Installing and connecting the various sanitaryware items
Fitting your toilet.
There are two services which need to be connected, the cold water feed for flushing water and the waste or drainage connection.
The cold feed will need to connect into the cistern where the flush water is stored. This will most usually be (in UK and Europe) a 15mm connection and the inlet position on the cistern will vary from one brand to another. Some are bottom inlet, some rear inlet and some side inlet, so your supply pipe needs to be positioned top suit. In the UK the bottom inlet if the most common which suite a typical situation where the feed pipe comes up from the floor. The connection is most easily made using a flexible pipe and it's a good idea to fit a shut off valve which will allow future maintenance without the need to completely shut down all the household water system.
Where a concealed cistern is used, for example with a furniture unit or a wall hung style, the principals are exactly the same, but it is more common to find a side feed into a concealed cistern. The connection will still be a 15mm size, and it's still a good idea to install a shut-off valve, but remember to put it somewhere accessible.
Your water supply could be from a header tank (low pressure), usually in the roof space, or direct from the mains (high pressure). It is important to ensure that the inlet valve in the cistern is set for high or low pressure as appropriate to ensure efficient refilling after a flush.
There are other ways available to provide flushing water to a toilet, maybe a remote cistern or a flush valve. These are rare but you can find out more here.
The waste connection takes the flushed waste into the sewer through a large (110mm) diameter pipe usually referred to as the SVP, soil/vent pipe. This connection can be existing either in the floor or in a wall. Sometimes the SVP is surface mounted inside and concealed by a timber box and sometimes it is external and the connection pipe comes through the wall, but wherever it is the actual connection will be the same type. The toilet pan. however, can have a waste connection at the bottom or at the back, so it needs to be suitable for the SVP position to avoid expensive and often complicated work in repositioning of the waste pipe. A pan with a back outlet can usually be connected to the SVP in any position using a pan connector but a bottom outlet toilet pan is only suitable for a floor entry waste connection.
see more about toilet pans.
A word of caution. Where the waste pipe comes from the wall or from an internal SVP, it might be positioned to the side of your toilet. In these circumstances only an open back style pan can be fitted as a fully back to wall (sometimes called fully shrouded or fully enclosed) design can only be connected to an outlet directly behind the toilet.
There are several ways to secure the toilet in place, the style of toilet will make a difference.
With high level, low level and close coupled toilets there will be provision for screwing the pan onto the floor and for screwing the cistern onto the wall, With some period styles in high or low level there may also be cistern brackets. It is important to ensure that everything is securely fastened in place to avoid the pan moving when sat on and to keep the cistern firmly in place and avoid leaks.
With a back to wall pan, used with a concealed cistern, the pan again will have provision for floor fixings which should be used. the cistern will normally be a light weight plastic affair which can be screwed to the wall or into a piece of furniture. Flush water is then delivered via a flush pipe fitting into the back of the pan.
A wall hung toilet is another option where the pan is suspended off the floor. This facilitates cleaning and offers a sleek contemporary look. This type of toilet if fitted alongside a metal frame which usually has the cistern as an integral part. The frame assembly is bolted to the wall and floor and then concealed, usually behind a stud section of wall. There are two large 12mm diameter bolts projecting forward from the frame, through any stud wall and the pan is mounted on these and fastened tightly on with a specially designed mounting (this can vary in design from brand to brand). The pan is very secure when correctly attached and capable of supporting considerable weight. Most are rated to around 30 stones or 190 Kg. Flushing water is delivered via a flush pipe and the pan connector to the waste pipe is usually supplied with the frame assembly.
Fitting your basin.
There are many designs of basin but the installation requirements fall into two basic categories; basins mounted on a piece of furniture or basins mounted directly onto a wall. There are also free standing basins which sit on the floor, but these have similar requirements to the furniture mounted style.
All basins will have a supply of hot and cold water and a waste or drainage connection. The hot and cold will normally be 15mm pipes and their exact location will vary depending on the style of basin and tap. The waste connection is a wider pipe, usually 32mm diameter, and can come up from the floor, be surface mounted against a wall or directly through the wall. This might need to be repositioned to suit your chosen basin style.
Basin fitted against a wall.
The wall mounted basin will have two slots at the back to accommodate the fixing bolts and allow for a bit of movement to set the exact position on the wall. These are hefty (normally 10mm or 12mm) bolts which can provide a secure fixing into the wall. They need to be fastened into the correct type of wall plug to suit your wall construction, and in the case of a stud wall you will need to ensure that adequate grounds are provided behind the plasterboard for a secure fixing. The basin should be fastened onto the wall and be securely supported on these fixing bolts alone.
With some more traditional themes basins can be mounted on wall brackets which do offer support, or even a metal (usually) framed "washstand" which again will provide support for the basin.
Where the feed and drainage pipes come up through your floor these can be concealed by a pedestal, but hiding pipework is the purpose of a pedestal, it is not there to actually support the basin.
When using a traditional basin on brackets or a stand, or with a modern wall mounted basin, or a semi (or half) pedestal style, both the feed pipes and the waste ideally should come directly out from the wall. This makes for much neater plumbing and allows the space below the basin to become a design feature creating a feeling of space. The semi pedestal is designed specifically for this purpose, providing a neat cover for the plumbing and enabling you to take full advantage of the space below the basin. read more about semi pedestal basins or fitting a semi pedestal.
Furniture fitted basin
This style is often referred to as a vanity unit, where a furniture item with some storage has a washbasin fitted on top. Plumbing can be from the floor or wall mounted as both will be concealed by the furniture. Most purpose built vanity furniture will already have provision for plumbing in the form of a "service space" at the back, however if you are repurposing an existing piece of furniture do consider where there might be space for pipework. In the circumstances where wall mounted taps are being fitted, the feed pipes of course will need to be chased into the wall.
There are some furniture units which have legs and do not set directly on the floor. In this situation and pipes coming up from the floor will be visible under the furniture. If the legs are short this may not be a problem but do consider if you want to conceal pipework and chase it into the wall. In a stud wall this should not be difficult, but in a solid wall, particularly an internal wall, the job will be more challenging.
On the waste fittings, the trap which fits below the basin will take up some space inside the furniture, reducing available storage on the top shelf or drawer. Most modern drawer units have a cut out in the top drawer to allow for the trap. It is possible to use a "furniture trap" which does not take up as much space and uses a reed valve non return to prevent odours coming back from the drain.
Vanity basins will be supported on the furniture so they do not require the heavy duty wall fixings, but normally the furniture is screwed to the wall for stability.
Shelf mounted basin.
Pipework should be from the wall, and brought as close to the underside of the shelf as possible in order to conceal. The waste fitting will be more difficult to hide simply because of its size, and a common solution is to use a bottle trap finished to match your taps with pipework of the same colour. This makes a feature of the waste fittings and looks great.
The basin is set directly onto the shelf and is not always in contact with the wall, so the shelf provides the support and the basin is usually not fastened to the wall. There are various types of fixing available for mounting a shelf, including concealed fixings which give the "floating shelf" look. However if you are wanting this style make sure that you use mountings adequate for supporting the weight and the correct wall fixings for your wall type. A stud wall can be used for a shelf but you will need to ensure there are strong grounds for the fixing brackets to connect to.
In the UK, new water regulations introduced a while back have made the fitting of bidets less popular. The issue with a bidet is that is presents a high risk of water backflow or back syphoning which means that water from the bidet bowl can easily be syphoned back into the domestic water supply, causing contamination. Lets face it, you don't want water from your bidet getting into your drinking water. The original solution was thought to be the provision of an entirely separate water supply for the bidet, meaning additional pipe work and a small header tank dedicated to the bidet alone. Today there are other simpler solutions, the usual one adopted being an air brake device which will prevent water being drawn back into the household system. Some water authorities may also accept a device called a double check valve, the regulations vary from one area to another.
While these solutions are fairly simple, the added cost means that the bidet has fallen out of fashion in the UK, although it still remains popular in Europe where regulations are not always a stringent. However the bidet-toilet is now on the rise, although the regulatory requirements for these are the same, but given the cost of a bidet toilet, the backflow prevention device and plumbing is relatively minor.
There are two types: the over rim spray and the ascending spray.
An over the rim spray bidet has a tap mounted on the rim which directs a spray of water inwards towards the user. The ascending spray bidet has exactly what it says, a water spray like a fountain, which sprays upwards from beneath the seated user. Both styles require backflow protection, although to be honest, the ascending spray type does present the greater risk.
Plumbing requirements for both are a 15mm hot and cold supply just like a basin, and a 32mm waste outlet pipe. Connections are made on the wall side of the bidet which is usually positioned with the back rim close to the wall to conceal the plumbing as much as possible. Pipework can come from the floor or wall. Some bidets will fit snugly against the wall and in these cases you need to ensure the pipework is positioned correctly so that the bidet can be fixed in place.
Similarly to a toilet pan, a bidet will need to be screwed to the floor for stability.
