01 August 2009

A urinal! A urinal! My kingdom for a urinal!

via Flickr

I have been specifying household urinals for use in my bath renovation projects for years and I've only managed to get one client to go along for the ride. In that case, we bought an industrial urinal and installed it. I liked its utilitarian appearance and so did the client in question.

However, I have been working with a man I'll call Jack for about the last month and Jack's seen the light and is on board with my urinal idea for his master bath. However, he's not at all into the appearance of something that looks like it came out of a public rest room. That's completely understandable.

However, now I have to find a source for well-designed household urinals and I am drawing a blank. It figures, I have been extolling the virtues of these things for years and now that I have to put my money where my mouth is, I can't find a decent urinal. Oy!

So I'm sending this out to the ether, to both kitchen and bath people and regular Joes and Janes; anybody out there know anything about where to find an acceptable urinal? Anyone? Anyone?

5 comments:

  1. i've always thought it would be cool to have a floor urinal (or small shower pan) in the corner with plants in it. then i'd finally have a garden that i wouldn't forget to water...

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  2. I used something like this at a McDonald's of all places in San Diego. It looked not-so-industrial, it saves water, and you don't even have to run a water line to it. It worked fine from what I could tell.
    Kohler k-4917 Steward

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  3. Mike, the only problem with your plan is that urine has too much nitrogen in it when it's fresh from the source. You have to let it age for a couple of weeks before you can dump it directly onto a plant. The good news is that once it's aged it can not only water plants, it can also tan leather or work as a household cleaner.

    Erik, thanks for your suggestion. I thought about the waterless option. Can waterless urinals be used in a home? I thought they needed a lot of volume to to work.

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  4. My experience with waterless versions has been that they smell, both when you using them and when they are patiently holding their prize waiting for it to become water for plants. It was in a coffee shop that I used it frequently, and it certainly saw volume.

    I also remember that particular coffee shop commode having an Out-Of-Order sign a lot, although I always believed it was a disgruntled employee or crafty customer that just wanted to rid the men's room of the noxious fumes.

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  5. The waterless ones are all over the place here too though I never noticed that they smell. In fact, the ones I run into have a fresh, wintergreen scent to them. Walking into the men's room is like a bracing, wintry walk in the northern woods.

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