You can imagine a house without many items in it, but never without a toilet. It is vital to make this part of your home convenient if there are elderly people living with you. As aged muscles lose flexibility, crouching down and standing up proves increasingly more difficult. Therefore, when purchasing a toilet for your aging relatives, the first thing to consider is its height.
This guide addresses some crucial questions any toilet buyer is likely to have, including: “what is the highest toilet height available?” and “which toilet height will suit the needs of an elderly person best?” Read on to learn more!
Before You Begin Your Tall Toilet Search
Use the following recommendations to choose the most comfortable tallest toilet for elderly relatives:
- Take accurate height measurements.
- Be aware of the individual needs of potential tall toilet users.
- Consider investing in custom-made tall toilets if mass-market products do not fit your requirements.
Tallest toilets you can buy: regular vs. custom-made toilets
The height of the toilet can vary to accommodate for the physical characteristics of an individual user, their preferences, and the overall bathroom style. Today, there are products in the market available in a wide range of heights: from the standard 15-19 inch models to elevated above-20-inch toilets.
The tallest toilet available stands at 21 inches from the floor to the rim of the bowl. If you opt for a wall-hung appliance, the height can be further altered to give you a whole 28 inches from the floor. Finally, some toilet manufacturers provide a choice of tailor-made products of varying heights, complete with adjustable seats to suit your particular needs.
To assist those with trouble sitting down or standing up, such as aged adults, handicapped people, and even extra tall individuals, the standard high toilet measurement determined by the ADA guidelines has been revised repeatedly over the past years, and today, it is set at 17-19 inches.
Still, even if they are ADA compliant, modern commodes cannot always meet the unique needs of individuals over 6 feet tall or with mobility problems. If such is the case, extra-tall toilets with the highest toilet seat height might be required.
Why might you need a product with the highest toilet bowl height?
People that have issues with their back, hips, and knees are among those who will benefit the most from purchasing an extra-tall toilet measuring 20” high and above.
The higher the toilet seat is placed, the less effort it takes to get on and off the commode, which ultimately means more comfort for your hurting limbs and joints. A few extra inches can also make the bathroom-visiting experience more enjoyable for taller individuals who find regular toilets too low.
When choosing between different tall toilet models, you might be tempted to look into custom-built appliances that are guaranteed to fit your unique needs and expectations. Let us see how these compare to the standard mass consumption toilets:
Regular toilets:
- Affordable price.
- Guaranteed compliance with ADA requirements.
- Easy to install and maintain because of their standard shape and size.
- Found in any sanitary ware shop, no need to wait long to have them built and shipped over.
Custom-made toilets:
- Come in the size, height, shape, and color chosen by the client.
- Can have additional features and frills.
- Can be made to fit any non-standard bathroom.
Toilet Height Measurements: How to Take Those Accurately?
If you are measuring for a new tall toilet, there are a few crucial factors to consider to avoid the situation where you end up with a commode too big for your bathroom door to close or too little space for you to move around. Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind:
- Always take the maximum measurement. Always measure the bowl’s broadest or longest point when taking measurements. This should give you a good idea if the product will fit in your bathroom and allow you to see how much-unoccupied space is left once the commode is fully installed.
- Double-check every measurement taken. You might be 100% confident that you have everything under control and know everything there is to know about what kind of tall toilet you need. It will not hurt you to double-check your measurements before placing an order for that new toilet or toilet seat to make sure the item you buy works perfectly for your bathroom space.
- Be mindful of safety requirements. If you are purchasing a tall toilet for a disabled or aging family member, safety is the key. Make sure the commode you install will not further limit their mobility or self-care ability. Also, check to see if installing the new toilet will leave them enough bathroom space to utilize whatever mobility aids they require.
Now, let us get down to taking the actual measurements. Here is what you need to gauge to choose a perfect tall bathroom commode for your aged parent or extra-tall relative:
- Toilet height: you might think you need the highest toilet height to make your loved one feel comfortable and safe, but the truth is what you need is simply the right toilet that will cater to the unique needs of its user. To learn the exact height of your chosen toilet model, take the distance from the ground to the top of the porcelain part (the seat height is not included).
- Toilet seat height: your toilet seat can be anything from 1 to 6 inches. To know for sure, measure the distance from the floor to the toilet seat top. Then subtract the measurement of the height of the toilet sans the seat from the measurement of the toilet height with the seat included. The resulting inches will tell you exactly how high your seat is.
- Bowl length: based on its shape, your bowl should be around 16.5-18.5 inches in length. To get a more accurate result, measure the distance from between the seat bolts in the back to the frontmost part of the bowl.
- Toilet width: to know how wide your toilet is, measure the distance between the two widest points on each side of the bowl (or the tank if it is wider than the bowl). Taking this measurement is critical, as it will ensure that your new toilet will fit into the limited space of your bathroom.
- Rough-in dimensions: it is the span between the back wall and the waste pipe’s center. Take the distance from the wall located behind the toilet to the center between the rear bolt caps, with which the commode is attached to the ground.
What/who are extra-tall toilets meant for?
Toilets of 19 inches and higher are often a perfect match for taller people, senior adults, and anyone with difficulty standing up from a squat position due to an illness or trauma.
Elderly adults experiencing problems with their joints, hips, knees, and backs should benefit from a tall toilet since such a model will require less effort getting on and off the commode. However, if an aged person is a regular bathroom user and experiences frequent constipation, tall toilets might be detrimental to their condition, as anything other than a squatting posture (where one’s knees are located slightly higher than the hips) will stand in the way of smooth and easy bowel evacuation.
Taller toilets can provide the same benefits for disabled individuals and people with limited mobility for whom the day-to-day use of a shorter commode is difficult. Choosing a taller toilet that suits the person’s individual needs will offer these users the right level of bathroom security and comfort. Regardless of whether a greater height than the standard ADA-compliant tall toilet height is used, for those with physical limitations, certain toilet aids such as safety rails and moveable toilet frames may be necessary.
For people whose height hovers somewhere around the 7-foot mark, finding the right tall toilet can be a problem. It is for this category of bathroom users that wall-hung toilets can prove to be particularly useful since (with the addition of a raised toilet seat) they can easily pull off a whopping 28 inches.
FAQ
To make sure you have got all the information required to make the right purchasing decision, here is a quick Q&A session regarding tall toilets:
What is the highest toilet height available?
The tallest toilet in the mass market stands at 21 inches, floor to bowl edge. Some wall-hung models can reach a height of 28” with the right adjustments.
What is the tallest toilet made?
One of the tallest toilets is the Convenient Height Store Extra Tall Toilet. It is a well-designed ADA-compliant toilet with the bowl measuring 20 inches tall and the toilet seat adding another inch. Another one currently in production is the 21-inch Bradenton by Signature Hardware.
Can you get a taller toilet?
Available in a broad range of custom heights, wall-hung models are a type of two-piece toilet in which the bowl is mounted to the wall, and the tank is hidden behind it.
If you could not find the information you were looking for here, please leave a question in the comments section below this post. I will try to provide further explanations pertaining to your unique query.
Make Bathroom Experience Easier for Your Loved Ones
Picking a new tall toilet for your bathroom can be a daunting task, and, with so many great options available, it can also get overwhelming at times. Hopefully, the guidelines above can make this process a little easier, helping you zero in on one product that will perfectly meet your needs and expectations as well as promote comfort and bathroom independence for your loved ones.
Are you looking to buy a tall toilet for your home? Which models do you fancy? What additional accessories are you planning to use? Speak up in the comments below and share this post with others!
Gerald Carpenter
My name is Gerald Carpenter and I am a professional plumber in the third generation. My father was a plumber, my grandfather was a plumber. I wish I had records on my other ancestors.
