Finishing a basement is one of the most popular home renovation projects for some very good reasons. First and foremost, it’s one of the best ways to spend your money, with a return on investment (ROI) over 85%. Second, it’s one of the most effective ways to add living space—and thus equity—to your home.
When planning to finish a basement, a lot of folks decide to put a bathroom down there, and then discover that this can be a very complicated add-on. That’s due to two reasons: One, you might have to break a concrete slab to run plumbing under the floor, and two, your basement floor is probably below the sewer lines that service the house. Most toilets rely on gravity assisted by water pressure to get your waste into the sewer, and that just won’t work if the waste has to go uphill.
Don’t despair, though—you still have options.
If a toilet is going to sit below the sewer line, you have two basic options to consider: A toilet assisted by some sort of pump, or a composting toilet. Composting toilets collect the waste in a storage system, which then has to be emptied on a regular basis. These toilets are environmentally friendly and often don’t require any electricity or plumbing hookups at all, but keeping track of how, uh, full they are and emptying out the compost can be a pain.
A more convenient option is a pump-assisted toilet. Ejector pump toilets use a pump similar to a sump pump to push waste into the sewer line, but these usually require breaking the slab and installing the pump system under the basement floor, which adds to the expense and difficulty of the renovation. A better option is what’s known as an "upflush" toilet, which has a pump attached that moves the waste to the sewer line. It’s a project that you can even do yourself if you’re moderately comfortable with some basic plumbing work.
There are several reasons why an upflush toilet is often the best option for a basement renovation:
Easier installation. You won’t need to break up your basement floor or dig down, and you won’t need to run any plumbing. All that needs to be done is the installation of the drain line into the sewer pipe, and the installation of a vent pipe.
Operation. Even if a gravity toilet is an option in your basement, being so low often means more frequent backups and drainage problems. Any time the sewer lines get clogged up after storms, for example, you might have a problem flushing your toilet. An upflush toilet’s pump can overcome many of those problems.
Cost. Upflush toilets are more expensive than gravity toilets because of the extra apparatus involved, but since they sit entirely above ground, they often cost less to install overall.
Familiarity. Unlike a composting toilet, from a user perspective, an upflush toilet operates exactly the same as a traditional toilet. If you encase the pump system behind a wall, your guests might not even notice a difference.
Some upflush toilets include a "macerating" feature that grinds up the waste before pumping it out, reducing the chances of clogs and making the pumping action more efficient.
Upflush toilets solve a very specific problem in locations where a traditional gravity toilet won’t work well. But there are a few things to consider:
Higher per-unit cost. While upflush toilets may be cheaper overall when you consider the plumbing work you didn’t have to do, they are usually more expensive than traditional toilets.
Electricity. You’ll need a GFCI plug for your upflush toilet. If there isn’t one located in the area where you want to install the toilet, you’ll need to have one wired up. Most upflush toilets don’t need a dedicated circuit, however. This also means that during power outages your upflush toilet won’t work, while gravity toilets will.
Maintenance. Upflush toilet pumps need to be maintained like any other motorized piece of equipment. Their tanks also need to be de-scaled every now and then to remove mineral build-up that can compromise performance and cause bad odors.
If you want to enjoy the convenience of a bathroom in your finished basement—or any area of your house that sits below the sewer lines—an upflush toilet is your best option.
