My Google-fu is failing me. Even though I am years from being able to afford a house, I’m pretty handy and I fantasize about buying one regularly.
I want to research how easy/expensive it is to convert a western style master bathroom to an asian style bathroom, but when I google this I find only cosmetic stuff like faux-laquer woods and things, which is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about functionality like:
-either a small “squat” toilet or a really cool Japanese high tech style toilet
-entire flooring is tiled so that it doesn’t matter if water gets on the floor, and is easier to clean
-The tub area has a “lip” to keep water from going to the non-tub area (which is still tiled)
-There are drains on the floor.
I want to learn about how the design is done and if it’s possible to do that all myself or if I need a team of plumbers and many thousands of dollars to do that, but when I google “convert asian bathrooms” and other combinations, it is all about making your western bathroom look faux-oriental and not actually function like one. So I would love some resources or advice so I can know what to expect.
I don’t know why anything you have described could not be made to code. Unless you are incredibly handy, though, the bathroom you are describing would be very specialized work, not to be attempted by novice remodelers.
It’s a great idea though. Having lived in Japan I know exactly what you’re describing.
For the tile stuff it’s basically a “mud set” like what they do in lockers rooms. They sell rubber membranes that you sandwich into layers of cement.
I won’t comment on the squat toilet
I’ve never been to Asia, but when I think of a “high tech Japanese toilet,” I think of Toto Washlets, which are easily available in the US in various models.
Not sure about just the plumbing but the project as a whole is easily in the 10k range.
I’d skip the squat toilet. 1. I doubt it meets code. 2. It’s not easily reversible.
One of the fancy western toilets with the electronics can still give that Japanese experience. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up paying well over a grand to get a US approved equivalent.
Also where this bathroom falls would make a big difference. The drainage probably won’t fit within the confines of standard joists. So if you have a finished floor below you’d need to either raise the bathroom floor or modify the room below. First floor in a house with a basement is probably the best bet.
In the businessmen hotels it’s not uncommon for them to have a step up into the bathrooms. This is to accommodate the plumbing and make to me hit my head on the way out. Stupid short door frames…
Thanks, I should’ve clarified I meant Japanese STYLE toilet. I can read some Japanese but in Narita airport even I was confused as hell about how to operate the toilet, and I’m way too lazy and it’s way too embarrassing a situation to have an ACTUAL Japanese high tech toilet and have guests need help…
Thanks, I wouldn’t have thought of that, and this is exactly what I started the thread for, to think about things like this that wouldn’t have occurred to me.
Ahem, anyway, back to the OP, I’ve seen inexpensive-looking add-ons which go on the sides of a standard US toilet in order to facilitate the squatting posture.
You can get a bidet toilet seat (in varying complexities) for not much money. Obviously, the install on that is something you can DIY.
The rest of it is basically turning your bathroom into a wet room. I don’t see why the drains would be any more complicated than a standard large walk-in shower; I don’t think you’d need to expand joists or anything. You might ask over at theJohnbridge forum, there are a bunch of tiling professionals that hang out over there and they know of these things.
As someone who has looked at more than his fair share of foreclosed homes, I can tell you: it is amazing the number of people that modify their house and never stop and think “Will this meet code?”
I guess it depends on which features of a Japanese bathroom you want. The key ones are:
wet room with sufficient floor drainage to allow you to wash outside the tub or shower cubicle;
shower head and controls mounted low down on the wall outside the tub or shower cubicle;
Japanese-style deep tub;
on-demand bath-water heater with a reheat feature;
washlet
The wet room and shower fittings can be installed locally using locally-available supplies. The tub, washlet and water heaters would be specialist items. I wonder if the floor might need to be reinforced? It’s you plus 200 litres of water on a smaller area of floor than a normal tub.
I would like to do something similar when I get back to Ireland. I find the wet room very convenient in lots of ways, including washing the dogs!
But I would worry a bit about damp and mould. Ventilation would probably be important.
floor drains might work in a shower or institution/commercial bathroom (overflow destination) but might not be best in a home bathroom. in a home bathroom you have lots that can get accidentally down the floor drain.
Changing a toilet is an easy, do-it-yourself half hour job. So if the new toilet fits standard North American flanges, that part is easy-peasey. If not, then it all depends on how much work needs to be done to fit the new toilet; maybe a question of buying $25 of adapter and bolting it on yourself, maybe $500 for the plumber to change the flange, plus whatever it takes to repair the floor.
Pulling up the existing floor and replacing it with tile is a handy person’s do-it-yourself job, but probably more like two or three weekends (unless you’re already experienced, and there’s no complications, in which case maybe one loong weekend). Or, I’d think $1000 or less for a pro (assuming no major complications), depending on the size, etc. Lots of bathrooms are already tiled floor, by the way.
Adding a floor drain, though is a big deal. Might not be reasonably possible, depending on the details of the bathroom, the floor structure, and so forth. Even if it is possible, it’s not easy – it’s going to require reconstructing the whole subfloor and floor and additional plumbing (so you’d need carpenters, a plumber and tilers). And I have no idea whether there might be issues with meeting code. I’d assume multiple thousands up to “you’d be better off tearing down the whole wing and rebuilding it”.
As far as the wet room set up -
We are looking at using the idea in a aging-at-home bathroom. The idea is to have a large shower, with no sill, to make access with a walker or a wheelchair easier, that can handle having water splashed/carried past the shower space and into the rest of the room.
There are actually a number of products available for the tiling and the drains. For the tiling, you can use a membrane, similar to what is using in a free form hot tub. There are also paint on materials that do the same thing. You basically paint a liner into place, and then tile over. Works for walls and floors.
Drains - I’ve seen trough shaped drains that sit between 2 floor joists, and run parallel to the joists. It is then covered by a drain cover to keep toes and towels out of it. They can be placed on the edge of the room, or in the center. You do still need to be able to slope the floor, to make all water run towards the drain.
I suggest searching on the term “Wet Room” and looking under handicap accessable products.
How is it different from the drain in the floor of a shower cubicle? The volume of water it has to deal with is the same, so a 1.5" pipe (or whatever is standard in America) would presumably suffice.
There would have to be sufficient “fall” or slope in the floor to ensure the water flows to the drain, but that shouldn’t be difficult to achieve, and the amount of slope required would be imperceptible.
