Open toilet in basement

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by mcip

Hi I have an older home with an unfinished basement. Down in the basment, out in the open, is a toilet. It works fine but it's in the open. no privacy, just there lol. I'm looking for ideas on how to maybe enclose it or give it some privacy so it's a bit more functional. I don't mind using it but hwo could I ever ask a guest to use it like this lol. Any ideas? I don't think I can finish the basement becasue the height of the ceiling is lower than what is required (it's just over 6 ft hi and with pipes and beam probably closer to just under 6 ft in many spots. )

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks

How about just installing toilet partitions around it. The type that would be found in public bathrooms. Nothing fancy, but it would be cheap, and give privacy.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by smartygurl

Do you really want to keep it for use? You could just cap it off and be done with it.

You never know how they'll be useful. Our washing machine drains into ours.

[rrtechno]

This explanation makes sense to me.

‘You Wanted To Know’: Pittsburgh Potty Origins « CBS Pittsburgh

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by rrtechno

This explanation makes sense to me.

‘You Wanted To Know’: Pittsburgh Potty Origins « CBS Pittsburgh

We had debate about that article in the Pittsburgh forum. I know that's not the reason the Pittsburgh potty exists. It may have later been used as a place for a millworker to clean up, but the real reason is many of these houses were initially built without plumbing.

My Pittsburgh toilet is in my basement because my house was built without plumbing as we know it today. My kitchen sink was the only indoor plumbing. The water came from a well located under our back patio and the sink drained somewhere out into the yard, but not into a septic system.

The toilet was added to the basement as an upgrade from the outhouse. (Yes, there was an outhouse in my yard somewhere, and a chicken coop over my detached garage.) A shower was installed in the basement around the same time. It's in another room in the basement under the porch.

When public water and sewage was available, it was easier to install plumbing in the basement. They hadn't really thought about how to create a bathroom out of the existing rooms, or it was extra money to do so.

My house was built around 1900. I'd say my potty was installed somewhere between the 1930s. (I could get specific by finding out when my township installed water and sewage.) I know the existing modern bathrooms weren't added to the main living areas of the house until the 40s. I know the history of my house because it was my husband's grandparent's home. It has been in his family since it was built.

[ocngypz]

We had a basement potty as well.

Dad used 2x4's to frame. Hung cement board on the back and the two sides. On the back it went to the floor, on the sides it stopped about 18 inches from the floor. On the front he hung a swinging door with a slide lock for privacy He painted the thing the most obnoxious color green you can imagine.... about a mix of 1 part olive and two parts lime.

And then......since there was room, he added a wall hung sink, medicine cabinet and a real over the medicine cabinet light after he finished paneling the rec room in tongue and groove knotty pine.

This was 54 years ago in a newbuild. It's still there. It's still god-awful green..........and it still works!

[PhxDesertGal]

Aren't these cAlled "Pittsburgh Pottys"? Almost all the older homes there had them in the basement so that is what they named them.

[Bungalove]

I grew up in a row home in a Baltimore suburb, and we also had a basement toilet. My Dad built an enclosure around it (with the classic light bulb with a chain in it), and we used the nearby utility sink for washing our hands. It was great if someone was in the finished half of the basement watching TV and needed to use the bathroom; otherwise they had to climb 2 flights to the only full bathroom upstairs with the bedrooms on the second floor. However, I don't ever remember my Mom using the basement toilet!