About speedball1 Expertise About me: My Plumbing Expertise: I retired from plumbing after a lifetime in the trade. all phases from service and upkeep to construction, both residential and commercial. I am qualified to do anything in plumbing from fixing a leaky faucet to drafting a set of plans for a commercial shopping center and supervising the construction. My last five years were spent as a trouble shooter for a large plumbing company. I took on all my companys complaints. I have been a expert on the plumbing page at Askme.com. In a field of 200 experts my rating was number one. You may also find me at Answerway.com and AskMe Help Desk.com. This is fun for me and if I can help anybody out that`s iceing on the cake. Degrees & Certifications: As for degrees, I don`t have any. Just a Journeymans ticket, but hey! How about fifty years experience?
Experience Life Experience? Hmmmmmmm! Ran away at 15 and joined a carnival, Navy at 17 Merchant marine at 19 I've had a hellava life.
Question You were a great help to me a while back with the addition of a basement bath. Here is my latest project that raises a question.
I am remodeling a second floor bath that currently contains a toilet and a tub. Imagine these 2 fixtures on a common wall with the toilet on the left. The tub drains into the closet flange, which is then connected to 3" iron. the floor joists run perpendicular to the run, which necessitated somebody in the past notching these joists to get from tub to the closet flange.
Now using this same fixture layout described above we are adding a shower to the far right of the tub, and replacing the tub with a spa. the fixture layout begining from the far left will be toilet/spa/shower.
I can easily get to the attic to tie in the vents.
The question I am having is which way is the best way to run the drain. I had originally thouight I would bore some holes and run the 2" shower drain to the basementand tie in there. However, these ended up being bearing walls with bouble joists in the basement beneath the plates. To tie the shower into the same stack as the tub and toilet would require boring or notching a good number of joists and piecing together piping through these joists.
What are your thoughts on notching or boring these joists, and any tricks for getting a 10' run of pvc through these holes?
Answer Good morning Mark and welcome back, To run holes through joists and rafters for 2" pipe we use a Milwaukee 1/2" angle drill with a 2 9/16" Milwaukee Selfeed Wood Bit. If we have to notch, we notch the bottom and secure the pipe on a piece of plumbers pipe strapping nailed over the bottom of the notch. Our code allows us to notch joists and rafters up to 30% of the width of the board. The only "trick" that I know of running a 10' piece of PVC through holes in a floor joist would be to keep the holes as close to the bottom of the joist as you can and, since PVC will flex a bit try to work it on through by beating a piece of 2X4 on the end with a hammer. My choice would be to notch. Good luck, Tom
