Urinals for the home -> why not?

Here's the random thought of the day.

Why wouldn't a urinal be "proper" or useful or ergonomic for the average home washroom?

Aside from the case where you might have an all-female household, I would think that there are benefits to having a wall-mounted urinal (suitable placed) in the modern bathroom.

Perhaps having a "quick-flip" shield or cover to disguise them when not in use.

Discuss.

Reply to
Home Guy
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A ex-coworker of mine installed one in his basement bathroom.

He had 3 boys and they spent a lot of time in the basement where the family room was. He wanted to add a bathroom but didn't feel like digging up the floor to install a toilet.

He installed a urinal and a sink and was able to tap into the waste pipe from above.

Yes, somebody took a dump in it during one of their many teenage parties.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

  1. Most home owners are looking at resale so they don't want to lock the resale into a majority male family.
  2. Bathroom configurations probably fall more into the female domain.

  1. It's not a simple matter of swapping a urinal for a toilet.

  2. Since a toilet does double duty it wins.

I have a dual flush toilet that uses .9/gpf. Not sure but I think the typical urinal uses more.

Jim

Reply to
JimT

I didn't say to replace a toilet with a urinal.

Add a urinal.

Cut down on water use, maybe other benefits (cleaner than pissing in a toilet?)

No more "put the seat down" complaints.

I doubt that.

Reply to
Home Guy

Who's cleaning the toilet now?

Maybe the toilet would be cleaner if you/I pissed in the urinal?

Reply to
Home Guy

Urinals take up space. My bathroom has no space for it. Only place would be where the towel racks are. I don't want piss splashing on my towels. I've pissed in urinals and pissed in toilets. No difference. Urinals are used mainly to keep drunks from pissing all over toilet seats in high traffic areas. You can put a urinal in your bathroom if you want. Put a bidet in there too if you like.

--Vic

Reply to
Vic Smith

I don't have room in my bathrooms. If I did we'd have a bidet.

Put the seat down.

You're right. A LF urinal can use as little as .125 gpf. Not sure how sanitary that is.

Still think, overall, the LF toilet wins out. I think urinals can have a perception as being unsanitary. Also, the plumbing issues.

Jim

Reply to
JimT

I would love to have a urinal in my home. Women can have the bidets, which are to my way of thinking gross.

I think if I ever build another house, I shall buy a commercial men's room urinal, or just tile one wall stall like they did at the old drive-in movie theaters. You do have to admit it, they are downright useful, and just hose them down every few weeks, and you're good to go.

BTW, I bought a black light flashlight recently. Have you ever gone into your own bathroom, that you heretofore thought was nice and clean and sanitary. It ain't so. There's spatter so far up the wall, you ask yourself, "WTF was I thinking?" I saw one episode of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, and there was spatter on the ROOF! Musta been some pressure or some hose!

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

The ones at work use 1 gallon. They have waterless ones available now, but I have no idea how they work.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

You've got a sink, don't ya?

-Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

I don't really see a practical advantage. It will take up about 2 fee of wall space, is another fixture to be cleaned,does no function that a toilet does not do already.

Minor advantages are no seat to lift and small water savings. We have tow bathrooms in or house. In "hers" I'm careful to put the seat down. In "mine" she will not complain no matter what the seat position.

Fact is, the lid shoudl always be down when you flush to avoid the spread of the microscopic water droplets that easily spread up to six feet or so from the toilet when flushed. I saw a demo of just that on "The World's Dirtiest Man" on Discovery tonight. Mike Rowe was the dirty guy. All sorts of disgusting stuff around us.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

The one big hang-up that is common here is equating the sanitary qualities of a urinal in the home with that of a row of urinals in a mens room at an airport, truck stop, etc. Yet people easily dismiss the comparison of a row of public toilets as having any resemblence to their own home bathroom.

A urinal is JUST A TOILET THAT'S MOUNTED HIGHER UP ON THE WALL. A toilet THAT NEVER SEES ANY SHIT (at least it shouldn't in your own home

- no more than expecting to find shit in your shower or wash basin).

No friggen tank mechanism / flapper to putz with every 5 years.

No flushing and re-filling noise to deal with in the middle of the night (at least - not much noise).

If there's no room, if it's too expensive to put in - that's fine.

Plenty of new homes are always being built, or remodeled. Bathrooms

*ARE* bigger these days.

But don't give me the "it's too yucky" or "un-hygenic" reason. That's bullshit. Urine is actually a sterile body fluid (at least it is if you're healthy) and I'd argue that the average urinal will capture a higher percentage of wayward urine than the average toilet.

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Will Today?s Homeowners Accept Home Urinals?

Stylish and water-efficient, urinals may be making their way into more homes

By Robert Kravitz July 26, 2010

A Los Angeles journalist faced a dilemma. After purchasing a home in

2007, he realized it needed a new bathroom. While contemplating how he wanted the bathroom to look and what materials and fixtures he wanted to install, it occurred to him that one of his dreams had always been to have a urinal in his master bath.

The contractor was more than happy to install one. However, a very successful real estate broker next door said that installing a home urinal was ?absolutely? the wrong thing to do. It seems that for most people, urinals conjure up all kinds of unsanitary images. Ultimately, the journalist decided to let this dream go unfulfilled.

At about the same time, a woman in Ontario, Canada, told her designer that she wanted a home urinal installed in her new master bedroom, believing it would help keep the bathroom cleaner and more sanitary. ?My husband?s aim isn?t that good,? she said. ?So it seems like a good solution.?

OVERCOMING BARRIERS

It?s true that many people, men as well as women, find the thought of installing a home urinal a bit grungy, to say the least. After all, it is not uncommon to find unsightly and unsanitary urinals in truck stops, gas stations, schools, sports arenas, and scores of other locations.

However, builders of high-end homes and apartments have found that today's consumers are more receptive to home urinals, often because they have seen elegant versions in luxury and boutique hotels. Instead of the typical office urinal, which has not changed much in design in decades, these versions are typically sleeker and smaller and are available in softer colors and even unusual shapes, such as teardrops and orchids.

Architects and designers also report that in recent years (or at least before the economic downturn), clients have been requesting home urinals more frequently. For example, Fenwick Bonnell (of Powell & Bonnell, a design firm in Toronto) reports that his company completed a renovation in 2007 that included his-and-her bathrooms with a bidet for the lady and a urinal for the gentleman.

At another home, this one in Plano, Texas, a $3 million entertainment wing included a urinal at the request of the homeowner. The addition?s designer, Ashley Astleford, said she was not surprised at the request because home urinals have become more common in recent years.

COST & INSTALLATION

Home urinals such as the upscale and stylish models described above typically range in price from $300 to $650 for no-water urinal systems to $900 to $1,300 for conventional flush water urinals. Of course, there is no set upper limit. One woman actually gave her husband a $10,000 urinal as a gift to install in their penthouse apartment in Edgewater, New Jersey.

In addition to the cost of the unit, installation charges must also be considered. If the urinal is part of a new construction project or a bathroom renovation, the additional costs are minor. However, if the unit is added to an existing bathroom, the costs can run several hundred dollars. This is due primarily to plumbing costs. Water must be brought to the urinal and a drain system must be installed to remove the waste.

One way homeowners have reduced these costs is to select one of the no-water, or ?waterless,? home urinal systems mentioned earlier. These units, which can save as much as 10,000 gallons of water annually, typically cost less than conventional urinals because they have fewer water-related parts. While they still require a drain system, no water connections or flush systems?the most expensive part of a home urinal installation?are necessary. A cylinder placed at the base of the urinal prevents sewer gases from being released while allowing waste to be removed.

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Waterless Co.?s Anza and Baja are both waterless urinals that can help reduce residential water use.

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Contemporary designs such as these by UK-based Philip Watts Design take the "grunge" factor out of a residential urinal. Shown here are Gloo, which is offered in 11 solid colors (top left) and an LED-illuminated model, and Spoon (bottom). For more information, visit
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Clark Sorensen?s handcrafted porcelain urinals come in a variety of flower-themed designs, including California poppies (top left), orchids and tulips. Non-flora-related urinals are also available at
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See also:

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Reply to
Home Guy

"Home Guy" wrote

I would be interested in investigating this. I recently bought a UV flashlight. I would like to investigate a public urinal vs. a home bathroom toilet. I was amazed at the spatter in a normal bathroom. (MINE) However, one of the things that is difficult in controlling is the light. In order to take a reading, you must cut the lights off. In a lot of commercial places, it is impossible to cut off the lights without the intervention of a maintenance person.

Still, it would be interesting. And it would also be interesting to carry along this little UV flashlight and where possible, look in the dark to see just how gungy they are.

However, unless one is wanton to rub around against walls and all manner of things in public toilets, men, at least can go in and do their business, and not touch a lot, and as some form of male revenge, do a pretty good degree of marking without too much of a risk of being detected.

I bought a little black light flashlight recently to look around my premises for scorpions. We live on Scorpion Hill, as it were, in a sand dune environment, but it is winter, and they are all inside. It shall be fun this summer to snoop around, although I shall keep SWMBO literally in the dark about what I do see. I have already encountered them in the house, and dispatched them. In my life, I have been bitten three times. Should be interesting, as well as some geological experiments I shall be doing with black light. It was very interesting on the arrowhead and rock collection currently in my cabinets.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Just sit down and avoid lifting something that is heavy.

Reply to
Dick Adams

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww gross

Reply to
Lisa BB.

Andy comments

That's what the drain hole in the shower is for....

Andy

Reply to
Andy

The above was obviously written by someone that is clueless. What great savings is there in a urinal that requires a drain, but no water supply? A flush valve isn't going to add a big premium to the cost of the thing. I bet the waterless one costs MORE than a regular one. And anyone experienced in plumbing or building knows that it's usually the drain system that is more of a problem than the water supply. With PEX for example, you can easily run water almost anywhere. A drain, vent, etc is more problematic.

As to the question at hand as to why not urinals in more homes, I think it comes down to a few things:

Bathrooms in most homes don't have the additional space.

You already have a toilet that gets cleaned regularly. Adding a urinal is just one more thing to clean.

It would be viewed as unusual by many people, affecting resale.

I think the example of them being installed in high end homes with his and hers bathrooms is an example of where they can make sense. I would not mind having one, but unless I had a his/hers thing and plenty of room I would not put one in for the above reasons.

Reply to
trader4

Don't you see the fallacy in such a comparison?

You want to make a comparison between (a) a toilet vs urinal, and (b) a public vs private facility.

Different "equipment", different usage pattern / traffic / volume.

Are you sure that glass cleaner or other cleaning products *don't* leave residue that "lights up" when exposed to UV light?

Who designed urine (and other body fluids) such that they're the only things that light-up when exposed to UV light?

Reply to
Home Guy

Nice try at an insult.

No, I don't lead a sheltered life.

But I don't frequent women's restrooms either. Perhaps you do?

Reply to
Home Guy

If you intend to meet the needs of average height or tall teens/adults, why bother? Just use the sink and you will need less than a quart of water to "flush" afterwards. We're so prudish/squeamish in this society! If you have young boys or the facilities will be used by frequent guests, that's a different situation.

Reply to
Peter

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