building false wall for back-to-wall toilet

[julianl99]

The bathroom brochures these days have a lot of back-to-wall toilets. In the brochures these look great, but I was wondering how difficult it is to build the false wall required for these? Taking a random example:

should the dark green coloured false wall in the picture be made of? Plasterboard? Chipboard? Something else? Presumably it is mounted on some sort of wooden frame? Is access to the cistern by removing the horizontal panel at the bottom of the white-coloured niche? Do plumbers typically build these false walls while installing the toilet or would it be better to get a different trade to construct the wall? I'm not bothered about having a wall-hung toilet, floor-standing is equally fine.

Thanks for any advice on this topic, and to those who responded to my posting a couple of days ago...

Julian

[r.rain]

I'm Just about to go through a similar exercise. I have a chippy mate who's going to make me a false wall. It will be made of 2 x 2 for the battens/ framework and the side bits/front will be made of 6mm plywood. My wall is to hide some ugly pipework and to also provide a backing for a back to wall toilet the flush (no pun intended) type. a semi pedastel sink will also be hung on it hence the 2x2 which should give a nice strong frame.

I would say that a plumber probably wouldn't entertain the building of said wall but a chippy would knock you one up in no time (if you can get one) or DIY it, which again is simple. I just dont have the time myself due to all the other jobs I have on. Make sure you know where all your pipes will go though before embarking on this!

HTH

Cheers

Richard

[julianl99]

Richard

Thanks for the advice on this. Do you skim the front-face of the plywood with plaster or paint straight onto the bare plywood?

cheers

Julian

[r.rain]

I am tiling mine so no issues regarding final finish and plywood will be sufficient. If you want a paintable top notch finish I would probably use plaster board instead of plywood and then skim this. Basically you would be constructig a stud wall. I wouldn't skim the plywood unless it was thick as it would probably be too flexible resulting in the plaster cracking and falling off (?) Also I dont thnk you would get the finish you are after by just sanding the wood and painting.

Someone else may come along with a better idea though........

Cheers

Richard

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that [e-mail] formulated :

Obviously it would need to be a good strong wooden frame, to with stand the weight of the toilet plus user without deflecting.

Is access to the cistern by removing the

It would need to be built by a joiner, or you could DIY it. It would need some quick access of some type to service the cistern and perhaps the soil pipe, either a removable shelf (as in the photo), a panel above the toilet or perhaps even better access from the far side of the wall etc.. In commercial installations, they often have several toilets back to backing onto a walkway between them, to allow them to be serviced.

[Alex]

due to an obsession with seeing nasty pipework I built two walls in my bathroom for the basin pedestal and back to wall toilet,the stud was 2x1 and the basin wall was plywood lined and the other just plasterboard both finished with tiles and toped with a removable ash tops held in position with old style plinth clips.If you would like to see some photos let me know and I will email then to you

Alex

[John Rumm]

The weight of the toilet and user is carried by the pedestal of the WC and hence carried by the floor not the wall. The wall is just cosmetic to hide the cistern.

[Mr Fizzion]

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 03:11:24 +0100, John Rumm

But in the picture the pedestal isn't in contact with the floor.

Mr F.

[manatbandq]

Not if it's wall hung as shown in the link given by the OP.

MBQ

[Brian Sharrock]

I considered using such a device - a wall hung toilet pan - when refurbishing the wc last year. My wife was particularly interested in the idea of cleaning the floor under the pan 'all in one go", so to speak. Speaking in general -the wall conceals a metal frame that affixes to the floor, and possibly to walls either side, - or in the case of commercial multi-stall installations- to adjacent frames- the frame also contains the flush tank which is basically a polythene(?) tank (it's not going to be visible so needn't be pretty. The frames have adjustments in the heave-axis to cater for different pans. Connections to the soil stack and water occur behind the frame. Cladding can be whatever you want to close-out the frame.

I eventually ruled out the choice of such a device due to lack of knee-room in the (separate) toilet room . If I'd fitted one the wall-frame-pan-door length just wasn't enough.

Instead, I fitted a 'conventional' toilet configured to sit on the floor with ceramic skirts that abut to the wall and hide the soil-pipe connections - it was a b***ger to fit- by design you can't see the soil-pipe / pan-outlet connection as you're sliding the pan into place !

If however, I had a bathroom inc toilet where space -in front of- the pan wasn't a constraint; I'd certainly go done that route.

There are a number of firms manufacturing the 'toilet/bidet/hand basin' hanging frames - I had the opportunity of inspecting several at a (decent) bathroom fixtures showroom.

HTH

[John Rumm]

There is a difference between "back to the wall" WCs that the OP asked about, and wallhung WCs that the picture *may* show (I am not sure about that picture - it has a raytraced quality to it!).

Obviously if you want a wall hung WC then the studwork frame wants to be far more substantial (i.e. build from 4x2" with noggins placed to carry the load and allow rigid fixing of the pan)

[DJC]

For wall hung use a steel frame to support the WC eg Grohe Rapid SL (

[Paul Andrews]

If you want to paint, why not use some lining paper?