[detarevosipeels]

A little background info...

We bought our house with the first time home buyers credit a few years back and while we had options of buying a "move in ready" home, we chose a light fixer-upper with hopes of remodeling and turning a little bit of profit.

Last year we remodeled the kitchen, and this year we've decided to add a second bathroom in the current laundry room in the lower level of our split entry home.

I'm comfortable doing a lot of work myself (framing, flooring, dry walling, electrical) but plumbing has always been my downfall.

There exist a toilet with easy access to water lines to add the sink, but to add the shower stall we will need move or add a drain in the floor. Is this something a motivate DIY'er can do or should I bite the bullet and hire a plumber. I'm confident if I do enough research I can get the job done and up to code, but not having any plumbing experience would you recommend it?

Also, I already know I'll definitely need a inspections along the way, how much trouble would it be to get a permit pulled and is there anything I should know going into it?

Any advice is much appreciated, would really like to hear from experienced plumbers/contractors.

*EDIT*

I forgot to mention, There is also a waste lines running about 2' from the wall and I'm interested in maybe sliding it back into the wall. This seems like a bigger project than initially anticipated and I'm hesitant to even begin thinking about it. What things would I need to consider and is this something that would be worth doing or should I just design the room around these pipes. Moving them back would open up options in our design and give us an opportunity to make it more of a "bathroom" rather than a "bathroom in a laundry room," so it would definitely be ideal. My concern is the cost/effort it would add and whether it would be practical for the overall progress house.

 

[bob22]

Hard to judge your skill level but some things to consider:
1. Will floor joists get in the way of connecting to drain line?
2. Venting will be needed for new shower drain

A drawing or picture of what is there and new plan/layout would help.

You could likely do a lot of the prep work (e.g., demo) before you get the plumber there to cut down on expenses.

 

[oh'mike]

Bob--Lower level of a split level house--Probably on a slab.---Mike---

 

[autx790]

If you're confident you could do the research to do it right and meet code, then the question really is, do you feel like dealing with hassle of doing all that's required. Or do you want to spend the money to get it done quick, or are you in no hurry and want to save money.

As the home owner, you should be able to pull a plumbing permit (at least where I am). I would draw out what you plan to do and run it by the inspector. I just re did all the plumbing for a kitchen and bathroom and the plumbing wasn't so hard, but I have my house gutted right now and ripped up the floor. I dry fitted everything first and had the inspector come by to insure it was right before I glued it down. You can learn a lot from the code
http://publicecodes.citation.com/icod/index.htm
and this book is pretty good too
http://www.amazon.com/Renovation-Co...5882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307988810&sr=8-1
This is a handy reference
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Check-Pl...813X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307988886&sr=8-1
If the waste line is vertical it wouldn't be too much trouble to put it in the wall as long as it isn't over 2" (assuming 2x4 framing).

Like Bob said, I would gut it all myself and make it as easy as possible for a plumber to get in and do what they do. The more of a hassle for them, i figure the more they'll charge you. It's gotta get gutted anyway and that's easy. From there you can see if it's something you feel like tackling or contracting out.

 

[detarevosipeels]

Layout

Thank you for the replies, I'll be sure to check out the links.

In the past, as long as I take enough time to plan things out before diving in I can usually get through a project without much hassle, but I've always been a little scared to try any major plumbing of my own.

We had a couple contractors come in and look at our utility room and the cost of the plumbing work was always pretty high, not saying I wasn't expecting that, I'm just wondering how much money it would save us to try it ourselves. I figure if I get in a bind I'll already have the floor tore up and I can just call some one in to finish the job.

Here is the layout we're looking for, sorry for the crude drawing, it didn't occur to me to layout the original floor plan as well as the mock up.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/829/downloadsut.jpg

And this is scale mock up of what we would like to achieve.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/715/bathroomm.png
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/402/view9.png
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/topviewo.png
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/frontviewg.png

 

[oh'mike]

That looks like a fairly straight forward job----Plenty of concrete to remove but still not a bad job.

Are the drains PVC or iron?

 

[detarevosipeels]

The pipes are pvc.

 

[oh'mike]

That just made your job much easier----a Sawsall and common hand tools is all that is required.

An electric jack hammer will be needed---saw cutting the slab looks better but is not needed--your tile will cover the rough edges and the floor will be just as strong.

Ask away-----Mike------

 

[oh'mike]

Expect to spend around $550 for the materials for the rough plumbing--copper prices are through the roof right now---Less if copper is not needed.

If you are doing a hand packed custom shower --add another $135 for the pan parts(drain--cover--liner--mud.)

Tile is not included.----Mike----

 

[detarevosipeels]

Thank you mike, do you know how difficult it would be to move the waste lines back 2' into the wall. Would it just involve elbow joints, not sure of the proper name, or is there something special you would have to do to accommodate the waste?

It's something that we don't necessarily need, but it would leave more options for the laundry area.

 

[oh'mike]

You will trench over to the washing machines and add a plastic box in the wall with drain and water lines.

I don't understand needing 2 feet.

The dryer vent needs to be considered along with a gas line or electric.

 

[detarevosipeels]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. If you look at the mockups I linked the verticle pipe in the laundry area that runs parallel to the wall is two feet out from the wall. We'd like to try and see if we can route those pipes back into the wall to give some more room for the washer and dryer.

 

[autx790]

What does that pipe go to up above? I'm assuming you cant run it back into the wall from the very top and that it will come down through the ceiling where it is and make a 45 turn toward the wall and then a 45 going down. Then you can just frame a box around the angled bit of pipe up by the ceiling.

What size is the pipe? If it's 3" youre probably not going to run that in a 2x4 wall and would have to frame with 2x6. you'll have to dig up the floor where it is now and put a coupling so you can extend the drain further back toward the wall. Or maybe you'd luck out and it runs that direction anyway, and you can just cut it and put you a 90 to catch the new pipe coming down in the wall.

Venting may be tricky and mike probably knows better than I.

I agree with mike that it doesn't seem too challenging. The second link I sent you is a good book that tells you the size drain/trap and vent for each fixture as well as the roughin spacings/dimensions...among other info. The materials aren't terribly expensive. I put in a bathroom, laundry, and a kitchen, and the plumber quoted me $2500 and I already had a large portion of materials. The actual work didn't take me too long (and i did it alone), but I spent a lot of time researching and planning. For supply I went with pex which is real easy to work with and I just bought the multi-size crimper at lowes ($89). This place has pretty good prices on pex supplies... http://www.pexsupply.com/PEX-Plumbing-515000 Materials weren't too expensive like mike said. Eventhough I had a plan drawn out, I still had to make few trips to lowes. I finally just started buying a bunch of extra/different fittings and returned all the extra when i was done.

I think it will just come down to your time and energy. Any trouble you run in to, I'm sure you can get help here. Only real labor intensive part I see would be the concrete.

 

[oh'mike]

A photo of the existing space would help.

Opening the floor should allow you to move the old washer drain into its new position.