Basement Bathroom Installation

[Lori]

Cutting out the concrete for drain pipes access. Any other suggestions then a concrete saw (electric - didn't want to use gas because of severe fumes) and a pneumatic powered jack hammer?

[m Ransley]

Old fashioned muscle + sledge, yea you must be kinda young to remember that kinda work ever existed.

[Ivan]

I would just go with an electric jack hammer. You don't need anything huge. I did the same thing in my basement last year. I wouldn't bother with the saw as it makes a huge mess. I'm talking about chunks and flying all over the place. You can make a pretty clean line with just a round point on the jack hammer. When you fill in the trench later, you want the edges a bit rough for the new concrete to adhere to. But I'm far from a professional. I'm sure at least one person will correct me if I'm wrong. Ivan

[Russell]

Just did that last month. Rented a 60lb electric jack hammer. I don't think anything smaller would work very well. Used a pointy bit to get started and then used a spade bit on the rest. It went well except for where I had to go through a footing.

Here is a tip. To keep the dust down I filled my garden sprayer with water, tightened the nozzle up to a mist and had my son occasionally spray where I was hammerin' cement. Helped a lot.

HTH,

Russell

[xymergy]

I hope you let your son hammer a little cement himself. Gotta share the joy. We did when we rented an electric jackhammer; the two housemates got into the project, too!