Basement bathroom is not only a great addition to any type of the existing room in your house, it can also bring you lots of pleasure. Moreover, one extra bathroom raises the value of your property! People mostly think about adding a bathroom to the basement space if having there a bedroom or a gym, but as a matter of fact no matter what you have downstairs, bathroom is always a very useful add up.
Though the idea of having an extra bathroom in the basement may come pretty fast to your mind, it does not mean that you need to rush with its realization. An expert in basement projects Guy Solomon prepared several most important issues that you should keep in mind with basement bathroom.
First of all, you should understand that plumbing at the below ground level is usually more complicated than on the upper floors. Even if you have already built a bathroom before, you have to understand all the complexity of the underground plumbing works, and, as a rule, experts advise to leave this piece of work to the professionals. But it does not mean that you should just hire a person, you anyway need to get familiar with all the requirements of your project. This step will simplify the work process with your contractor and help create exactly the bathroom design that you want. Your most responsible step is to plan the budget.
According to the plumbers, drainage is usually the most critical consideration. For example, plumbing a standard aboveground bathroom relies on gravity in order to drain away wastewater and sewage. It means that gravity simply provides a push, which is also known as “fall” or “slope,” and exactly this force moves waste down the pipes. If case of a basement bathroom, you should have enough of a fall to drain the sink, toilet, and tub or shower properly.
You might have a sewer line which might be deep enough to allow you process basement bathroom plumbing and to make it work based on gravity just as the aboveground plumbing. The information about the depth of the sewer line should be requested at the local public works department. In case you have a septic tank, make sure that it is also deep enough.
Sometimes, people are lucky enough to have a basement prepared for a bathroom, which makes the whole project much easier. But if you have deep enough drain lines, there are still several important considerations. You need to hire a professional plumber who will determine the flow rate to make sure that it is sufficient to remove waste. In case you are on a city sewer line, you will need to get a backwater valve in order to keep sewage from backing up into the toilet. Such installation might require permissions so make sure that your plumber knows about them before starting the project.
Most people have drainage lines that are not deep enough, according to Guy Solomon, meaning that they cannot create the right fall, but there is nothing to worry about, because it can be fixed. Some projects of this type require removal of part of the basement floor and even excavation of the ground below it. Sometimes this might also be not enough, it simply means that you need to get some specially designed equipment, but any project is still doable.