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questions about adding a first floor 1/2 bath

16 years ago

we are thinking about adding a first floor 1/2 bath. full basement below, another floor above.

1) what should be the ABSOLUTE minimum size of the room? we were thinking about under the stairs.

2)venting. does the toilet have to have a seperate sewer gas vent pipe? it would be 100% impossible to go up and through the roof. can we just connect the drain to the main drain of the house? if we must have one, can it go up into the ceiling, then across passing through the floor joists exiting out the side of the house then going up?

3)we would also be adding a master bath on the second floor. would this need to have its own sewer gas vent pipe?

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Comments (3)

davidandkasie
16 years ago
1, my parents have a half bath that is 4x3. tight, but fully functional. the house we used to rent had a halfbath in one bedroom. it was 2ft wide and a littler less than 5 ft long. the toilet was at one end and the sink at the other. you could literally sit on the toilet and wash your hands in the sink at hte same time.

2. what codes are you under?

3. i would think so, but again not sure.

hopefully lazypup will see this and give you the answers to 2 and 3!
lazypup
16 years ago
1) what should be the ABSOLUTE minimum size of the room?

If you are under the IRC and wouldn't mind a prison style toilet that has the lavatory and a drinking fountain on top of the tank you could get by with a 30"x47" space with either a pocket door or out swing door....LOL.

Under the IRC a watercloset (Toilet) is required to have a 15" clearance to either side of the centerline and a frontal clearance of 21" measured from the front lip of the bowl.

Waterclosets are typically about 26" long so with the required 21" frontal clearance it would require a 30"x 47" area.

You can get a wall hung Lavatory about 15" front to back so you could have a 30" wide room with a watercloset on one end facing center and a lavatory on the opposite end facing center. Allowing a 21" separation from the front of the watercloset bowl to the front of the lavatory bowl it could be done in a 30"x62" space.

The UPC requires a 24" frontal clearance on a watercloset.

In regards to your DWV(drain,waste & vent) layout, it is true that all fixtures must have a vent, but not all vents must go to the roof. In fact, under the right conditions it could be vented without any vertical risers.

In order to determine what you would need i would have to see a tentative layout showing what you propose and the horizontal distance to the main drain where you intend to tie in. If you could create a simple drawing and email it to me I will be glad to work it out for you.

LazyPup@Yahoo.com
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The underside of the closet flange MUST BE in firm contact with the finished floor. Put down the subfloor and pergo then install the flange on top of the pergo and screw it down tight. Code prohibits installing a horizontal vent line at any point which is 6" below the flood level rim of the highest fixture served by that vent. In this case a simple solution would be to install a riser in the wall behind the lav with a Sanitary Tee where you want to stub out the fixture arm to the lav trap. The line above that tee can continue to rise at least until it is 6" higher than the flood level rim of the Lav at which point you could continue upwards and join the vents in the ceiling or you could run the vent horizontal through the wall. In this configuration the vertical vent above the sani-tee serves as a dry vent to the lav and the vertical drop and horizontal line from the sani-tee down and across to the WC line serves as both the drain for the LAV and the vent for the WC line. NOTE: you must use a Sani-tee on the vertical behind the lav but at the point where that vertical ties into the horizontal at the bottom you must use a Wye & 1/8bend or a Combo and put a thread adapter and cleanout plug on the end of the Wye. You must also use a Wye to connect to the WC line- Tee's are prohibited on a horizontal line.
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radioguy4ever
Original Author
16 years ago
thanks lazypup, i will work on that and get back to you.

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