Buying a property with a Macerator

vratnayaka

We are in the process of buying a 3 bed semi-detached house.

It has recently been renovated - the roof space has been converted to a large bedroom and a large bathroom. It does have a decent sized bathroom downstairs as well. The property has not been lived on since being renovated.

We did a buildings survey on it and the report suggested that the new upstairs bathroom operates using a macerator (toilet & bath) the report suggests that this can be quite loud when it operates and can be costly to maintain.

We had no idea about this before and I've started feeling a bit uneasy about the idea after reading all the horror stories about macerators online.

Should this be a deal breaker? After-all it's a second bathroom, the downstairs bathroom, which does not operate using a macerator, is likely to be used more often.

Do you think it will effect future re-sale?

Has anyone got any positive stories regarding macerators?

Thank you in advance.

agrinnall

I've stayed in a few holiday cottages with macerators, and while I've never had a problem they can indeed be quite noisy and you have to be careful what you put in them. If it was a guest bathroom or a toilet that would probably only be used during the day it might not bother me, but if I intended to use that room as one of the main bedrooms then it would put me off.


Edit: As it's an upstairs room is there a good reason why a macerator is used rather than gravity?

csgohan4

Really personal preference tbh and you don't know how good the current one in is.

G_M

Have you been back and tried it? One of you waits down below and listens, the other flushes the loo.



Is this going to be a main bedroom in constant use?


Critically, has the conversion received Building Regulations sign-off?

Rambosmum

I wouldn't for a main bathroom but for an en suite I don't see the issue. They do make a noise, but so do a lot of toilets.


I hate them in basements as the smell tends to linger as it can't flush through properly but we haven't had that issue in the loft one.

eddddy

vratnayaka wrote: »

Do you think it will effect future re-sale?

I think a lot of people's first reaction is 'yuk!' - many will get over it, maybe some won't.

Will that bathroom be used by guests, or just family?

I guess the awkwardness of having to tell guests what they can/can't put down the toilet might be an issue. And it might be embarrassing if they forget.

Maybe when you do another viewing, say you want to turn on the bath taps to set the macerater going, and then go to different rooms to judge noise levels.

And maybe flush the toilet, to see how long the noise lasts.

And find out the precise model that's been fitted, and research it online - for reliability, what the manufacturers say you can/can't put down it etc.

EachPenny

agrinnall wrote: »

Edit: As it's an upstairs room is there a good reason why a macerator is used rather than gravity?

That's the key issue for me. If it were in a basement I wouldn't bat an eyelid. But in a roofspace conversion?

What were the design constraints that prevented standard gravity drainage?

Or was it that the designer/builder lacked the sense/ability to seek a maintenance and noise free option over one which probably cost more to buy/install?

It might be the right solution in this case, but if actually done as a shortcut then I'd be expecting to find other shortcuts in the building work. They might be more of a concern.

davidmcn

EachPenny wrote: »

That's the key issue for me. If it were in a basement I wouldn't bat an eyelid. But in a roofspace conversion?

What were the design constraints that prevented standard gravity drainage?

Usually that the toilet is at the "wrong" end of the house and it was easier to install a smaller diameter pipe than create a suitable run for a foul drainage pipe.

EachPenny

davidmcn wrote: »

Usually that the toilet is at the "wrong" end of the house and it was easier to install a smaller diameter pipe than create a suitable run for a foul drainage pipe.

Agreed, but in doing a loft conversion where you are creating the new floor level, and usually have voids at the eaves you aren't going to use for habitible space, then a good designer ought to be able to solve the 'wrong end' problem quite easily. (Assuming the layout precludes the possibility of making the toilet the 'right' end)

If they have built a bathroom and then discovered they cannot get the fall, it leaves you wondering what else they 'discovered' along the way.

But perhaps I think that way because I'm more of a drainage designer than an interior designer.

vratnayaka

EachPenny wrote: »

Agreed, but in doing a loft conversion where you are creating the new floor level, and usually have voids at the eaves you aren't going to use for habitible space, then a good designer ought to be able to solve the 'wrong end' problem quite easily. (Assuming the layout precludes the possibility of making the toilet the 'right' end)

If they have built a bathroom and then discovered they cannot get the fall, it leaves you wondering what else they 'discovered' along the way.

But perhaps I think that way because I'm more of a drainage designer than an interior designer.

The toilet is in fact in the wrong end. It looks like the eves would stop it from being on the right end of the pipes going down. Having the toilet on the right end would make it very difficult to sit and stand.

vratnayaka

davidmcn wrote: »

Usually that the toilet is at the "wrong" end of the house and it was easier to install a smaller diameter pipe than create a suitable run for a foul drainage pipe.

Thank you. I think you're spot on here, the right end would be under the eves which would make it very uncomfortable to stand and sit. Check out the photos I posted above.