Hi,

First off, Thanks for taking a look at this

My wife and I want to install a new shower in our half bath in the basement. The room is only 4x8. It has a floor drain around the middle of the room. I think it is made of Steel. It drops 18in from the floor level, is that standard? I only need to go 3ft to get to the shower.

Can I try to tie into this drain? I just need to get inside that pipe.
Is it possible to cut into this drain pipe? OR
Should I replace it with something new? If so what (steel or PVC)?

How far down should my new drain from the shower drop down before it heads for the drain?

Any other suggestion.

Hi Tom

You will want to chop up concrete from floor drain over to the new shower and expose the floor drain completely.

Then you will need to cut out the old floor drain (use sawzall with 8/10 teeth/inch sawzall blade).

Then you will attach onto the old pipe using a clamp as in pic#1 and run over to the shower with new PVC pipe.

Then you will install a new ptrap as in pic#2 so that it is directly under the shower drain (p-trap gets NO cleanout because in dirt).

Then you will install pipe straight out of the p-trap to the shower strainer of the new shower.

The pipe type you use will depend on your local codes... may be ABS or PVC.

When you decide to install the shower get back to us with the type of shower and we can help you with the installation... for example, I will recommend that you install any fiberglass or acrylic shower base in a bed of perlited structolite gypsum or modified thinset mortar... this makes the base solid so when you get in no creaking/motion when step into shower.

Anyway, get back to us. Hope this helped. If it did, please RATE THIS ANSWER. Thank you.