Lower manifold below slab surface?

I just purchased a 12 year old house in Clearwater, Florida. I plan on converting the formal dining room into a third bedroom, since it will never be used as a dining room. It’s too far away from the kitchen. Anyway, the only place I can install a closet door in the new “bedroom†falls right where there are copper manifolds coming up from the concrete slab. These are half-inch hot and cold lines feeding two bathrooms and a detached garage. They stand up about 7 inches above the surface of the slab, and take up a floor space of about 1†X 10â€, and are located inside a 2 X 4 frame wall. My question is, can I carefully chip away by hand the slab around the copper pipes, re-locate the manifolds below the top surface of the slab, and then re-cover the manifolds with a piece of plywood, so that it is flush with the slab? This area would then be the floor of the closet, and be covered with carpet or something. Would there be any problems with doing this?

manifolds

It might be able to be done if the pipes do not come from opposite directions so that one would have to be folded into a 180 degree bend. But in any case, soft soldered joints under a floor are always prohibited.

that looks like work

like Hj said, thats pretty rough


and once you are in it, then you are in it to
the bitter end....


if you wre to make a cavity under the floor
that you could gain access to in the future
some sort of metal access panel that could be
lifted up for access,,

you could maybe get away with it ok....


just leave a large hollow area under the slab
and then you could do the soldering as you wish,,,,

but that could be mean...

I remember a house I used to own in Seffner, Fl. that had a leak in the cement block wall. When busting the wall out and finding; kind of the same thing you are showing in your pic, don't the copper pipes have a felt like tar paper around them? I know mine did and I believe it's there to isolate the copper from the cement. I think the cement somehow eats the copper over time.

bob...

Speedbump,

There was no felt covering; just the pipes embedded in the concrete slab. I think I've made a decision not to muck with chipping out around the pipes. I'm just going to build up a floor above the manifolds, and re-route the verticla pipes that are going upstairs to the second floor. My closet will then have a step-up floor to it. But, I will have to build an additional stud wall in front of the existing stud wall, so the door can be mounted "within" a stud wall. Otherwise, the manifolds would be in the way, and not allow me to inset a door that goes all the way to the floor of the room. I hope that makes sense.

I'm no carpenter, so it makes perfect sense to me.

bob...