Marine toilet in house

[willoughbybaltic]

I have what might be a very stupid question...

I have an art studio with a walk in closet that contains a work sink. The floor to the studio is concrete. I want to convert the walk in closet to a bathroom.

So...

I've been looking at electric macerating toilets, and I've noticed that they seem to be related to marine toilets. However, marine toilets are much cheaper.

So...

Is there any way to modify a marine toilet to be used indoors and connect it to an existing drain? Has anyone ever done this?

I'm looking for a creative solution here.

Thanks for not laughing too hard,

Willoughby (artist, not plumber)

[LazyPup]

The simple answer is that a marine toilet is not suitable to your needs.

Legally speaking it would not meet code standards because ALL FIXTURES used in a residential structure must be certified for use in the residential enviroment by the ANSI (American National Standards Institute), ASSE(American Society of Sanitary Engineers) and the ASTM(American Society of Testing & Materials). In addition, any fixture that has electrical components must be certified for use in the residential enviroment by UL(Underwriter Laboratories).

The marine toilet would fail to meet the ANSI,ASTM and ASSE standards for a number of reasons:

1.In order to prevent water from splashing out of the bowl while a boat is pitching on the waves a Marine toiiet operates on a dry bowl technique therefore they do not have the required water trap to prevent sewer gasses from entering the structure.

2. While marine toilets do have pumps, the pumps are only designed for horizontal flow and they do not produce the necessary static head to effect the necessary lift for upflush operation.

3. Marine toilet pumps have 12volt DC motors and would require special step down transformer power supplies to be operated in the home.

4. Marine toilet pumps do not produce the code minimum flow rate of 1.9ft/sec and 14.2gal/min.

While upflush toilets do solve the problem of how to install a toilet in a basement or where the point of installation is below the building gravity flow drainage system there are a number of conditions that must be met in order to install them, and in some cases the existing drainage system in the structure is not adequate to allow the additional load of an upflush toilet.

[willoughbybaltic]

Thanks so much for the information. Now I understand why it's not done.

I guess the thing to do is to hire a contractor and consider building a subfloor.

-Willoughby

[LazyPup]

Before you go to the expense and bother of a subfloor you may want to do some research on "Sewage Ejectors" and "Up Flush" toilets."

There are three basic methods used to install a bathroom or drain system when the location is below the level of the building main drain.

If you were building an entire apartment in the basement with, kitchen, bath and laundry you would need pit type sewage ejector. Fundamentally they work in the same manner as a sump pump. You install a pit in the floor that is equiped with a sewage ejector pump, a removable cover that is sealed water tight and a separate vent. The drains discharge into the pit and it is pumped out to a gravity flow drain pipe.

When all you need is a toilet there are a number of "Upflush toilets" that have the macerator and pump built into the base of the toilet. Some of them also feature an auxillary input that can be used to connect a lavatory sink.

My personal preference for this type of application is a small sewage ejector pump that is self contained in a plastic base upon which you can install a conventional toilet. The base under the toilet is about 3" to 4" high with the pump assembly in a taller part of the mount directly behind the toilet base. This style is simply set down on the floor and plumbed in, then a low profile toilet is set on top of the pad which will result in the low profile toilet now being at approximately the height of a standard bowl. These units will all have an 1-1/2" diameter auxillary input that can be used to connect the lavatory and a tub drain.

The advantages here is that it can be installed without breaking our any concrete and if something should happen to the toilet or the pump system you can replace either/or independantly, which would save considerable money in future.