?

Thanks,

Sum

[donald girod]

A bidet should have a small drain connection, similar to that of a tub or shower. It will be of no use to you if you want to put a toilet there. Your toilet is much too close to the tub (code says a minimum of 12" from the centerline of the toilet to the tub, and more would be better). If you want to move the toilet you are going to have to do some surgery. If this is a first-floor bathroom with decent access underneath, then moving the toilet may not be too difficult, or, then again, it may be very inconvenient. If it is on the second floor you will have to tear something open to see what exactly the layout is.

[Sum]

Donald:

This is on the first floor. Concrete monolithic slab with no crawl space underneath. So the only way to do it is to break open the marble tile floor and the 4" or 8" concrete slab underneath and do some major work. Yuck!

The previous owner obviously did a lousy job of conversion. Spent all this money on a fully tiled marble from floor to ceiling and does not move the drain over. As it is now the edge of the bidet is about 10" from the wall (acceptable), the space between the bidet and toilet (edge to edge, not center to center) is like 46" (a lot) and from the other edge of the toilet to the tub is like 2". What an eye sore.

Looks like the only possible solution without a major sugery is to build up both the bidet and toilet for about 8-10" where I can offset the toilet and bidet towards each other a bit?

Any other possibilities?

Sum

d>A bidet should have a small drain connection, similar to that of a tub or

[berkshire bill]

Didn't you notice this during the walk through ? It seems a bit late to do anything about it now.

Bill

[Sum]

I have not bought it yet. I am doing an estimate now on what it will cost to upgrade this place.

Sum

berkshire bill wrote:

[berkshire bill]

Oh boy, you're in for a good expense I would say. Donald has pointed out that you need 12" from the toilet to the tub and depending on which way the drain is turned could result in a major breakup to the floor. There are pluses and minuses, the tile can often be removed and saved (you said you had spares), but breaking up the floor is expensive and probably didn't seem reasonable to whoever did the installation (even if it doesn't meet sanitary codes)

Happy modeming, Bill