It's not irrelevant at all. Common sense says there may be all manner of pipes under the floor and buy a metal detector.
1) Is that possible? You dod not say IIRC that this was a ground floor - might have been a floor with a ceiling nailed to the underside. 2) You'd have to lift a lot of the floor to get pipe sections in then swivel 90 degrees. 3) You'd have a lot more joints in the now shorter pipe sections which is not desireable.Are you a troll?