How Much Does It Cost to Move a Toilet?

The cost of moving a toilet is mostly labour, and the soil pipe decides how much. A toilet shifted a short way on a timber floor, close to the existing soil stack, is the quick end of the scale. Moving it across a concrete floor, into another room, or far enough from the stack that a long new branch or a macerator is needed takes much longer. The toilet itself can usually be refitted, so apart from pipe and fittings you're paying for a plumber's hours. Here's what decides how many.

What moving a toilet costs

We price a toilet move the same way we price everything else: labour at £95 an hour, a £60 call-out that is waived when the job runs over 2 hours, and materials such as soil pipe, pan connectors and fittings at trade cost with no markup. Before any work starts we look at where the stack runs, what the floor is made of and how the new pipe will reach it, then confirm the price. Our full rates are on the pricing page.

A flat figure for "moving a toilet", given without asking where it's going, is a guess. Moving a toilet 30cm to make room for a basin can be a short job in one house and a day's work in a flat with a screeded floor and a stack hidden behind tiling.

Why the soil pipe decides the price

A water supply pipe can go almost anywhere, up and down as needed. A soil pipe can't. It carries waste by gravity, so it has to fall steadily from the toilet to the stack or drain, with no dips where waste could settle. That one rule shapes the whole job.

• Fall. Approved Document H's table for unventilated branch pipes expects a WC branch to fall between 18mm and 90mm per metre. Move the toilet two metres further from the stack and the pipe needs roughly 36mm more depth below the pan at the far end, at the very least.
• Pipe size. A standard toilet discharges into a 100mm (usually 110mm plastic) soil pipe. It's a big pipe to hide, which is why the floor and the walls matter so much.
• The connection to the stack. The new branch has to join the stack at a sensible height and angle. If the existing connection is in the wrong place, the plumber may need to cut in a new boss or branch, which is slower on old cast iron than on plastic. Our soil pipe page covers that work.
• Floor type. On a suspended timber floor the pipe runs between the joists, which is quick if they run towards the stack and slower if the pipe has to cross them. On a solid concrete floor the options are a raised platform, a pipe boxed in along the wall, or cutting a channel in the screed.
• Water supply and cistern. The cold feed has to be extended to the new cistern position, with an isolation valve, and a concealed cistern needs a frame and access panel. See concealed cistern pros and cons if you're considering one.
• Making good. Plumbers put floorboards back, but tiling, flooring, plastering and decorating are separate trades and separate costs.

Common types of toilet move

Before the old position is abandoned, the old branch should be cut back and properly capped, not left open under the floor. A capped-off pipe that isn't sealed is a common source of drain smells after a bathroom refit.

When a macerator makes sense

A macerator sits behind or under the toilet, breaks the waste down and pumps it through a small-bore pipe to the stack. It lets a toilet go where a gravity soil pipe can't: a basement, a loft room, under the stairs, or across a concrete floor that you don't want to dig up. Our Saniflo installation page covers the fitting side.

It isn't free of drawbacks, and they are worth weighing before choosing one over a longer soil pipe:

• it needs a fused electrical supply and makes a noticeable noise when it runs;
• it only takes toilet waste and toilet paper, so wipes and sanitary products will jam it;
• in hard water areas like most of London it needs occasional descaling, and the motor and seals eventually need servicing or replacing.

If you already have one and it's giving trouble, our guide to macerator toilet problems explains the usual faults. Where a gravity pipe is possible, most people prefer it, because there's nothing mechanical to fail.

Permissions and regulations

• Building control. Altering soil pipes or making a new connection to the drains can count as building work under Part H of the Building Regulations. Your local authority building control team can confirm whether your job needs an application, and it's much easier to ask before the floor goes back down.
• Leasehold flats. The soil stack and anything passing through the floor slab are often the freeholder's, not yours. Check your lease and get consent in writing before work starts.
• Water fittings. If you fit a new toilet at the same time, the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 limit a single flush to 6 litres, and on a dual flush the smaller flush can be no more than two thirds of the full one.
• Ventilation. A toilet moved into a room without an opening window will need mechanical extraction, which is an electrician's job.

Can you move a toilet yourself?

Taking a toilet off and putting it back in the same place is a job many confident DIYers manage; our guide on how to drain a toilet covers the first step. Moving it is different. You're cutting into the soil pipe, setting falls, making joints that will sit under a floor, and possibly changing the connection to the stack. The problems we see after DIY moves are:

• a branch laid too flat, or with a dip, so paper settles and the toilet blocks again and again;
• a pan connector that isn't fully seated, leaking a little on every flush until the floor or ceiling below shows it (see toilet leaking at the base);
• an old branch left uncapped under the floor, causing sewer smells;
• a cold feed without an isolation valve, so any later cistern repair means shutting off the whole house.

Doing the preparation yourself, such as clearing the room and lifting the flooring along the pipe route, can take time off the job. Leave the soil pipe to a plumber.

How to keep the cost down

1. Plan around the stack. The shorter and straighter the new branch, the quicker the job. Keep the toilet on the stack side of the room where you can.
2. Move it before finishes go in. Relocating a toilet before tiling, flooring and plastering is much quicker than working around finished surfaces.
3. Group the jobs. If the basin, shower or bath are moving too, do all the waste and supply changes at one visit. Our cost to move a radiator guide is useful if the heating is changing as well.
4. Choose the toilet early. Pan outlet height and position vary between models, and the pipework has to suit the one you're fitting. Have it on site if you're supplying it.
5. Sort consent first. Building control and freeholder questions are quick to answer at the planning stage and expensive to answer after the floor is down.

If the toilet you're moving is old, it's worth deciding whether to refit it or replace it while the pipes are open. Our guide to how long a toilet lasts helps with that decision, and our toilet replacement and bathroom plumbing pages cover the fitting work.

Frequently Asked Questions