We've made an offer on a house on a concrete slab down in Florida.
We've always owned houses with a crawl space. We want to move
around a few walls and make two bedrooms into one and make the
bathroom bigger. Also, we need to add some drains in the kitchen
for a sink in a different location.

I was a carpenter for many years, so I can deal with any issues
involved in shifting interior walls and their impact on loadbearing,
and I understand that I can get a concrete saw and carve in a new
drain, but how do I avoid plumbing that is already laid in the floor?
Do I need to get a detailed layout of where everything is in the
floor? If this doesn't exist, what do I do?

Thank you, Michael

"Michael" wrote in message
ps.com...
We've made an offer on a house on a concrete slab down in Florida.
We've always owned houses with a crawl space. We want to move
around a few walls and make two bedrooms into one and make the
bathroom bigger. Also, we need to add some drains in the kitchen
for a sink in a different location.

I was a carpenter for many years, so I can deal with any issues
involved in shifting interior walls and their impact on loadbearing,
and I understand that I can get a concrete saw and carve in a new
drain, but how do I avoid plumbing that is already laid in the floor?
Do I need to get a detailed layout of where everything is in the
floor? If this doesn't exist, what do I do?

Thank you, Michael



You just cut threw the concrete. You don't have to bury the blade. Also
you will have to find existing drains to tie into; I doubt there would be
detailed layout of plumbing. Housing plumbing is pretty much what the
plumber wants to do. Think straight lines. Also you might try a pipe
locating CO.

For $ 235, a pipe locating service (yellow pages), charted where all water
pipes and the major drainage lines run under the slab. We needed to drill in
several locations to mitigate termite problems.

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-
"Michael" wrote in message
ps.com...
We've made an offer on a house on a concrete slab down in Florida.
We've always owned houses with a crawl space. We want to move
around a few walls and make two bedrooms into one and make the
bathroom bigger. Also, we need to add some drains in the kitchen
for a sink in a different location.

I was a carpenter for many years, so I can deal with any issues
involved in shifting interior walls and their impact on loadbearing,
and I understand that I can get a concrete saw and carve in a new
drain, but how do I avoid plumbing that is already laid in the floor?
Do I need to get a detailed layout of where everything is in the
floor? If this doesn't exist, what do I do?

Thank you, Michael

I cant speak as to the pluming issue but as far as the concrete cutting
the slab needs to be cut through the whole way more than likely it is
6" thick maybe thicker if you are cutting in an area there is a grade
beam. If you do not cut through the slab completely you run the risk of
damaging the surrounding concrete. Also please note***** some slabs
have post tension cables in the slab check your garage for a stamp in
the corner or in the center of the floor. this creates a whole other
issue..any cutting of the cables voids the function of the whole slab..
Michael wrote:
We've made an offer on a house on a concrete slab down in Florida.
We've always owned houses with a crawl space. We want to move
around a few walls and make two bedrooms into one and make the
bathroom bigger. Also, we need to add some drains in the kitchen
for a sink in a different location.

I was a carpenter for many years, so I can deal with any issues
involved in shifting interior walls and their impact on loadbearing,
and I understand that I can get a concrete saw and carve in a new
drain, but how do I avoid plumbing that is already laid in the floor?
Do I need to get a detailed layout of where everything is in the
floor? If this doesn't exist, what do I do?

Thank you, Michael

Thanks to everyone for posting. I suspected that there might
be some service that could plot out the lines, but I had no real
knowledge of it. And the part about the steel reinforcement
is spooky. Florida ground is notoriously sandy, and my guess
is that when wet, it needs whatever reinforcement it has.

Thanks again, Michael