When we bought this house 3 years ago it was advertised as a 2 bathroom home. While that looks good on a sales flyer the truth of the matter was it has 1 bathroom on the main floor and a toilet downstairs. The toilet sits in the open, protected by a sheet hung on an elaborate array of plumbing so you have a little privacy.

The toilet was added later as is evidenced by the sloppy concrete patch they laid over the new plumbing. Along with it they installed a drain pipe for a sink. In theory, one could just frame it in, finish plumbing the sink and have a nice little half bath. What the idiots didn't pay attention to were the measurements of said bathroom. Upon inspection I find there's no possible way you could fit anything more than an airliner lavatory sink in there. I also wanted to add a shower so in a stupid moment of sobriety I took to the floor with a sledge hammer and an air chisel.

Now I have a gaping hole in my basement floor and no matter which way I turn things I'm gonna have one hell of a time making a full bathroom fit. To top it off, they installed the toilet directly under the electrical panel. By code I cannot have the pannel in a bathroom . . . so I'm also going to have to move that which will require a great deal of time, sparks, and beer.

 

I feel your pain.

We did a cosmetic upgrade to our powder room in our old townhouse, and MAN what a pain that was. Let's put it this way... We started the project in May 2003, half assed it, then redid it properly January 2004 with new flooring, a pedestal sink, moved some plumbing around, wallpaper and wainscotting, crown, chair and baseboards, new door surround, etc. You might remember a thread I started a couple years ago about having my toilet frozen to the carport? Yeah, that's the same project.

Now the fun part. The finishing details like sanding the fill out of the joints, paint, etc didn't get complete until the morning of the first open house while we were trying to sell it this past June.

And while I find myself capable of doing the work now, I'd just rather leave it alone and get a professional in. In our new house, we have an unfinished basement now with roughed in plumbing, but we still haven't decided what to do with it yet.

 

I went to a ladys house one time where she had a usable working toilet sitting in a corner of her bedroom, on carpet.

 

Manure Happens

I had a friend in Calgary that bought his house that was build by a custom home builder.

He knew I had extensive building experience so I was asked to come over and help with the inspection ...re-designing..... then renovating the basement into a livable area.
The builder on purpose put the electrical panel within 3 ft of the roughed in plumbing for a bathroom.So I moved the panel 7' ( What a pain that was)

The builder also ran 3 (count 'em *3*) cold air returns to within 6" of 3 of the 4 basement windows it had.These cold ducts all had to be re-done.

The 4th window was edged right up to the cavity where the basement fireplace was supposed to be.

The light switch for the steps leading upstairs was located on the concrete wall 6 ft from the bottom step inside of actually on the wall ...leading up the stairs.

The house itself had 327 things listed wrong with the place.Yet the building inspector passed it.
He did everything he could ..even got the media involved.
The result was unbelieveable.

Even the building inspector was investigated for kickbacks.


Some people shouldn't be in the house building business.

Believe it or not, I have empathy for you ....been there... got the movie ...

 

"Money Pit"

"Here lies Walter Fielding. He bought a house, and it killed him."

We did a partial renovation here and some 20 years later and almost $100K, it's still not completed.

ivanribic, I know what you're going through.

 

I have decided to forego the bathroom and just turn my basement into a giant swimming pool.

Are there any plumbers on FTE who can help me with my poop pipe?

 

Oh look! An indoor outhouse.

 

What's that grey animal on the cardboard doing ?.....below the mirror.

I assume the john was over near the Roll of TP somewhere?

 

I had that carboard box laying around and it was coincidentally about the size of the shower stall I wanted to install so I was using it as a template of sorts to figure out what would fit. I'm not sure what the animal is doing but I'll ask him here in a few minutes.

Yes, the toilet was by the TP. I moved it so I could inspect the electrical panel easier and because I'll need to do some framing there at some point. It's got me thinking though that it would be fun to mount the TP holder about 6ft away from the toilet once the bathroom is done. It's mostly funny because that's the bathroom all the NWC folk use when they stay over.

I found this forum for plumbing, here's the whole of what I'm attempting: http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/plumbin...ing-35186.html

 

Wow, I thought some stuff in my house was Ghetto rigged......


mine was advertized as 2.1 bathrooms.... They poretty much hit that dead on

 

Where does that second stand pipe (left vertical pipe from pipe with gloves on it)
go ?

Through to the main floor and out to the roof ?

 

Have you looked into using a studer (sp) valve? They are a one way valve that lets the air in for draining but keeps the gas out. A version of this valve is used a lot in manufactured homes. They can be placed inside a wall with a grill or under a sink vanity and probably exposed if you choose.

I don't know about code in your area but they are an acceptable alternative to thru the roof ventilation in nc.

I see them used around here for venting, in new homes sometimes also.

Good luck on your project.

 

I can't offer any advice. But a little sympathy. I'm in the middle of a kitche remodel.


Gone from this:


Please note the massively underwhelming amount of food preperation area!!!!





To this:



And no end in sight yet.

 

Not sure what's what here.

I THINK I see:

- the clothes washer drain pipe beside the stack of ceiling tiles on the toilet tank
- the toilet moved off the closet flangeand the closet flange in the floor in front of the toilet bowl
- the left-most vertical abs pipe serving only as the washer drain and going up to vent
- the right-most vertical abs pipe saerving as a sink drain and tied into the vent pipe
- hot and cold copper supply lines beside this second abs pipe
- the main toilet stack in old cast iron going up to the main floor bath

If that's the case, then there's hope.

Check your local code, but vents don't usully have to be perfectly straight pipes. You can bend them around to suit your layout. So you could re-route the vent pipes over toward the left, toward what I think is the washer, and gain all that floor area for the bathroom. They can be run either under the floor (more concrete smashing) or you can do it over the floor and build a raised bathroom floor.

You can't move the main toilet stack, but that's the narrow area where the bathroom door will be, then it opens up inside with lots of room for a toilet, proper vanity & sink, and maybe even a shower stall.

I don't see where the closet flange is. But with the concreate floor ripped up, you can now relocate the tolet wherever you want and just re-do the connection to the main stack. With this in mind, you can re-arrange things so the electrical panel ends up outside the bathroom.

Get a building permit for this and your inspector will be able to tell you if you're setting it up right. I'd get plugs on those open drina pipe ends while it's sitting so your basement doesn't fill with sewer gas.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the advice Fred. I just got a PM from a plummer too so maybe I'll get this figured out and done sometime in the not so distant future. Doing the work isn't a problem for me, I just want to make sure I have it all vented and plummed right because the last thing I need is turds popping up in the shower every time someone flushes a toilet.



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