Hi;
A bit of a background to my quandry. I have a seasonal camp/cabin in Northern New York that is built on a concrete slab foundation in the 50's, and worked on by several different hacks over the course of it's life (the stories I could tell you of what I found...)
As far as plumbing there is only a toilet, shower, kitchen and bath sink. The drains were always a bit slow at times, and on investigation (digging), I found that only the toilet feeds to the septic tank. There were two black ABS pipes (kitchen and bath sinks) which I found, but I could not find the shower. Peering down the shower drain, I got the impression it went deeper before it tied to the other ABS lines. I verified all lines tied together* by running water into one, and having it back out the others (because destination is clogged/slow).
*They tie together somewhere...there must be a drywell of sorts somewhere, but I have no idea where and how to find it.
So, with the help of the local plumber (see picture) we ran the kitchen and bath sinks to the septic tank, and left a stub out in the location where the shower drain would be, for me to address in the future.
Now it's time to do something about the shower, and I am a looking for thoughts on the best way. Please note that the place has been gutted to the studs, walls moved, rewired, etc, so please feel free to suggest anything (i.e. running a pipe in a wall - no problem).
My two thoughts, along with their associated uncertainties:
1) Remove the shower stall, cut the concrete, run a 2" drain, p-trap in the floor, vent up the outside wall, tie into the stub. My concern is not breaking up the 4" or so of concrete in the floor, it's what will I encounter when I try to go through the rim of the slab, where it is thicker, rebar? will I hurt the integrity of the slab?
2) Other option - over the floor rough shower stall, come out the side of the wall low, sweep elbows down into the stub. My question with this approach is where is the P-trap located? Are there special p-traps to fit below those stalls, or, would I have the p-trap outside, and if this is the case, how to vent?
Further complication, and there always is one it seems, is I need to address the existing vent that goes under the eaves. I vaulted the ceiling inside the camp, and will now need to vent the ridge and the eaves, requiring that vent to go through the roof. One thought on a hack would be to bring the vent back inside (with 45 elbows) and tie it into new shower vents, then through the roof. I know the right way would be to redo the toilet plumbing too, but I would love to avoid that.
Any thoughts to break my mental stalemate?
Jim
A bit of a background to my quandry. I have a seasonal camp/cabin in Northern New York that is built on a concrete slab foundation in the 50's, and worked on by several different hacks over the course of it's life (the stories I could tell you of what I found...)
As far as plumbing there is only a toilet, shower, kitchen and bath sink. The drains were always a bit slow at times, and on investigation (digging), I found that only the toilet feeds to the septic tank. There were two black ABS pipes (kitchen and bath sinks) which I found, but I could not find the shower. Peering down the shower drain, I got the impression it went deeper before it tied to the other ABS lines. I verified all lines tied together* by running water into one, and having it back out the others (because destination is clogged/slow).
*They tie together somewhere...there must be a drywell of sorts somewhere, but I have no idea where and how to find it.
So, with the help of the local plumber (see picture) we ran the kitchen and bath sinks to the septic tank, and left a stub out in the location where the shower drain would be, for me to address in the future.
Now it's time to do something about the shower, and I am a looking for thoughts on the best way. Please note that the place has been gutted to the studs, walls moved, rewired, etc, so please feel free to suggest anything (i.e. running a pipe in a wall - no problem).
My two thoughts, along with their associated uncertainties:
1) Remove the shower stall, cut the concrete, run a 2" drain, p-trap in the floor, vent up the outside wall, tie into the stub. My concern is not breaking up the 4" or so of concrete in the floor, it's what will I encounter when I try to go through the rim of the slab, where it is thicker, rebar? will I hurt the integrity of the slab?
2) Other option - over the floor rough shower stall, come out the side of the wall low, sweep elbows down into the stub. My question with this approach is where is the P-trap located? Are there special p-traps to fit below those stalls, or, would I have the p-trap outside, and if this is the case, how to vent?
Further complication, and there always is one it seems, is I need to address the existing vent that goes under the eaves. I vaulted the ceiling inside the camp, and will now need to vent the ridge and the eaves, requiring that vent to go through the roof. One thought on a hack would be to bring the vent back inside (with 45 elbows) and tie it into new shower vents, then through the roof. I know the right way would be to redo the toilet plumbing too, but I would love to avoid that.
Any thoughts to break my mental stalemate?
Jim