Hello:

I am trying to sell my house, but it is uncompetitive with some of the other houses around me because it only has one bathroom. As such, I was thinking of adding either a full bathroom or half bathroom in my basement, depending on the amount of work involved. Since, I am trying to sell the house, I don't want to spend a lot of money.

Currently, my basement doesn't have any roughed in pipes for a toilet, shower, or bathroom sink. What is does have is plumbing underneath the concrete floor, a utility sink with a drain, and a old cast iron sewage drain running from the floor to the ceiling used for the upstairs toilet. The utility drains is probably about three feet away from this about a foot away from the outside wall.

I was wondering if it were possible to utilize the utility drain for both a bathroom sink, utility sink, or possibly even a shower? Also, could I cut into the cast iron pipe to add a toilet, perhaps the type that gets mounted to a wall? As you can guess, I am trying to avoid breaking the concrete as I suspect it is expensive.

Thanks for any advice.


Sincerely
Thomas

Well Thomas,

You are getting into major surgery when you rough in a basement bath from scratch. Unless you plan on building a platform there's no way to install a shower without breaking up cement. While it's possible to install a rear discharge toilet, pricey at $400.00, you will still have to run a vent for the lavatory and the shower. Do you plan on doing the work yourself? This would be a task for a experienced plumber, do you have the necessary tools and plumbing skills to undertake such a project? Regards, Tom

Thanks for the reply.

I probably could do it out myself (with proper instructions), as I have done other complicated home improvement projects. If I was going to continue living in the house, I would drop the bucks easily and let a plumber at least do the rough in. However, I am already going to lose money on the house, so dropping too much more is something I am trying to avoid. I figured the shower would be a long shot, and was leaning more towards the half bath (sink toilet).

I was thinking a wall unit toilet would work (pricey, but less so then breaking concrete). Now I have a caste iron toilet pipe that goes from the basement floor towards the ceiling and branches out in two parts at the ceiling. One is the vent, the other is for the toilet. If I spliced into that pipe for the toilet in the basement wouldn't the vent attached to the pipe already be enough? Also, that pipe is probably very heavy and the vent part goes through the inside of the first floor wall up to the attic, then turns and goes for about six feet underneath the attic floor, and then angles up and out the roof. If I cut that pipe in the basement, what effect will all that weight essentially hanging from the attic floor have?

Thomas

OK! For a toilet and wash basin you could tee off the stack and tie both in to the cast iron stack. The wash basin will have to be vented our the roof or revented back into a dry vent. When we cut into a cast iron stack we take a raiser clamp,(see image) and place it at floor level above the cut to secure the pipe or place it above the cut and use two bumper jacks to hold the stack up while we install N0-Hub fittings and clamps. Regards, Tom