[Joe T]

Hi, I would like to install a shower stall in my basement, and was wondering if I could convert over the floor drain. Here are some of the particulars...

The floor drain is hooked up to city sewer
The drain is a 3" cast iron with a 2" threaded center, on which a backflow ball sitswith like a "castelated" fitting with a seal in it for the check ball.

I know I can make it work but I am not sure if it is code to "convert" this drain, and the only way I can make it work is to take the backflow assembly out, thread in a 2" stub , but then I have no backflow device, and that rather concerns me, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[labman]

Tom may have a better solution, but it isn't that much of a job to bust up some of the floor, and cut off the pipe lower and install the black flow valve below the shower drain. Could you use the existing floor and drain as the base for the shower and just seal the walls to the floor? Perhaps use a patching cement that feathers out well to slope the floor up away from the drain?

[Joe T]

Thanks for the speedy response. I had considered going the route you mentioned, but this house seems to be the money pit, and I KNOW three other things will go south in the process, so I'd like to save that as a last resort. I probably don't have to mention this(you probably already know) it is a p trap, it has a cleanout plug in the side, the real concern I have is this backflow preventer, is that a code thing, or just a cheap insurance thing? The way it sits now, all I would have to do to make it work is put a two inch pipe in place of the backflow device, and the slide the shower pan (pre-manufactured shower stall) over the pipe, and put this fitting/strainer assembly over the pipe(its has a big rubber donut that "swages"/seals against the pipe when you tighten it). Thanks a lot.


Here's one more for you...
I have another question regarding placement of a sink. The main stack is right where I would like to tie in my sink. The sink would be in the basement, directly above it the upstairs toilet, sink, and tub darin into it(of course). Where I would branch off the main would be about three inches above where the main goes underground, that way the sink is higher than the branch off the main, my question is can I do this? What about venting, or is the main stack/vent enough, and there is another vent off the sink/tub that is about three feet away from where that line enters the main stack? If it is possible to do this, would I need some type "check valve" between the "main" and the sink trap, I have horrid visions of the sink filling up with everything coming down the stack from up stairs. Thanks, you guys are great!

[speedball1]

Take out the ball. Install a threaded raiser, (or covert to PVC with a threaded adapter and tie the shower base to the raiser using the floor drain trap to trap the shower. As in any basement drain, in case of a sewer back up the sewage would exit at the lowest point. In our old home in Wisconsin my father installed a shower valve and head directly over the floor drain bypassing the need for a shower pan and enclosure.
As for the sink, code forbids discharging a major fixture past a unvented minor one so a separate vent must be run out the roof or revented back in the attic for your sink. Regards, Tom