Removing WC/washing machine drain

Can you post some photos of the current setup - both inside and outside.

It's just a normal outside WC:

Just build platform as a false floor. A couple of treated fence posts and a sheet of ply should do. Irrespective of how careful you are the ply will get wet at some time so a coat of something penetrating to make waterproof would be sensible. Don't use chipboard which may turn to Wheatabix when damp.

Don't forget that you will need some form of trap to stop the smell of the sewer pipe.

If you have to smash the toilet to free it from its floor mounting don't forget to stick something the hole beforehand to stop small pieces of porcelain from dropping down the pipe.

On a shared sewer one blockage we had was caused by a piece of broken toilet in the pipe. It had possibly been down there when a neighbours house was renovated a dozen years before but it seems to have caught a large jobbie and caused a back-up/blockage.

Not sure how I get to the hole before the toilet's been lifted? I'll obviously try to take it out in one piece but it's not looking good - in a number of ways ;-)

Thanks - will give it a go

I'll bet the base has been laid on a bed of concrete and/or the screws holding it to the floor are just a pile of rust but still strong enough to stop you getting them out in one piece. :(

Get your hand down inside the trap at the bottom of the pan and force something such as a rubble sack or sack the compost came in etc. into the hole. Use something that you can pull out without tearing if something goes wrong.

Possibly use a lump hammer and cold chisel on the base to crack it rather than taking a sledge hammer to the top which is often the builders way of doing it.

Ah right gotcha thanks.

Yep, good plan. You've done this before :-)

Yes, and the washing machine (and CH boiler) is now in what used to be the outside toilet. However I didn't use the old toilet outlet for the waste water as there was a appropriate drain on the outside of the wall.

When I purchased my property slates on the outside toilet roof had been missing for many years and the hole was just below where the downpipe from the roof above discharged the rainwater. After the slates were replaced it took a very long time for the walls to fully try out.

All done. The pan was set in concrete - managed to get it out by running an SDS chisel around the base, and it came out in one piece. Instead of a plinth I simply moved the washing machine forward of the trap - only a few inches so no problem. The outside toilet floor is usefully on a mild slope, presumeably to make cleaning simpler - but can act to drain water in the event of a leak. Capping and tapping into the drain was simple - a 110mm plug with a 40mm inlet.

Of course, once in I found the washing machine stabilisers had broken, so out it came to replace those. It's an old Hotpoint that came with the house and sounds like a concrete mixer most of the time, so I can see that needing repalcing soon. But the resiting wasn't as traumatic as I'd thought.

Thanks for the advice.

:-)