Can I put a drain line through the footer of the house? The house is on a cement slab, built in 1964 in Florida. I want to put a bathroom in the garage. The sewer drain line that I will lay on the outside of the house will only be 8" under the soil to allow for the 1/4" per foot drop. So I will have to drill through the slab and through the footer to get to it. Is it a problem to damage 4-6" of the footer? Thank you for your answers.

Have you dug down and exposed the footer? Isn't there a course or two of block and fill dirt before you get to the footer?
In the Tampa Bay area we run our drains out over the footer and through the blocks. See if that isn't the case in your home. Let me know, Tom

Wow, Tom, I did not know that this could be the case. That gives me hope. I will dig and expose it today to see. Do you know what kind of tool I need to rent to create room in the slab for the toilet drain? Thanks again. Trudy

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Do you know what kind of tool I need to rent to create room in the slab for the toilet drain? Thanks again. Trudy

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Hey Trudy,
The slab will have to be opened up to install a closet bend. You can do this one of two ways.
1) You can rent a jackhammer and chop it up **OR**
2) rent a cement saw and cut it up.
Will you be connecting to the sewer inside or outside the house?
Is a toilet the only fixture you're installing?

Since you're going to hafta vent the toilet any how why not make it a half bath,(powder room) with a vanity and let the vanity wet vent the toilet?
Sound like a plan? Cheers, Tom

Hi Tom, you are very intuitive. I do have the intention of also putting in a sink and a shower. Of course I don't know how to connect them all. You sound very smart, if you were close enough I would hire you to do it for me. Depending on where you are it's probably a 50-55" drive...

This is the first time I have ever used the Ask Me Help Desk. I was trying to rate your answer and give it a good rating but couldn't figure it out...

I was assuming that I would connect to the sewer line on the outside of the house since there would be less slab to deal with there.