Design idea/plan for building standalone bathroom outside of main home?

[H508]

The wife's family home in rural Isaan currently has the old school stand alone bathroom (concrete shack) outside of the main home with the squat-over toilet and they use buckets of water for showering. Since we'll be spending a lot of time over there, we told them we'd pay for the materials to build a more modern bathroom with western toilet, sink, spray shower while the dad and a neighbor or two build it out.  They have some construction experience - they built a concrete perimeter wall and it was reasonably done with good-enough footings, so I have faith it won't be a complete disaster. Obviously nothing fancy for the bathroom, just something useable. We're probably not even talking tiles, just concrete floor and block walls. They do have electricity and clean well water to run to it so they can put in an electric instant hot water heater.

 

The wife and I are in the US and will (hopefully) be going to Thailand in mid-July and I think the family wants to surprise us and have it done before we visit. They asked for some pictures of what we're thinking of. I had a hard time finding anything on the internet and said they should probably just go to Home Pro or the equivalent and maybe they have some design specs and material lists (maybe not, I have no idea).

 

Home Pro/Watsuda a decent idea or other resources for this you know of for design inspiration, or even better, plans for a simple/non-fancy bathroom?

[bendejo]

Something I find refreshing is taking a shower outdoors: basically it's just a stone room with the shower head and a drain, no roof.  Just my 2 cents.

Probably a good idea to find some sort of pics to send them if they are country folks and never had to come up with designing a bathroom before, never had to consider where the washbasin should be relative to the the throne, etc.  Also the slope of the shower floor for drainage, the little things like that.

 

Had a Brazilian gf who's mother lived on a farm and the old gal refused to get a water heater so her kids would have to tough it with cold showers when they visited.

 

 

[CharlieH]

Might help if you gave basic dimensions and shape ?

[kingofthemountain]

Just a few thoughts from my personal experiences:

 

1\ i will go for the tiles on the floor and the walls

it's really not a big costand it makes a lot of difference

including making it very easy to clean

 

With concrete on the floor and brick walls you will be forever

with the impression to be in a third world slum, it's dark, dirty and smelly and it will be worse ear after year.

 

Probably for the locals it doesn't matter as they are used to it

but if you spend time hereand you use the bathroom, do yourself this favor and thanks me later.

 

Just a very important note: be sure the tiles for the floor are not slippery when wet unfortunately half of the models sold in Thailand are beautiful but dangerous

 

2\ I am not sure the electric instant hot water heater is a good idea

 

It's an important cost and  it can be extremely dangerous if the safety

of the installation is not at the top (And it's rarely the case in Thailand 

most of the electrical networks in the houses in the rural areas are not relied to the earth)

 

Plus it uses a lot of electricity, not a problem for you but your in laws are probably not going to use it because if they are under a certain limit in KW, they don't pay any of their electric bill

With an instant water heater they will be over this limit.

 

And if they don't use it often, there is the risk of a clogging of the system with the corrosion, plus in some area they have hard water, and the limestone ''kill'' the heaters.

 

 

3\ be careful with the little ''details''

i know it's obvious for us, but for example i have personaly seen a bathroom constructed with the door opening in the inside, and there wasn't enough place in front of the toilet to open and close the door, when the ''builders''  realised the  problem, it was too late  lol

 

Good luck anyway

 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by kingofthemountain

[H508]

Bathroom size - since it will be it's own structure and a new build (they have plenty of land for it), I don't know - maybe 6m^2 (square or equivalent rectangle depending on plan)? I don't think there's a reason to make it too small and try to shoehorn something into a 4m^2 just to save a small amount of material costs. Toilet, sink, and space for the shower with some sort of border to keep the water contained and sloped to the drain, so it doesn't need to be a Western master bathroom with tub, either. (I really don't understand places and more than a handful of hotels I've stayed at in Thailand that have it where water is freely allowed to spray or run everywhere else in the bathroom, there is defintely going to be some sort of step down/block section/glass to separate shower area from toilet/sink.)

 

While I've used my fair share of outdoor showers, no way the parents would go for that, haha. I'd like to see the looks on their faces though if we suggest it. Lot's of 2 story or raised houses around them, too!

 

Tiles - yeah, that is a fair point. I was just trying to save them some work (and I have no idea if they have the skillset to lay tile) but you're right and tile would not only give a better finish but be easier to clean and not so dreary. Their current bathroom shack is all concrete and it's never bothered them. It's also a dark and dank cesspit so we already figured we'd allow for those semi-opaque glass blocks into part of the wall to let some light in. Worst case we hire out the tile to whomever in their village that can do the work.

 

Instant hot water - fair point about the electricity cost as well as it sitting idle for most of the year without it being used. Maybe we'll have to scratch that. The little bit that I'll shower over there will have to be quick then! The dad is already scared of the western toilet and still wants to keep their current bathroom as well, if we got him to try to use hot water... I'm not sure if he'd be in heaven or think it was the work of the devil.

Edited May 16, 2021 by H508

[steve187]

28 minutes ago, H508 said:

, I don't know - maybe 6m squared? I don't think there's a reason to make it too small and try to shoehorn something into a 4m^2 (or build an odd/rectangle shape)

a 2.5m x 2mm,  or 3m x1.5m, bathroom is plenty big enough, with a downpipe/trap in the floor for the shower area as well as another one near the toilet, (marked in yellow), they will try and put the toilet waste too far away from the wall to allow for a squat toilet, i just recently had a rear waste toilet installed, with the waste going through the wall and then when outside going into the ground, makes for easier maintenance should it get blocked than a through the floor waste, a 4inch waste is the best size to use, 

good luck with having it built with you being out the country

[Excel]

Well I can tell from your post you are not anticipating a high level of finish nor would want to pay for any luxury fittings but best to tell us what your expectations are now.  Then revive your post in July when you arrive and tell us if the actual build met your expectations or otherwise. 

[H508]

2 hours ago, Excel said:

Well I can tell from your post you are not anticipating a high level of finish nor would want to pay for any luxury fittings but best to tell us what your expectations are now.  Then revive your post in July when you arrive and tell us if the actual build met your expectations or otherwise. 

Will do, Excel. And you're correct, this is a very basic buildout using only semi-skilled labor. If I can get out of this for less than 30k Baht I'll be happy. This bathroom building is almost more for us to use when we visit for two weeks straight each year than for them, but naturally they'll get some use out of it, too. It'll save me from having to get a hotel room in the nearest town 12-15 minutes away if I can have a place to shower and go to the toilet properly.

Edited May 17, 2021 by H508

[H508]

2 hours ago, steve187 said:

i just recently had a rear waste toilet installed, with the waste going through the wall and then when outside going into the ground, makes for easier maintenance should it get blocked than a through the floor waste, a 4inch waste is the best size to use, 

 

Interesting. I never knew about rear waste toilets. That does sound like a much better idea than through the ground for this particular application.

[sometimewoodworker]

SWMBO built an outside toilet and shower. The shower is a Thai style one but you could easily add a western rain shower unit to it, and make it a little bigger 
 

the toilet is western style but with a Thai flush that’s probably a better idea that having a western tank that’s another failure point. 
 

it has its own septic tank and waist water tank as we are on clay here
 

Edited May 17, 2021 by sometimewoodworker

[kingofthemountain]

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

SWMBO built an outside toilet and shower. The shower is a Thai style one but you could easily add a western rain shower unit to it, and make it a little bigger 
 

the toilet is western style but with a Thai flush that’s probably a better idea that having a western tank that’s another failure point. 
 

it has its own septic tank and waist water tank as we are on clay here
 

 

Someone stole the sink ?  ????

[AlfHuy]

10 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

Just a few thoughts from my personal experiences:

 

1\ i will go for the tiles on the floor and the walls

it's really not a big costand it makes a lot of difference

including making it very easy to clean

 

With concrete on the floor and brick walls you will be forever

with the impression to be in a third world slum, it's dark, dirty and smelly and it will be worse ear after year.

 

Probably for the locals it doesn't matter as they are used to it

but if you spend time hereand you use the bathroom, do yourself this favor and thanks me later.

 

Just a very important note: be sure the tiles for the floor are not slippery when wet unfortunately half of the models sold in Thailand are beautiful but dangerous

 

2\ I am not sure the electric instant hot water heater is a good idea

 

It's an important cost and  it can be extremely dangerous if the safety

of the installation is not at the top (And it's rarely the case in Thailand 

most of the electrical networks in the houses in the rural areas are not relied to the earth)

 

Plus it uses a lot of electricity, not a problem for you but your in laws are probably not going to use it because if they are under a certain limit in KW, they don't pay any of their electric bill

With an instant water heater they will be over this limit.

 

And if they don't use it often, there is the risk of a clogging of the system with the corrosion, plus in some area they have hard water, and the limestone ''kill'' the heaters.

 

 

3\ be careful with the little ''details''

i know it's obvious for us, but for example i have personaly seen a bathroom constructed with the door opening in the inside, and there wasn't enough place in front of the toilet to open and close the door, when the ''builders''  realised the  problem, it was too late  lol

 

Good luck anyway

 

 

On the right, have your <deleted>ty<deleted>tybangbang and on the left, take your bath.

[sometimewoodworker]

9 minutes ago, kingofthemountain said:

 

Someone stole the sink ?  ????

No she didn’t put one in 

[kingofthemountain]

24 minutes ago, AlfHuy said:

On the right, have your <deleted>ty<deleted>tybangbang and on the left, take your bath.

It looks like one of these public toilets on a gasoline station parking

[AlfHuy]

4 minutes ago, kingofthemountain said:

It looks like one of these public toilets on a gasoline station parking

Wrong. That's mine. Recently fitted, high-spec European toilet. Called "all-in-one".

Do your business, step to the right and take your bath.

[H508]

Love the squatty and water cistern. I am constantly worried about the bottom of my shoes when having to use those. Plus, as hot as Thailand is, there still needs to be some drying action required back there...