Q. "My bathroom is backwards! The toilet is three feet from the doorway, and the sink is tucked away in a nice quiet corner. How hard can it be to reverse them?"

Moving services around in a bathroom is a common wish for homeowners.  Sometimes, the original builders or previous owners just didn't get it.  Toilets often get stuck in weird places, facing doors or six inches away from showers (a violation of code, I might add).

  Other times, this odd placement was the only practical solution to the challenge of trying to fit a lot of stuff--toilet, sink, shower, tub, shelves--into a very small space.  Whatever the reason for this, you think you can do a better job.

And perhaps you do have a better layout in mind.  The problem isn't your layout.  Primarily, it's an issue with the underlying plumbing and secondarily with flooring.

Common Obstacles To Moving Toilet and Sink

At first glance, switching your toilet and sink when remodeling your bathroom looks like a fairly easy project. How hard can it be to move the sink and toilet and plop them down in opposite places? In fact, while it looks deceptively difficult, toilet installation, by itself, is a very easy do-it-yourself job.

The problem, though, lies in not the surface elements--sink and toilet--but in the underlying plumbing. Moving plumbing drives up bathroom remodeling costs in a big hurry.

Specifically, there are two issues to look at.

1. Providing hot water to the new sink location.  You already have cold water running to the present toilet area; that's the water supply that feeds the tank in back.  This can be used for the sink's cold water side.  But what about hot?

1. Moving the toilet drain/vent system and its wastewater system.  The pipe that carries away toilet waste needs to be moved--somehow.

Concrete Slab Foundation Adds Difficulties

If your house is on a concrete slab foundation, you'll have to break up the concrete to install the new drains. If it's a raised foundation, you can run the new pipes under the floor joists. Plumbers can access this through the crawl space or basement. That's the easiest option.

If the bathroom is on a second floor, the same floor-joist rules apply. The only difference is you'll have the added expense of demolishing sections of the first floor ceiling and then rebuilding it. Not impossible, but messy and costly.

Additional Costs

Also think of the building materials that surround the toilet and sink. We're talking flooring tiles, sink surround, walls. Ceramic and vinyl tile, engineered wood floor, and laminate floor might be able to be patched (though there will be a color difference between old and new materials). Sheet vinyl is difficult to patch, so the entire floor might need to be replaced. Saving grace here is that sheet vinyl is easy to replace.

The Bottom Line

I hate to be a killjoy, but that's the reality you need to consider.

Switching your sink and toilet is an expensive proposition on its own. However, if it's part of a larger bathroom renovation that involves new flooring and walls, and you truly feel motivated to switch, there is no more opportune moment than this to do it.  It's better to do it now, when the finish floor is ripped up, than later, when that flooring is in place.