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January 21, 2008
Toilet Bowl Blues, Part II
Q: Hi, Ed. We have a spare bathroom in the basement that we recently gutted out. Our problem is that we found the center of the toilet drain only 10-1/2 inches from the wall. The toilet that we purchased from the home center is the standard 12-inch from wall to toilet drain center. It appears that a standard toilet is not going to fit; is there a nonstandard toilet available? We already threw out the old toilet, so we cannot compare it to the new one. We don't want to jack hammer the concrete floor to move the drain, so any other suggestion will be a big help to us. Thanks! Karen (Pennsylvania)
A: Well, Karen, I have good news for your toilet dilemma. Yes, special order toilets are usually available for odd toilet drains like yours. You are correct that the standard rough-in measurements for a toilet drain is 12 inches from the center of the drain to the back wall. However, because of obstructions or mistakes, sometimes the toilet drain rough-in measurements can be off by a couple inches. Because of that, many manufactures offer 10-inch- and 14-inch-rough toilets along with the standard 12-inch-rough toilets.
You may or may not be able to return your new 12-inch toilet, since some dealers will not take any returns on toilets. (Nobody I know will take back a used toilet, but some people still try!) But the good news is that you should be able to order a new 10-inch toilet that can fit your 10-1/2-inch drain, giving you a little room to spare in your spare bathroom.
Posted by Ed Del Grande at January 21, 2008 12:19 AM
Comments
Hi Ed: I'm wondering why you'd think a store would not take back a brand-new purchased toilet in this day and age, given that most of them (as far as I know, since this is how ours was) come in two pieces separately boxed..with all parts (wax ring, bolts, etc.) to install them also boxed, bagged and attached? It shouldn't be any different than returning any unused/uninstalled consumer product, shouldn't it?
Thanks, Elizabeth (NY)
Posted by: Elizabeth at January 22, 2008 11:54 PM
Hey Ed,
Andrew from the Green Team here. Stacy and I had the same problem trying to find a 10-inch center toilet when we did a powder room remodel on our home.
The good news was that we were able to find something that worked, the bad news is that the choices were pretty thin, no pun intended. We ended up with an Eljer, and it was off the shelf at our local mega-home improvement store. We were hoping for a lower-flow (lower than 1.6) but that would have been special SPECIAL order.
But 10-inch centers are pretty cool, especially for smaller water closets or powder rooms where space is usually tight to begin with.
Posted by: Andrew Hunt at January 26, 2008 9:26 PM
I ran into a similar problem when a bearing wall was placed on the wrong side of the layout line. a 10" special order toilet was $240. I removed 1 stud, headed the wall opening, shaped a niche and set a 12" rough in in the opening. Looks great and gets a lot of "thats really neat" comments
Posted by: Brian at March 10, 2008 8:47 PM
