I have a toilet in my basement. I don't like where it is.

March 8, 2025 9:02 PM

I have a bathroom in the basement of my house. In times of leisure, I imagine redoing this bathroom so it is nicer. A nicer bathroom wouldn't have the toilet where it is, and would have it in a tiny separate (but close) room instead. How much of a pain in the ass is it to move a basement toilet?

The problem is that the pipes leading from the toilet to the main drain leading out of the house aren't at much of a slant, since this is the basement. What's involved in moving a toilet in such a location? I'm assuming they'd have to drill out the floor, which I'm further assuming is expensive, noisy, and messy. Happy to hear your stories of remodeling basement bathrooms.
Optional bonus question: Am I being silly posting here instead of asking a plumber who could see the actual toilet and associated plumbing in person?

posted by Vatnesine to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Can you see the drain pipe leading from the toilet because it is above the floor (in which case your toilet has an ejector pump and you can move it wherever you want within reason)? Or do you have an elevated floor in the bathroom and the pipe is entirely below the toilet (in which case you can only move it as far as you can still get 1/4" per foot of slope for the pipe, unless you want to install an ejector pump, which is less than ideal)?
posted by ssg at 9:18 PM on March 8

Response by poster: No ejector pump, no elevated floor.
posted by Vatnesine at 9:50 PM on March 8

Assuming your floor is concrete in a single family home and there isn't some local issue complicating things (like your floor is a ventilated vapour space because of radon or something).

It's not all that hard depending on specific circumstance. It's a job I've done several times as a DIY project. Usually the waste pipe isn't flush up against the bottom of the slab so you can move the inlet several meters before you run out of slope room. If you are reducing the length of the run then there is no limit at all. You just have to cut out the concrete with a saw where you want the new trench to be. Then excavate by hand between the new location and your sewer pipe. Lay in new pipe, back fill and compact, and pour in new concrete to repair the slab.

There is a lot of manual labour involved by a couple different trades so could be relatively expensive. It's no more messy than a to the studs renovation.
posted by Mitheral at 11:10 PM on March 8

Whoa, I advise against this as someone who has replaced toilets and I just have a lot of experience with toilets, owning several homes and being old.
The adage here is "If it ain't broke don't fix it"
There are just so many variables about moving a toilet and you have never done it before? ANd what would a plumber help because each toilet is unique and he would have to know so much about your individual situation to be able to advise you. Plus, how old is the plumber? Sadly, I have met a lot of plumbers and recently, the last 4 plumbers I have dealt with were under 30 and 3 made serious mistakes and I think it was because they had not encountered my unique situation before. One plumber had to come back 4 times and the problem is still not fixed and I am probably going to just fix it myself i the spring.
Don't get me wrong, I completely support young people in the trades. And how we need to support their learning.
Having said all that, I see how you would like the toilet by itself. Enclose the toilet and then change the things around it to follow your vision.
Getting help if you don't do the move right or if the plumber doesn't is going to be extremely costly. Even if you can get help. Help ebbs and flows where I live. Sometimes you can get a plumber sometimes you have to wait months to get them to come. And then if they make a mistake expect it to take months for them to come back to fix it.
I support Mike Rowe who is trying to help young people in the trades.
posted by memoryindustries at 11:40 PM on March 8

How old is the house? Is the toilet original construction? If you're moving it towards the wall where the main drain exits, you should be gaining slope but I wouldn't get that sort of work done without a permit and city inspection because there are too many arcane little factors to be taken into account for slope/connectors and venting (too much slope is also bad). Also there's the can-of-worms factor where city code might require the addition of a back flow check valve on the main drain.
posted by brachiopod at 1:23 AM on March 9

Instead of moving the toilet, how about moving the walls in the basement around the toilet so you get the layout you want. Seriously.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:47 AM on March 9 [13 favorites]

We had our toilet moved in our downstairs. No way in hell would I consider it DIY. It involves breaking the concrete, reconfiguring a drain pipe that's essentially stuck through the foundation, then replacing all that. It wasn't a crazy difficult job or expensive for our contractors (the toilet was moved about 3 feet and now faces a different direction).
posted by SoberHighland at 8:17 AM on March 9

Echoing seanmpuckett, you can rotate the toilet around the existing drain pipe (may involve moving the flange).
posted by H21 at 9:03 AM on March 9

Response by poster: This would be 100% contracted out, not DIY
posted by Vatnesine at 9:12 AM on March 9

I had some work done to move a water line, not a drainline, but the work sounds similar. Cut through the foundation, etc was $5500. I think my cut was about 10 ft long.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:46 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]

Currently your toilet and plumbing meets code - the code as it existed when it was originally installed. In most places in the US, as soon as you modify this system you will need to bring it up to code. And what "it" is can include much more than just the toilet. When you talk to the contractor/plumber they should know exactly what the current requirements are.

Changes could include a back flow preventer or a special valve to prevent reverse flow and flooding. Or the toilet needs to be switched from draining away because of gravity to an ejector system or overhead operation. And then it becomes a question of if you migrate the entire basement system to that, because it's not something you typically do piecemeal. Or it might not be a question - it might just be a code requirement.

Venting might also range from no/minor changes to tearing the whole stack out all they to the roof. Around here that's over twenty grand in work.

These are non trivial issues because so many houses have been damaged by flooding so you can be certain your house insurance will be very interested in this issue.
posted by zenon at 12:16 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]