Buying a loo: The secret to choosing the best seat in the house

From fixtures to scale, Kya deLongchamps will have you fluent in toilet talk in no time

Sonas Bathrooms WC unit in Morning Sky Blue/Stockholm collection, from €475 (toilet not included).

It's the great unspeakable vessel in our lives. We cannot do without it, but in terms of our bathroom suite, it has a certain blushing character when it comes to discussing its finer plumbed-in points. Here’s my essential guide to knowing what you’re peering at and into when buying the new loo.

First of all, there’s scale. A typical toilet has a projection (length reaching into the room) in the area of 650mm to 700mm. It’s hard to cut back on width without dreaded over-spray, but if you’re working with a smaller bathroom, the shorter the projection the better. 

A cloakroom style can be as short as 500mm, not great for a commodious backside for everyday use. Ensure it’s a comfortable fit for your outline. Buried in the wall (wall-hung), where you’re adding a waist-high stud wall to carry the plumbing or a cistern, set the full measurement out on the floor and add at least 600mm of standing room to the front edge of the pan.

Close-coupled is the term used to denote the marriage of the cistern to the pan. These days, regardless of the styling, close-coupled delivers a crisp look without separation of the elements of the toilet. 

Heritage Granley close-coupled traditional toilet, from €564, various suppliers.

Some cisterns will sit on the back of the pan, other toilets will be one complete seamless piece. Sleek and minimalist this trims down the presence of your watery friend. Grip-fix and screws ensure the cistern will not move regardless of what’s happening during your toilet adventures. If you prefer that Edwardian circular pan, you can still have a close-coupled loo. For a real traditional with plumbing elements left fully on show, chances are you’ll be choosing what’s called a low-level cistern with a short pipe down to the seated area. 

Take the flush pipe up the wall, and yes, surprise, surprise, it’s a high-level cistern with a dangling flush pull — a very determined aesthetic still beloved of bathroom creators with a heritage bent. Polished and honed metals can add some handsome detailing here.

Now, down to the floor. The water inlet and waste position (comprised of the spigot and soil pipe) will determine whether you can have a back-to-wall or open-back toilet. Back-to-wall toilets (with a cistern on show) sit neatly against the wall, and completely shroud the base, ideal for vertical inlets, while open-back toilets allow a bottom, rear, or side inlet. 

In the past where the cistern and pan were separated, domestic toilets largely sat on the floor, there was less fuss about visible pipes and odd joiner connections. We really want clean lines today.

If you have an opening at the back, it’s a semi-open or open back. Semi-open and open-backs might seem off-putting once, but trust me, once in place (and when the neurosis of designing the space recedes), you’ll never notice the difference with an elegant contemporary design. Open backs allow more room for soil pipes taken in any direction, very useful when swapping out an old loo for a new one. 

If your soil pipe is hard to move, your plumber will likely demand an open-back toilet choice. Check those measurements in an open back, as the base may be longer than an equivalent fully shrouded design in the same range. 

Liaise with your plumber before you flash the credit card, as the inlet and waste position are crucial details in any renovation, and pushing plumbing/wastewater positions around can add considerable expense.

Now the look. With a cistern on show in a close-couple, you can compress the tanks apparent size by taking it vertical, so it’s simply taller by a few centimetres. If you hate the look of the cistern, it can be sunk into a stud wall, or covered with a cabinet, with all the flushing elements completely out of sight. A wall-hung pan with no visible cistern or support might seem magically cantilevered, but there’s a very strong metal frame holding it in place — another great reason to pay for an excellent carpenter/plumber team you can trust. Flush plates for back-to-the-wall and wall-hung toilets can be chased into the wall or set into a stud wall/shelf. Wall-hung types not only allow more light to flow around the floor but also make cleaning so much easier. 

You’re also placed closer to the rear wall, allowing an easy reach to the paper. Combination vanities with a toilet included offer a long vanity unit that hides the cistern within — great for a pinched bathroom, but frankly not any interior designer favourite. Ensure you’re really saving significant space.

Sonas Bathrooms WC unit in Morning Sky Blue/Stockholm collection, from €475 (toilet not included).

Getting back on the pan, if you have mobility issues or you are particularly tall, a comfort-height toilet can make all the difference, offering up to 40mm more on the standard height, bringing it up to an average of 460mm. This can take the strain off aching joints as you lower yourself down. Add a wall-mounted grab bar with a leg for complete security (prices from €120). 

I’m a big fan of the newer soft-close seats that completely cover the seating ring of the loo. With that tighter fit, they remove any escape of the dreaded “faecal-plume”, a charming explosion of germ-laded droplets that can fire around your bathroom to a distance of 2m or more.

Square and rectangular pan shapes are available together with more organic rounder bowls — it’s really a matter of taste, but a softly cornered angled seat offers potentially more sitting room, while a round one is a better bet for small bathrooms where every split centimetre counts.

Speaking of the royal flush, together with water savings as good as 4.5l per flush with a dual-flush model (obligatory now with Irishware), you can ease up on pan cleaning with a rimless toilet. This has a powerful flush vortex pattern (a little noisy, it’s true) that whips around the bowl taking every spec with it and removing the limescale trench of the rim. 

These loos are now standard fare, without a price loading, but it has to be said, comfort toilets can command a premium due to their larger body. Touchless technology is available from premium brands including RAK but expect to double the price on a similar close-couple model. Shop around.