Basement bathroom addition

I am wanting to add a bathroom (sink, toilet and shower) in my basement. My home was built in the early 70's and does not have a "rough" area (I was told this is what it is called if a drain has been placed under the concrete). Anyway, I do have 1 1/2 baths upstairs that have black pipes running from the 1st floor into the basement floor. Can a bathroom be added without having to place a drain in the current floor?

Not asthetically. You need room for the p-trap under the shower or tub - the choices are elevate the floor (looks tacky and ruins headroom), or chop a hole and run one under so gravity does its thing. It gets even more complicated depending on where the sewer line leaves the basement. Is it below the floor, or go out the sidewall? If it goes out the sidewall, you'll need a pump to get it out. If it is below the floor, depends on how far below, the pipes need to slope all the way to the sewer outside.

FWIW, I am remodeling my downstairs bath and they had to bust concrete to set the new drain for the shower. The old job was crap and misplaced.

I hired out the shower work... the drain/sewer pipe was in a good location but it was probably 3 feet down in the earth below the concrete. Not something I could have tackled myself.

Jad - Sewer line heads out under the basement floor at the front of the house.

Fit - How much is it costing for the work done by professionals? And, did you contact a contractor? If so, how did you find him? Friend/word of mouth/newspaper/yellow pages?

The good news is that if your drain truly does exit the house in the floor, then you might be able to avoid having to use an ejector pump (which is used in many homes where the drain exits above the basement floor).

However, the drain lines for your fixtures require a certain amount of pitch. For any shower or toilet where the source is already below the floor, this implies a certain depth requirement of the connection to the main drain.

You won't know how far down that drain goes without opening the floor. Opening the floor around the drain might damage the drain and require it to be repaired.

All this is to say that unless yr comfortable with a demo/jackhammer, understand yr drain materials and how to make repairs and connections, and understand how far yr fixtures can/must be from the drain, then it might be beyond you.

That being said, if yr patient, you can learn a great deal by getting some basic plumbing books from a bigbox store, as well as a copy of general plumbing codes (The Codecheck series is pretty good). THEN, you can sketch out designs and post them here for critique.

At the very least, you will be able to have a very educated discussion with a plumber if u still decide it's all beyond you.

Thanks for the info. I will grab some books and get a design drawn for posting. Thanks again.