Tales from the bottom to the garden… or... garden office plumbing issues!

We all agree that it is generally better to have a garden office or studio as far away from the house as possible, to accentuate the gap between work and home life, literally as well as metaphorically.

As you leave the house and walk down the garden you start to forget about home and as you take those steps you plan in your mind how you are going to prioritise your tasks for the day. It is not the same as walking across the landing to your spare room where you can still hear the tv or the radio in the kitchen, or the kids in the playroom.

But this creates in itself a slight problem, a little while later when nature calls, and it’s a long way to ‘go’, if you know what I mean?

So there are quite a few choices for a toilet for your garden studio and obviously the cheapest option is for us to supply a little Extra Rooms potty (we could even get some made with our logo on them) but joking apart, most people want a proper toilet of some kind, so perhaps we shall have to be more conventional, for a while at least!

Most people have heard of the "saniflo brand" and that is one proven option ( http://http://www.saniflo.co.uk/ ) and it has the advantage that it lends itself to being fitted on sites where there is no gravitational fall between the studio and the mains drains, which is normally the problem with fitting a normal toilet. The Saniflo design has a macerator and a smaller bore pipe which pumps the contents of the toilet up hill if necessary to join the drains wherever they are.

They are often fitted in basements which are below the level of the mains drains of the building.

Another alternative gaining popularity recently is the dry toilet (or composting toilet as it is often described) such as the one supplied by http://http://www.eco-toilets.co.uk/ this has no need of any water supply whatsoever, which is a very big plus point and saves on expenses in water supply and drainage.

These work on the principle that 90% plus of what goes down the toilet is liquid and a separate compartment is provided to divide solids and liquids in the toilet itself, with a small soakaway a metre away for the liquids. The rest is composted and breaks down only needing to be emptied once or twice a year, to fertilise the cabbage patch so is very little work and well worth considering.

There is another solution that is used I hear in some townships in South Africa, it is called the "flying toilet" and does not come from borrowed technology from aircraft as one may imagine, it is extremely cheap and requires no plumbing, not even a toilet is required. The individual pees outside but for solid matter the waste is placed directly into a dustbin liner by means of squatting over it.

The user then waits till dark and stands outside spinning the bag quickly in a circular motion overhead and letting go at an opportune moment, hence the name, 'flying toilet' but it is not really considered suitable in this country and we do not recommend it as a suitable alternative, but it is in use on a regular basis, no joking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H51Jby_2hZI

Rest assured Extra Rooms can solve your Garden Office Plumbing problem whichever option you choose.

Do check out our website which discusses other issues you might want to consider when looking to build a garden office.

Author: David Fowler