Ask Me Help Desk - Basement Bathroom

Does anyone have tips for installing a new bathroom with shower, sink and toilet in a basement with no plumbing and low ceiling. I have started with a false floor to run all the lines underneath the floor, which is working out great. Then I will have the sewage drain into a sump basin and pump it up in to the main line that is about 4 foot up the wall. Which is close by. The problem I am starting to run into is the main air ducts run(return air and the forced air from the a/c-furnace) through this area for the bathroom and that makes my ceiling height at about 6'3" for half of the bathroom. I used 2x8 floor joist to have enough height for the plumbing to drain properly. My orignal plan was to have the toilet and shower in the area where the ceiling was higher and the sink over where the ceiling was lower... the problem I ran into was by the time I install a sink with cuboards underneath and a good sized mirror. I have ran outa room put a light above the mirror. Does any have any ideas to help with a low ceiling in the bathroom? Or a website that helps deal with this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by downrange

Does anyone have tips for installing a new bathroom with shower, sink and toilet in a basement with no plumbing and low ceiling. I have started with a false floor to run all the lines underneath the floor, which is working out great. then i will have the sewage drain into a sump basin and pump it up in to the main line that is about 4 foot up the wall. Which is close by. the problem i am starting to run into is the main air ducts run(return air and the forced air from the a/c-furnace) through this area for the bathroom and that makes my ceiling height at about 6'3" for half of the bathroom. I used 2x8 floor joist to have enough height for the plumbing to drain properly. My orignal plan was to have the toilet and shower in the area where the ceiling was higher and the sink over where the ceiling was lower... the problem i ran into was by the time i install a sink with cuboards underneath and a good sized mirror. I have ran outa room put a light above the mirror. Does any have any ideas to help with a low ceiling in the bathroom? or a website that helps deal with this?

I would have only had the shower on the high part of the floor as the p-trap for that needs to be below the floro of the shower. For the sink, the trap is about at knee level, so no need to raise the floor there. Likewise, for the toilet, there is no p-trap below the floor, so that too can set at grade. Of course this means you will need to chop up some of the cement to make room for the sump basin. I am guessing you wanted to avoid this.

However, if you don't mind chopping up some of the concrete floor, Iwould just do that, and then you can do away with the false floor altogether.

Rob

Thanks for your reply. So I am starting to think it would be easier to break out the concrete to run the sewer lines so I can save on head room. Sounds like it could be a lot of work. Any pointers?

I am finishing 3 bedrooms and two baths below grade. It's more work than it seems. We ended up removing concrete to accommodate where we needed to. You have to watch your foundation though. Your soil type, drainage (water table) and foundation type will play a roll in removing concrete and going down a foot or two to pour a new floor. In our case, we added a subfloor so that the winter cold wouldn't bite the feet so much.
Regards.

Now that's something I never thought of. Cold winter floor! If I bust out concrete there will be a total of about 15ft about 4 inches wide...

I can turn on and off to faucet in bath tub but no water coming from shawer, please advice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehtesham

I can turn on and off to faucet in bath tub but no water coming from shawer, please advice.

It depends: Most faucets have a lever you have to pull up or out in order for the water to be diverted to the shower head. In some cases when the shower itself has failed, someone may have replaced the faucet and not hooked up the shower head.

If the shower used to work but now doesn't, it's possible that the diverter valve inside the faucet has failed and needs to be replaced. It sounds as though you need to have a
!gasp! Plumber look into it. Faucets can be a really painful experience if you turn the water to the house off to work on it, and then find out that yours is a faucet that parts are no longer available for.