Many garden room buyers are interested in adding a toilet for both convenience and creating a truly self-contained extension of their home. Incorporating a cloakroom with toilet facilities is within the scope of many garden room designers.
The problems arise when it comes to connecting the new toilet system to the mains supplies - water and sewerage. A regular toilet system needs water to flush the waste, and this water needs to come from somewhere and then be disposed of correctly, as does the waste material produced.
If your garden room is sited reasonably close to your house, it is possible to connect a toilet system to the mains supplies of water and sewerage. But, if your garden room is a significant distance from these mains supplies, it can become costly to install a toilet.
Garden room designers like Garden2Office offer waterless eco loo solutions to install toilet facilities into a garden room, without the need for the groundworks and therefore, much more cost-effectively than connecting to the mains supplies.
Interestingly, Garden2Office can also retrofit a cloakroom with toilet into a garden room. They can install their waterless toilet systems in garden rooms by any UK supplier.
Could an eco toilet be the solution for your garden room?
Eco toilets also called waterless toilets, dry toilets, and composting toilets are a feasible option for use in a garden room.
Peoples first thought when thinking about eco toilets is a wooden box that you have to add sawdust to and that there will be a smell of stale bodily functions. Modern eco toilets are nothing like this, they look very similar to a conventional toilet, they have a proper seat, you don't have to add anything after going to the loo, and there is no smell!
The leading name in waterless toilets for use in garden room type buildings is Separett. This is the brand that Garden2Office use in their garden rooms and can retrofit in an existing garden room.
How does an eco toilet deal with waste?
The way an eco toilet deals with the waste will depend on the type of system you choose.
One system separates urine and faeces. The urine is filtered to become an odourless liquid which you can use as a fertiliser, and the faeces are composted down. Some systems ask you to turn the drum to accelerate the composting, others don't, and you empty the canisters at regular intervals - some systems say as little as once a year. This doesn't sound an unpleasant task because what is left is not much different to the compost you can create in a bin.
The second system incinerates the waste to form ash which again you can spread on the garden. This type of eco toilet is fitted with a heater which heats the waste at very high temperatures dealing with it instantly rather than have it sitting around composting like the previous option.
What about smell?
Having waste stored in the toilet, makes you think that there will be a smell attached to the system, but eco toilets are fitted with fans and vents which direct any stale air out of the garden room.
Do you see anything?
We don't want to see waste sitting there when we lift the toilet seat, do we? Eco toilets have a screen system which shields the waste matter from view.
Just press the button
Waterless toilets don't have water to flush away the waste. Instead, they are connected to the electrics and the press of a button 'flushes' the loo.
We are impressed with the new waterless toilets on offer and feel they are a great option for garden room buyers who want bathroom facilities but without the hassle of connecting to the mains.
If you are thinking of incorporating a toilet into your garden room, talk to the Garden2Office team to learn more about their eco loo options.
If you already have a garden room and wish you had added a toilet to the design, Garden2Office are still the people to talk to. They can install partition walls to create the cloakroom and install one of their Separett Villa systems. This is a quick and cost-effective way to increase the usability of your garden room building.
The Separett website has more information on eco toilet systems. Talk to the Garden2Office team about fitting an eco loo in your garden room. Call them on 0800 612 4371 or email mark@garden2office.co.uk
