Ideal Size – Home – Restroom/Toilet

When you plan your house, you need to keep a tape handy all the time. You need to measure things and identify the sweet spot for your comfort. Note that space is a variable thing. For some small is big for some big is small. Some people are claustrophobic[dislike confined and congested spaces]. In essence you need to decide what is the ideal size for various rooms of your house. You have to ensure that when your floor plan is prepared by the  architect there are no compromises on this minimum requirement.

A modern bathroom has the western toilet and shower and wash basin as a part of the same bathroom. I will start with the minimal area for each of these.

In this article we will explore the modern rest room or toilet size requirements.

Rest Room or Toilet

For a western commode the width of commode is around 1.5 to 2ft. You need the width of the commode area to be a minimum 3.5 feet inner dimension. This is standard. This allows your legs to be free and not touch the side walls when seated.

The length is slightly complicated by the fact that you could either go for a wall mounted or floor mounted commode. A floor mounted commode has a tank attached and takes probably a couple of inches more than wall mounted commode. A wall mounted tank is probably just 4 inches in depth and your commode starts right from this wall. If you go for a floor mounted and you want the commode tank to be cleanable then you need atleast 2 inches of gap behind the commode flush tank. In summary a floor mounted commode takes up more space than wall mounted commode.

You need atleast 1.5 to 2 feet of space in front of commode. This also gets complicated if you have a door that opens to the inside. Then you need 2.75 feet of space in front of commode for the door to be able to close and open. Also the other problem is when opening the door from inside the person faces difficulty to stand in some place. So the best option if you have a separate restroom is ensure the door opens to the outside. This way the bathroom lenght can be kept a minimum.

So the minimal commode area requires around [ 3.5ft x 4.5 ft ] with the door opening to the outside.

Note that the whole of the blog I keep in mind about a comfortable bathroom. Of course you may have to sometimes compromise on length or width, but I ensure that I have captured the key points based on which you need to make decision such as door opening factor, leg movement, etc which you can use to derive what is comfortable to you and your family.

In any case as I mentioned whenever you see or visit a restroom ensure that you have a tape with you with which you can measure and reconfirm your thinking. Spaces can be confusing at times and what you think was enough may not be enough and vice versa.

So all the best and plan a functional and comfortable restroom. Nowadays with the mobile in hand people spend considerable amount of time in the restroom reading stuff. So plan better !

• Ideal Size – Home – Kitchen
• Ideal Size – Home – Bedroom
• Ideal Size – Home – Bathroom Shower Area
• Ideal Size – Home – Bathroom Wash Basin