Thinking about a major renovation of your master bathroom? Tired of the male guests “missing” the toilet in the guest bath or powder room? Married to one of those husbands that always leaves the seat up? Dreamed of the finer things you experienced in Europe but rarely see in the U.S. except in the finest of homes? Well I have the answers to all of those questions wrapped up in two items. A urinal for that careless man in your family, and as a man myself and the father of 3 sons I can personally attest to our carelessness, and a bidet for that luxury addition and feel to your home. Additionally the “green” factor has become a major issue with many of us these days and the addition of a bidet can drastically eliminate paper usage and its disposal.
I began with the mention of “major” renovation because both of these items require significant plumbing changes to your home. Most houses today are set up with drain lines for sinks, toilets and tubs but to add a urinal means having a drain line in the wall instead of the floor and the bathrooms only have a single floor drain for a single toilet, thus the difficulty in retrofitting for a urinal or bidet. Although the fixtures themselves are not significant in cost the retrofitting of the plumbing can be costly. Drainage is the problem. Drain lines for the plumbing system is a real challenge and one of the reasons, I believe, that plumbers who specialize in new construction or “rough in” work are really talented. The main factor in installing proper drainage lines is what is called “fall”. Fall allows for the drain lines in your home from the highest point to the lowest point and then to the exit point to always be running down hill so to speak. By definition and most codes fall must be ¼” of drop for every foot horizonal drain line. If any where along the line a pipe doesn’t continue to drop downwards your plumbing will back up and will literally be useless. If you have a multiple story home you can imagine that it would be easy to make the lines always drain easily but imagine how many drains there are in your home and that you have a single story home and every line has to have a continuous fall you can begin to see the art in plumbing. If you are building a new home from scratch it’s an easy and less expensive process to add either of these fixtures. A urinal can be purchased for between $150 and $250 and the bidets can cost only slightly more per fixture. If plumbed from new it is just a design factor and an additional drain line installed. When renovating it can mean major wall and floor damage to access existing drain lines and to try to add additional drains to the system to allow for these drain lines and the additional space that will have to be allocated.
Is it worth it? Statistics show that, even with today’s soft real estate market, money put into kitchen and bathroom renovations return the highest percentage of costs and that buyers of new properties are still looking for luxury and something different from the norm. This has led to the major trend of granite countertops, unique faucets and fixtures and other luxury materials for both kitchens and baths. With this in mind you may want to consider the extra cost and space allocation to add a bidet, at least to your master bath, and if space allows, a urinal for those men in the family.
As always, National Builder Supply offers a large selection of styles and prices of both urinals and bidets and the customer service department can answer all of your questions. http://www.nationalbuildersupply.com/?source=RW886
I began with the mention of “major” renovation because both of these items require significant plumbing changes to your home. Most houses today are set up with drain lines for sinks, toilets and tubs but to add a urinal means having a drain line in the wall instead of the floor and the bathrooms only have a single floor drain for a single toilet, thus the difficulty in retrofitting for a urinal or bidet. Although the fixtures themselves are not significant in cost the retrofitting of the plumbing can be costly. Drainage is the problem. Drain lines for the plumbing system is a real challenge and one of the reasons, I believe, that plumbers who specialize in new construction or “rough in” work are really talented. The main factor in installing proper drainage lines is what is called “fall”. Fall allows for the drain lines in your home from the highest point to the lowest point and then to the exit point to always be running down hill so to speak. By definition and most codes fall must be ¼” of drop for every foot horizonal drain line. If any where along the line a pipe doesn’t continue to drop downwards your plumbing will back up and will literally be useless. If you have a multiple story home you can imagine that it would be easy to make the lines always drain easily but imagine how many drains there are in your home and that you have a single story home and every line has to have a continuous fall you can begin to see the art in plumbing. If you are building a new home from scratch it’s an easy and less expensive process to add either of these fixtures. A urinal can be purchased for between $150 and $250 and the bidets can cost only slightly more per fixture. If plumbed from new it is just a design factor and an additional drain line installed. When renovating it can mean major wall and floor damage to access existing drain lines and to try to add additional drains to the system to allow for these drain lines and the additional space that will have to be allocated.
Is it worth it? Statistics show that, even with today’s soft real estate market, money put into kitchen and bathroom renovations return the highest percentage of costs and that buyers of new properties are still looking for luxury and something different from the norm. This has led to the major trend of granite countertops, unique faucets and fixtures and other luxury materials for both kitchens and baths. With this in mind you may want to consider the extra cost and space allocation to add a bidet, at least to your master bath, and if space allows, a urinal for those men in the family.
As always, National Builder Supply offers a large selection of styles and prices of both urinals and bidets and the customer service department can answer all of your questions. http://www.nationalbuildersupply.com/?source=RW886
No comments:
Post a Comment