Mains-connected portaloo for long-term use?

velvetti

We have only one bathroom in our terraced house and it’s upstairs. Now we are looking at adding a downstairs toilet. Under-stairs WC is not an option so the only option is a rear extension. We got some quotes and they were more than what we had anticipated.

This made us wonder if we could just buy a portable toilet, put it in the rear garden right next to our house and get a plumber to hook it up to mains drain and water inlet. Is this legal and do I need any permissions? I know it might not be what most people like but are there any legal/technical reasons why this can’t be done.

Thanks

Grumpy_chap

Well, portaloo does not flush or have any drain connection.

Do you have water and foul sewer available at the rear of the house?

Why do you so desperately need a downstairs toilet?

Bigphil1474

When you say portaloo, do you mean like a Polyjohn toilet - a big plastic thing like you see on building sites or at music festivals? Yes, some of them do have a proper flush and they are probably fairly easy to connect up to drains and mains. You are unlikely to need PP as they aren't a permanent structure. You might be better with a toilet in something like a shed though. Depends whether the neighbours can see it I suspect. I've checked 1000's of polyjohns in use (at work) and they really aren't a good choice IMO, although you probably won't be using it on the same scale of course.

We have a caravan toilet that we put in the spare bedroom room if we are having a load of people round. It's okay for kids if they are desperate and the bathroom is in use.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81895596#Comment_81895596

You are unlikely to need PP as they aren't a permanent structure.

Being permanent or not isn't a factor in whether planning consent would be needed in this situation.

The council would probably class it as an outbuilding, so it could be permitted development if it meets all the criteria and the property has the relevant permitted development rights.

Building regs would also apply - and could be difficult due to the lack of insulation and frost protection.

Robin9

There was something similar on Dragon's Den recently

silvercar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656501/mains-connected-portaloo-for-long-term-use

Seriously? Do you get on with your neighbours? Are you happy using a toilet in full view of your own windows? Given the UK weather, would you want to put outdoor shoes and coat on just to use the loo? I suppose you would literally be p1ssing in the rain!

gwynlas

It was not that long ago when most terraceed houses had outside toilets so yes you had to go out in the rain and snow to use the facilities.

Some years ago I remember watching a programme where a council upgraded properties by craning in a bathroom pod but I doubt if these are still available or even reached general usage.

In my opinion it would be better to build on a small extension to house toilet than to try using a portaloo long term

jonnydeppiwish!

Given that you’re in a terraced house, and that it’s probably relatively old, did it ever have an outside loo? If so, is the drain still accessible? If it is, you could put a simple stud structure up, waterproof and supply electric and water to it.

Doesn’t need to be anything complicated

velvetti

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

The reason for going down this route is the cost of a proper extension. We don’t plan to live in this house for more than 3-4 years so I don’t want to spend too much money on this house

twopenny

Depending on how you plan to plumb it in, your going to need to remove it before sale and that's possibly going to leave messy fixing marks, fill ins, return the main pipe it feeds to to a sealed state and such which could affect the price of sale.

Sapindus

If I had a huge garden and only an upstairs bathroom I'd quite like the idea of an outside toilet. Maybe a compost toilet with a rainwater hand basin. But honestly for the sake of not having to go upstairs, you'd rather go outside? Yes I know we had them in the fifties, we had open coal fires too and and everyone had bronchitis (though there was always goose grease on the chest to help with that) and was constipated from not eating enough vegetables and putting off going out to the toilet in the cold. And before that we went in a chamber pot and threw it out the window.