My bathroom doesn't have a conventional bathroom fan. The entire house is automated, and air and humidity controlled by a CERV. Silently. And the house is very quiet because the outside walls are 10" thick. Indoor tinkles are loud!

A set of inviting wind chimes that people can brush against. It's hard to resist playing chimes, and some of them continue to ring for a little while.

Ear plugs? I understand everyone has their concerns but I don't see this as a serious issue. Is this a major source of anxiety for you?

All the guests could be issued ear plugs?

Go all in with the eco friendly and install a composting toilet in the back yard...

A composting guest toilet would be quite the thing. I get a lot of looky loos at this house (they drop by and want to see it), and I'd love to see their faces if I explained that the house comes with an outside composting toilet. Ummm.. and that's where they get to go in a blizzard!

Lynda Lee, I'm not being unduly anxious about bathroom noises. The living room is 5 ft from the bathroom door; a little anxiety re guest comfort is likely reasonable.

I definitely like the chimes idea. I might be able to mount a deep echo-y set near the bathroom door.

How about a Big Mouth Billy Bass? https://www.walmart.com/ip/big-mouth-billy-bass-the-singing-sensation/987510193?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=4040&adid=22222222227146273279&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=256523718906&wl4=pla-423727107741&wl5=9067609&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=117430533&wl11=online&wl12=987510193&veh=sem

Play music honestly I can’t imagine anyone peeing so loud you can hear it through walls and a door I bet you are the only one that hears it . I had 3 boys plus a husband and they often didin’t even shut the door all the way and I cannot remember a time when they peed so loud I could hear it. Not well aquainted with Cerv but it sounds like it uses a heat pump and I will tell you my neighbors heat pump makes more noise than almost anything when I go to bed.

Use one of those noise cancelling machines that dr’s offices use.

A solid door that fits snugly into the threshold?

Seriously...............

Within 100 feet anywhere....RUN the sink water.- everyone knows this! For anything other? You go home. : ) Or need something asap like wine, or you name it from the store up the street: ) Everyone knows this. Or you need to fill the gas tank and will be UN able to relax until you have done so. Everyone over twenty, knows this too :)

Be RIGHT back...carry on...... lol YOUR job is to crank up the music or turn the volume up on the "telly"".....or chop something in the Cuisinart. Everyone knows that too ?

Japanese Toto toilets. They are multifunctional and can play music. They also have a recorded flushing sound so that you can pretend to flush while you pee.

It sounds like a lot of folks aren't believing me... I'm guessing—to be blunt—their house is bigger than 700 square feet and is not a high-efficiency home.

And, no, I'm not having water run while folks use the facilities. Have you ever lived in India? Africa? Arizona? Water is scarce in the world. That's why.

Also, my bathroom has a barn door because it's a fully "accessible", 5-foot empty floor radius, bathroom (yep, in said 700 square feet), and it wouldn't otherwise fit into a two-bedroom house this small.

Those of you who are doubters or barn-door-haters, try drawing the floor plan, including the mandatory 7x6 maintenance room, 8x11 kitchen, living room, plus a stacked washer/dryer, a 4x4 space for muddy boots, 2 exterior doors, 2 interior handicapped doors, plus a 11' closet, and still have room for a double bed, a single bed, 2 chairs, a 2x3 computer desk, a coffee table, 2 nightstands, a side table, and a couch. The interior width of the house has to be 12'4". Start drawing, and then back off the scoffing. I'll bet you can't make it happen. Let alone without a sliding door.

All of the building machinery is deadly quiet, except the fridge occasionally cranks out fridge noises; human sounds are stereo. Really. It's so quiet, it gave me the heebee jeebees until I adjusted.

No telly. There's no room for it. Livestream only.

Yep, that's the challenge I'm problem-solving. This has already happened with guests.

Big Mouth Billy Bass sounds hilarious! I was thinking about doing something laugh-y like this. That's how I came up with a command to Siri that says "Go Pee" and she starts singing, but I don't have one right now and don't know if it's possible. A wall-mount Billy Bass may no longer be needed with today's electronics. Maybe there's a Billy Bass App?

The chimes are a really interesting idea, too. Since a poster brought that up, I've been listening to chime sounds in iTunes.

How about a sound machine that is motion activated?

I understand size. My bathroom door, with the toilet right next to it, opens directly to my living room space. No buffer. We just don’t get uptight about it. If someone goes in we know what they are doing.

Thanks, mainenell, you've got the situation exactly.

Off to research motion-activated sound machines.

Let's just say I have a psychiatrist and a psychologist that I see on a regular basis. Totally different practices. Both use those little white noise machines you plug in and leave just outside and next to the door (and maybe inside the door too) in their practices (I think I see the machines on the floor in the hallway and in the rooms themselves. They're pretty unobtrusive so I don't remember if they're both inside and out or just outside the door.) I think someone even mentioned noise-cancelling machines upthread.

In any case, seems to do the trick....except for when patients are screaming and police/paramedics have to be called (yes that has happened exactly one time at each practice while I've been in session--not me screaming--but someone down the hall screaming in another doctor or therapist's office). One they were able to deescalate the situation with the help of police and medics but the other had to be strapped to a gurney and taken away via ambulance. Luckily, I was literally in therapy so we could "process" what had just transpired.

Woah, adawn5. I woulda been totally freaked out.

Certain decisions beget others............: ) They include location, size, barn doors and many others including a simple seven second run of water. Or however long it takes to wee.? Along with the decision to chill out and not worry on certain "begets"

hahaha "eco-friendly" but not people friendly.

There is the problem get a proper door barn doors are never good for bathrooms and I bet you get a proper door and you will not hear a tinkle

Love the motion activated noise machine idea. Do not love people on a house design forum who find it necessary to scoff at people’s legitimate, sincerly posed, questions.

tangerine, I would love to see a floor plan if you have it. Sounds like a fascinating home. I love the idea of a well working tiny house or even a small, very efficient, ‘just what we need’ house.

A white noise machine activated when you enter the bathroom will do nothing if the door doesn’t seal. I am not scoffing but being realistic if the door has open space all around it of course noise travels.

I've always had bathrooms right off the living space (900 square feet and 1100 square feet homes), but never had a noise problem. I imagine it has to do with the fact that these houses were/are old (1952 and 1931), so we're talking plaster walls and solid doors. In my current house (1972) there is comparably NO privacy in terms of sound.

All this to say--your best solution may involve something more major: tearing into the walls to rebuild in a more sound-proof manner, and/or changing out the door. I, too, would love to see the floorplan. I miss having a small house.

My visiting father was the culprit in our house.

I replaced the fan in our first floor powder room with a louder fan, then made it slightly louder with a couple pieces of aluminum tape to create an increased level of turbulent airflow. The fan is wired to the light switch.

Light ON, fan ON, bathroom noises MASKED. lol

We have the same loud bathroom fan setting as MongoCT’s in the in-law apartment (2 bedroom/1 bath, about 500 sq ft). We didn’t request that, the contractor did it that way. I was going to ask him to change it, this thread changed the plan. Lol

Invite Jan over when you have guests, problem solved..............

Gathering a few responses:

-As mentioned, the sliding door can not be swapped for a hinged door.

-the home is new, and walls are not going to get ripped apart.

-getting a cheap, loud, regular ol' fan might work

A preface to the floor plan: I'm not asking for do-overs, change-orders, hire-an-architect demands, or "you shoulda's", so if that's your thing, try another thread.

What a 700 square foot house looks like....2 months ago. The foundation is helical piers (they use these for lighthouses and bridges).

The house's name is Itsy Bitsy. She's not a tiny house. Just petite.

Thank you, tangerinedoor, for starting this conversation! I live in a two-story house with 900 square feet on each floor with our powder room in the middle of the main floor. I cringe as well when we have company and they use the washroom without turning the fan on as we hear everything!! I am going to try out some of the suggestions that you've received.

To get an idea about scale.... Here's the total overkill "Oversize Load" truck with the undersized house! Bwahahaha!

Love it. I didn't figure tearing out the walls was going to be a valid option, but just trying to think outside the box! Your house is very much like my 1952. My bathroom was smaller, the mechanical/laundry was outside (yay mild climates), but the bedrooms were larger. Best, most efficient house I ever owned.

I feel your pain too Tangerine. Walls are thin unless you got to build your house. Also budget may limit options. I like the exhaust fan and spa machine idea. Might use this one myself. Or the music. Maybe also a tasteful way to let guests know to turn it on when they go in. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Eco friendly acoustic panels lining the inside of the barn door and anywhere else you can tolerate seeing them. Also, canvas art with the panels behind and/or stuffed in the the back framing hanging in the bath and hall walls. A thick rug in the bathroom and the hall plus plush decorative towels or a shelf of towels might help absorb the sounds, too.

You could also hang thick drapes in the hall opening.

Put art on the wall! Thank you cd7733! Great idea! It will dampen some of the sound.

Now that I think of it, I'm also putting a towel warmer on the wall. I think I'll keep it loaded up with towels...

I also need to get some kind of bath rug. That would prolly help, too.

My "hall" doesn't have any empty walls.... every inch has a door. There's just enough room for a light switch. I don't even have space ABOVE the doors. The bedroom has a fire and CO2 detector in that place; the barn door has the home's mini-split; and the mini-split sticks out enough to take up space over the 2nd bedroom door.

Barn door photo:

You're doing great, everyone! Ideas are flowing!

Now I'm motivated to get the towel warmer done. Like right now.

A white noise machine in the living or dining spaces. they play ocean sounds, rain sounds or just static. a lot of people dont really even notice white noise (static).

Sound needs mass in order to dampen it. Sound will bypass any solid mass via gaps and cracks. So even the most solid barn door with sound insulation stapled to it will be way more loud than a swinging hollow core door that has virtually no gaps. Sound needs soft surfaces to absorb it. There’s very little soft surface in a bathroom.

An outswing, very solid full frame door, will block most of the bathroom sound that you are objecting to. Adding more solid core doors from the living area to the hall space will also limit sound transmission to the public area. Doing acoustical tile on the ceiling will also help. It’s not all terrible ugly office looking these days. Adding something like a waffle weave shower curtain and textured rugs will help absorb as well.

I didn't make this clear enough upthread? The barn door is not negotiable. No architectural features are negotiable. No on any alterations or additions.

Everything is EXACTLY calibrated for efficiency and air circulation. The State has even audited the house.

The ceiling is 10" thick, by the way.

I see a pretty large gap underneath the barn door. Can you add some kind of strip - either wood or foam or something that somehow coordinates aesthetically but lets it still function?

We have a large gap on our bathroom door because the prev. owners laid flooring over the original floor and cut the door down to fit. Its unfortunate as it is 5 feet from our dining room. So yeah, many sounds sneak out. We just try to hope the din of having company over masks some of the noises.

Thanks, kats737, for that suggestion. See that little block underneath the door in my photo? It guides the door, so the door can't be made longer, even by insulation.

I'm trying to think up some appropriate music that can be played... Something like "Tunes to Tinkle By". I was going to put the 1812 overture on the playlist, but I'm thinking the piddler will feel pressured. Maybe some bird song... Or, a cow mooing theme might go with the barn door...

On the inside of the powder room would it be possible to hang a curtain rod, and then the 'tinkler' could pull a heavy drape closed too. The heavy fabric could help dampen the noise.

LOL@live_wire_oak. How about attaching a fabric tube stuffed with sound absorbning materials onto the lower part of the door on the outside to cover the gap to the floor?

From upthread, I'm leaning towards a towel tower, artwork, and music as piddle mufflers.

I found this thread searching for answers to the same issue. I'm surprised some of these were not already posted but this is what I found. Do what you can with the door. Put a rug on the floor. If there a shower curtain put up one lots of texture. Window coverings the same. You can purchase "art" acoustical tiles to hang like artwork.. You can also DIY by covering a cheap acoustical tile with fabric and make your own artwork. The toilet itself can make lots of noise when flushing. You can put adhesive around the tank top (where the lid sits) to quiet it down.

Please post any ideas that have worked for you.

A draft stopper under the door will help, too. This kind is fabric and consists of two tubes filled with hard foam tubes, one on either side of the door bottom, with a flat piece of fabric between them that goes under the door. The tubes actually sit on the floor and slide along the floor as the door is opened and closed. If there is carpeting, the slippery nylon of the one in this picture works better than other fabric, I would guess. https://www.ebay.com/i/274343357106?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=274343357106&targetid=884652277561&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9016837&poi=&campaignid=9426322279&mkgroupid=92907991862&rlsatarget=pla-884652277561&abcId=1141016&merchantid=138376934&gclid=CjwKCAjw_LL2BRAkEiwAv2Y3SSdY3Qtwofu1K_ojes8lvu-Kk9E0BS9IORAb82QcHoER5TBwW9tlkRoCSMAQAvD_BwE

Now that I have read the whole thread, I see that my idea won’t work for the OP, but it may help others. Tangerinedoor, what has helped you? Anything you tried that did not help? I have a vegetarian hubby whose diet makes some bathroom functions quite disturbing to hear, so I totally understand the issue. We kept our noisy bath fan in the powder room remodel for this reason. Someone pointed out in another thread that the sound-masking source needs to be outside the bathroom, and I think this is true.

Does the barn door’s loose fit figure into the HVAC efficiency? If not, then you could staple softer, squishier versions of my draft stopper tubes to the bottom and edges of the barn door to fill the gaps when closed. Or attach them to the walls so the gaps are filled in the closed position.

Cheap solution: keep a kazoo by the toilet.