As you scroll through beautiful bathroom design inspiration photos you might notice a recurring theme. What is it that makes these pictures of bathrooms of your dreams so clean, modern, and sleek? As you look closer you might notice that rather than the sometimes bulky, space-eating floor mounted toilets there is a space-saving modern beauty mounted to the wall! Popular in Europe for their space saving qualities, the wall mounted toilet first made its way to restaurants, bars, and public bathrooms in the US and have recently become more popular if not the latest trend in bathroom design for homes. We considered it for our renovation and have spoken to many other renovators who are doing the same. So what’s the pros and cons? And how do you go about getting one of your own?
Some visual reference for wall mounted toilets. We LOVE the simplicity and visuals for build out. Left photo: Toto Middle photo:Drench.co.uk Right photo: Comparison photo- Kohler
PROS
Modern and Space-Saving
As we mentioned, wall hung toilets have a very streamlined, modern look. The main reason is that the large and bulky tank of a floor mounted toilet is hidden in the wall. The gives you the ability to eliminate the space required for the tank and even the several inches of space behind the toilet, resulting in up to 10”-12” of additional floor space in the bathroom.
Custom Heights
There is not much you can do to customize the height of a floor mounted toilet. They do come in a couple of different options: standard height and comfort height (which is a few inches higher). A wall mounted toilet can provide greater flexibility since it can be mounted at whatever height you would like.
Easy to Clean
Since a wall minted toilet sits above the floor clean up is a breeze. With no difficult or impossible to reach spaces you can more quickly and thoroughly clean.
CONS
More expensive
The biggest con to a wall mounted toilet is the cost and effort they take to buy and install. Many times the tank and wall mounting assembly is sold separately from the actual toilet which will also run more than a floor mounted toilet. Steel is usually used to mount and provide the strength necessary to support the weight. This might not be as big of a concern when you are building the a entire bathroom but when you’re retrofitting it can be a very intrusive renovation. The water and waste lines will have to be relocated, the wall will need to be opened up considerably, the studs might even need to be relocated (especially in older homes), and the floor will need to be repaired where the toilet sat. You’ll also need to know if you have 2×4 or 2×6 studs before ordering the equipment since the sizing will be different.
Harder to Fix
There‘s no opening the lid to jiggle the mechanicals or easily replace a part. The tank is sealed up in the wall. If something goes wrong the trouble and expense to fix a wall mounted toilet could be much more.
Less Options
Since wall mounted toilets are still gaining in popularity in the US there are much fewer options. Only a few companies are selling them and the ones that do only have one or a few models. We checked out the Kohler, Duravit, and Toto versions.
Ultimately we decided to go with a more streamlined version of floor mounted toilets. We fell in love with the simple, clean and streamlined Miseno high efficiency two-piece elongated chair height toilet with the slow-close seat. We weren’t going for too much of a modern sleek aesthetic in our place, and as you might know we were on a pretty tight budget. Our floor mounted toilets fit in well with our design. But our research will not be wasted as we’re pretty sure one day when we are designing and renovating a future space we have the opportunity to sleek it up with a wall mounted toilet. Are you in the market for one now? Have you installed one and have any feedback?
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