My shower base is flush with the concrete floor. The drain and trap are only a few inches below the bottom of the floor. The drain line now runs under the floor (kitty corner) where it connects to the line that runs out to the sewer. Toilet and sink both drain to the same location, fortunately, there was a Tee available to connect the drain line. Obviously, I had to bust up the floor in order to put in the shower drain line. MLD
What you'll find will depend largely on how the fixtures are laid out in relationship to each other and the main and any laterals. If the sink is isolated and on a separate line, it quite likely isn't large enough to handle a shower, too. If, otoh, it feeds into the lateral servicing the toilet, that is probably adequate. Again, depending on the geometry, it might be relatively easy to insert a tee for the shower and go from that point to the main or lateral of adequate size. The possibilities are almost innumerable. How deep also will depend on the depth of the external sewer, the length of the run, how deep is the frost line there, etc., etc., etc. You have a treasure hunt in front you, undoubtedly... :) Although if you map out the overall plumbing layout, you may be able to reasonably deduce the direction and location of lines, particularly if you do know where the main line leaves the house. With that, you could also probably make reasonable guesstimates of line sizes and if you were to know the exit line depth perchance, of the depth of lines there as well.
I have a house that has a half bath on the lower level I want to add a shower. The only new problem I am faced with is this is a concrete floor, no crawl space under this one. The sink drain is the closest drain and it goes straight into the floor. This house is forty years old and is all cast drains and vent with copper drain lines connecting to the cast ones, no PVC here. I plan on just busting up the concrete to see what is there. Any one ever done a job like this? Any input on what I might find would be a help, I would like to know how deep the sink drain goes down before turning so I can figure out if the shower will be flush with the floor or will I need to raise it up?
Thus spake Joe:
You might consider what I did: build a pedestal for the shower, high enough to provide room for the drain plumbing. Total height of the pedestal is about
11 inches.Enjoy, Sparky
I broke up my basement slab with an electric jack hammer to expose the drains underneath when I replaced the shower in my basement bath. The original shower had no base. As far as I can tell, the drain was installed when they poured the slab since the floor of the shower was the slab itself. It sloped into a hole into which a standard sink strainer was placed. I can't imagine it was a retrofit.
Anyway, I was able to expose the cast iron pipes under the floor and removed the old drain pipes until I reached the Y connector. I then used a rubber bushing to reduce the 4" cast pipe down to 2" for a PVC drain.
Since you don't have a drain in the location of the shower, I'm guessing you're going to have to bust up the floor enough to access the connection from the sink to the main drain. At that point you may be able to attach an adaptor to hook up both the shower and sink.
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