Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaybus
neat,
Can I put a Thetford toilet in the center of a lowes or home depo cheap plastic shower?
I dont want to use lots of space!
I just get a pan and shower and toilet and fittings?
Im not sure what a baseboard is, I think they sell complete cheap shower stalls with a cheap pan.
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Yes you can but do you really want to? Ever had to deal with an "all-n-one" unit before?
How long will you be using your conversion? Weekends, monthly, fulltime?
For a weekend, you might be okay. Longer than that and they suck. We fulltimed in a Class C with an all-n-one unit. Interior dimensions were 27" wide and about 45 " long. That included the vanity sink, shower stall and toilet. We repaired part of the flush mechanism on the toilet because it rusted due to constant moisture. Did you know it's cheaper to buy a new expensive toilet than to repair the toilet with expensive parts. We did a work around because the Class C was going to be dumped in a few years (only a matter of time). The floor is always wet, dirty or muddy. If you are a small person, then the dimensions that our typical unit was is small but useable. If you are a "normal" size human (between 5'5" and 6'4" and slightly overweight) you will either not wash some of your body parts very well or you will sustain bruises from taking showers (those pesky elbows get in the way). Keep in mind, many campgrounds are doing away with their bathhouses. And many you just really don't want to use.
The cheapest way to do a shower is to use a cheap floor pan then use FRP on a cheap substrate. 2 (4x
sheets of FRP will do three walls of a 32X32 shower pan with a seam in the center of one of the walls (I suggest it be in the wall where your shower head/controls are... it gets less water in it). Unfortunately you are looking at one of the expenses of a conversion that is hard to get to $200 much less under. Bathrooms & galleys eat up most of your money followed by plumbing parts and electrical parts.
I can't tell you what to do. I can only tell you what we have done and why...
The vintage Mansfield Traveler 910 toilet (china) was a free salvage. It will cost me roughly $100 to replace the breaker valve and the teflon seal for the ball. I replaced the toilet seat with a round one that almost fits. It was a $10 clearance item (or was it $7). The vanity sink and cabinet is made up of old scrap Corian kitchen countertops, a plastic bath faucet ($10?) and a free 6" deep 1/3 stainless steam table pan that we drilled a hole in to accept a vanity sink drain. We bought a damaged/marked down prehung hollow core slab door and used the door as a side wall in bath area. The "cabinet" is simply a face frame only... built from left over frame pieces from the prehung door. We have discovered that using
slab only doors are a cheap way of making "walls". Runs roughly $1 per inch. Our 36" doors for walls tend to cost $33. All we have to do is install and paint. We try to get the doors with the real wood "finger joint" frame. The no joint framed ones are tough to cut as the glues are like rock.
ON EDIT: The Mansfield toilet broke and we replaced it with a standard low flush residential (similar to this one but cheaper -- it was a $70 all in one contractor type on the shelf at work and replaced the ring and plastic flush handle with a pretty one after the plastic one broke... can't find it online) toilet that would fit in the same space (almost -- the bowl sticks out a couple inches into the "foot" area - odd considering the old round toilet seat fit perfectly -- but the flange fit perfect). Used a waxless toilet ring that was wonderful to use. It was a matter of waiting over a week for replacement parts in the mail or having a working toilet again in a day's time. After using it for several weeks, I think I really like it better. Yes it does use more water. But I think that is a good thing. I suspect that the problems so many people have with their black tanks all involves a lack of water. Eventually, the black tank will be replaced with a fiberglass on plywood box and a diverter will be added to divert to either the black holding tank or directly to the sewer hose for when on full hookups. For traveling, I think, since the toilet tank only fills halfway up, I can run a gasket around the top and strap down the tank lid.
Our 32X32 shower pan was bought off Craigslist (Building Materials) for $25. The tempered peg board we used as a substrate was free off of Craigslist (Free), We bought the
kitchen sink drain,
FRP (x2),
divider molding,
PVC Quarter Round molding (x2) and
cheap shower setup plus
hand held shower head. We spent over $180 on the shower alone and that does not include the glues, caulk, trim molding yet to be bought (still haven't cut out the window in the shower stall) and I'm using a cheap shower curtain liner from Dollar Tree. I did not get the shower handle set up I wanted (porcelain cross handles). But give me a little time and I will upgrade the handles. The framing wood was mostly the 51¢ culls I get at Home Depot. We bought a single full price 2x4. I'm sure to just do the shower, plumbing included, it tipped over $200. We did spread the purchases out a bit. We had the shower pan for 3 years, peg board for almost a year.
But like I said, I can "upgrade" the handles later. I can upgrade a lot of stuff later. The bus will never be really finished. We already have added an
18" grab bar (to prop our feet on to wash toes and so I can shave my legs) and plan on adding a
24" grab bar in front of the window to use as a wash cloth holder (preplanned... added the support to handle the grab bar before covering up the wall). We are in our 50's and plan on this bus being our last home. The shower curtain will be upgraded to an
all vinyl accordion door. And that's why we haven't trimmed out the shower stall. We will be using several of the accordion doors thru out the bus. Same brand & colour. This way we can make some narrower while others we can add the excess panels to make wider if needed.
If we plan ahead and know what we want eventually, we can know where we can cut corners now and later upgrade (cosmetically) as we get the cash.