1/2 bath upstairs in victoria's cottage

[rdzone]

I have several plans from this site and I am working with my supervisor (read wife) to decide which plan to build.  She is leaning torward Victoria's cottage, but with no upstairs bathroom she is unsure.  Has anyone put a small 1/2 bath in upstairs or thought about it.  I think it would work out OK.  Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Chuck

[Daddymem]

My grandmother has a log cabin in New hampshire with a narrow upstairs with one bedroom and no sanitary facilities upstairs, similar to the Victoria's Cottage.  She solved the problem by installing a tiny sink and a small toilet right in the bedroom and put up a screen in front of them.  I thought it was funny at first, but then realized she only needed to use it when she woke up in the middle of the night, so it made perfect sense.  I have no idea if codes would prevent you from building this, but she did it anyways.

[rdzone]

Daddymem,

I am not really worried about the codes as this would be a recreational cabin here in Alaska and not in an area that has any codes.  I do like the idea of a small sink and toilet upstairs mainly for the reasons you mentioned.  It would keep who ever is sleeping upstairs from having to trek downstairs in the middle of the night.  

[Daddymem]

In her words "I would die without those."  Might require some boxing in if you go with exposed beams downstairs....or clever placement of the pipes.  Good luck!  Hey! Eagle River, I've been there!  Out near Fort Rich, no?  Stopped on a hellacious road trip from Fairbanks to Anchorage.  It chose to drop to almost -60F on that trip and I had to keep stopping along the way because the heater in my car couldn't keep up with it.  I almost died that trip...one stall out and I would been a goner.  There was ice inside my windshield.  I think I knew a few kids from there as well, I'll have to check my old address book.

[rdzone]

Yep thats the place near Fort Rich.  I have had several of those trips up here, scraping Ice off the inside window.    not much fun.

[John Raabe]

Space wise you should have no problem working out this bathroom. You might want to consider a wall hung toilet as you can probably install it without having the P-trap stick down through the decking.

[Micky]

I am about ready to rough in the plumbing in my 20x32 1-1/2 story.  I used the 4x12 beams on 4' centers w/ t&g decking as John detailed in the plans.

I am following the same approach as John mentioned to hide the plumbing.  However, I am using a floor mount back outlet toilet.  This accomplishes the same thing as the wall hung, but I am finding the prices are more reasonable and they don't look as industrial.

I am also installing a shower.  I think this may be a little more tricky.  My original thought is find a pan that is tall enough to put the plumbing under it without having to go through the floor.  Then I could put the p trap into the same wall as the toilet.

I think this would also work for your setup.

I would appreciate anyone's input on the shower idea....

[glenn kangiser]

You could frame a box under a normal pan to give clearance or build your own pan using a vinyl or PVC liner and cement/sand with tile or natural rock-- like in the old days before fiberglass.

[rdzone]

Micky,

I like your design.  One quick question what brand/manufacturers floor mount back outlet toilet are you planning on using.  I looked on the web yesterday and found many of the industrail looking ones, but no real residental looking toilets.

I hadn't thought about a shower, but if I was to do one upstairs and maintain the wood plank floor.  I would have to agree with Glenn and build a box to give enough clearance for the p-trap without punching a hole in the floor.  

The only other option I can think of is to try and stack the bathrooms (upstairs over downstairs) and frame the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom to allow for the upstairs fixtures.

[glenn kangiser]

One other option to save a little room would be to put the p-trap in the wall with only a 90 el coming out under the pan shower strainer with the pipe sloped to the p-trap in the wall then vent off a tee in the wall also.  I think that would still be legal and save 3 or 4 inches.

[Micky]

There was a few I was looking at:

American Standard makes a model called the Youkville.
http://www.americanstandard-us.com/pdfs/as/install/Install_145.pdf

Gerber:
http://www.gerberonline.com/catalog.aspx?categoryID=2220&itemID=2765

My local distrubitor can get a briggs toilet for about $250.  However, I have not heard good things about Briggs.
http://www.briggsplumbing.com/products/pdp.asp?cid=1&pid=86

Glen, I think the picture was trying to show what you are talking about.  If I can put the trap in the wall, I would only have to raise the shower a few inches versus 6".

[John Raabe]

Micky:

Thanks for the info on the plumbing options. I don't think a single step up onto the shower pan will be any problem at all.

[glenn kangiser]

Silly me, Micky.  Here I was trying to be brilliant and you already were.  I hadn't noticed the picture solution.  Half the time I'm not awake.   The rest of the time I'm sleepy. :-/

[JRR]

An insulated outside piping chase is another option if door or window openings are not in the way.  Can be boxed in chimney-like.

Works especially well with wall-mounts.   All traps can be enclosed in the chase if you make the outside chase wall "fake" and removable.