Hello,
I'm about to buy my first house and I'm looking for some advice. Professional or not Bear with me on this long post.
There was an owner-installed bathroom in the basement of this pre-forclosure house. A permit was never pulled and it was never inspected by a licensed plumber at any point and thus city papers were never completed. My house inspector had questions about the venting of the tub/shower & toilet. I called a plumber to inspect it, and sure enough, nothing is vented, the tub/shower drain into the concrete is too small (1.5" vs 2") and was probably done incorrectly. The city needs the plumbing "certified" before I can move in, so that leaves me with two options.
#1. I rip the bathroom up, then have a plumber redo just the plumbing at about $3,000 (rough estimate by the plumber, not estimator). Jackhammer concrete, replumb, tie into existing venting, etc. Extra money I am not ready to pay at this point.
#2. I rip up the bathroom and then properly cap the plumbing and declare it no longer a bathroom. The bathroom is essentially brand new, so all the fixtures (tub, toilet, vanity, etc) would be saved and stored for a later time when I can properly redo the bathroom. Such a shame to have to tear up a nice new bathroom, but there are no other options at this point.
Option #2 is the most viable for me, so my question is: Do you see any issues satisfying a city inspector by capping everything off? The water supply would be easy I assume, just solder on some copper caps. How about the drains? Even though they are too small (1.5" vs. 2") Would a simple PVC cap adhered to the protruding tub drain do it? How about the toilet?
Thanks in advance!
I'm about to buy my first house and I'm looking for some advice. Professional or not Bear with me on this long post.
There was an owner-installed bathroom in the basement of this pre-forclosure house. A permit was never pulled and it was never inspected by a licensed plumber at any point and thus city papers were never completed. My house inspector had questions about the venting of the tub/shower & toilet. I called a plumber to inspect it, and sure enough, nothing is vented, the tub/shower drain into the concrete is too small (1.5" vs 2") and was probably done incorrectly. The city needs the plumbing "certified" before I can move in, so that leaves me with two options.
#1. I rip the bathroom up, then have a plumber redo just the plumbing at about $3,000 (rough estimate by the plumber, not estimator). Jackhammer concrete, replumb, tie into existing venting, etc. Extra money I am not ready to pay at this point.
#2. I rip up the bathroom and then properly cap the plumbing and declare it no longer a bathroom. The bathroom is essentially brand new, so all the fixtures (tub, toilet, vanity, etc) would be saved and stored for a later time when I can properly redo the bathroom. Such a shame to have to tear up a nice new bathroom, but there are no other options at this point.
Option #2 is the most viable for me, so my question is: Do you see any issues satisfying a city inspector by capping everything off? The water supply would be easy I assume, just solder on some copper caps. How about the drains? Even though they are too small (1.5" vs. 2") Would a simple PVC cap adhered to the protruding tub drain do it? How about the toilet?
Thanks in advance!
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