How A Plumber Can Smartly Use Pipe Rerouting During Your Home Renovation | Mesa, AZ
Properly working drains and water pipes are critical in ensuring a constant water supply for the smooth running of daily activities such as cooking, cleaning, and bathing. On the other hand, leaky drain pipes will disrupt these operations, which can be quite inconveniencing. Again, if left unattended, they might cause permanent damage, especially if they run underneath the home’s foundation.
To prevent such awful scenarios, rerouting the pipes might be the ideal option a professional plumber would recommend. Plumbing rerouting involves cutting the pipes and capping them off or redirecting them to a new area, and most plumbing jobs involve directing the pipes above the ground.
Thus, any malfunctioning pipe is wholly removed from your home’s plumbing system. Pipe rerouting is a more efficient process of fixing slab leaks than digging into the home’s slab using a jackhammer, which is quite invasive and expensive. This is why your plumber may advise you to have the pipes rerouted.
During a home remodel, where to reroute the pipes will depend on several factors but mainly on code. There are various options a certified plumber might explore when creating a new route for your home’s drain pipes. Below are some of them:
Starting From the Basement
If the plan is to change the plumbing layout of a fixture, for example, the bathtub or kitchen sink, the basement might be a perfect place to start routing new plumbing lines. For most households, the electrical and plumbing fixtures are located in the basement, making the whole process of rerouting pipes an easy one.
For instance, if you’re doing a bathroom renovation, the plumber can snake the drain line into the basement and connect it to the main drain line beneath the joists. However, this process is very technical and should only be conducted by professionals.
Caution must be taken to avoid cutting through the floor joists and the support beams. Otherwise, your home’s structural integrity could be significantly compromised, and many irreversible problems could soon follow! A trained plumbing expert must comply with the plumbing codes in Mesa, AZ, especially when handling support beams.
Cutting Through the Existing Cavities
This is another option that the technician can use. Instead of creating new openings or re-configuring your home’s walls, the plumber establishes a path for the new pipes from the existing wall cavities.
In essence, your old plumbing system is left undisrupted. This tactic is ideal for homeowners using modern and flexible plumbing materials, such as PEX because the spaces are built to allow for long runs of pipes.
Alternative Ways for Plumbing Reroute
Attaching new plumbing lines to the existing ones and routing piping through the old plumbing spaces are the two common methods that plumbers employ in rerouting a home’s plumbing.
However, in some cases, this may not be a one-size-fits-all solution for all projects. If these two options have been reviewed and found not to work, your plumbing contractor can suggest other ways to have your pipes rerouted inside the interior of your home. These additional methods may include:
Constructing a Wall Chase
A wall chase is a dummy wall that creates a cavity to hide your home’s plumbing and is mainly constructed to hold new vent stacks. It’s similar to a soffit, only that the plumbing runs horizontally instead of vertically from floor to ceiling in the former. All these can be used to accommodate new plumbing during a home renovation.
The plumber can build the chase from floor to floor, allowing the vents to be stacked from your home’s basement to the attic. First, they’ll need to establish the exact spot where they can construct the framework, usually from your home’s basement extending to the attic. Once the plumbing service professional secures a chase inside the wall, s/he may conceal it using plaster, cement mortar, or paint.
Even though you might be DIY-savvy, it’s prudent to have experienced plumbing service personnel do the job as they have full knowledge of what is needed. Cutting a chase into a wall requires special tools you might not have in your toolbox, but the plumber has.
Converting Unused Laundry Chute
A new laundry chute is another ideal place where leaky pipes can be redirected in a home. Remember, rerouting piping is much easier when working with open spaces. Since a laundry chute usually has a lot of open space and leads to the basement, you can consider using it to hold your pipes for that new plumbing project.
Your plumber in Mesa, AZ, could also help you convert the door of your laundry chute into an access panel for your system’s shut-off valves.
Other Considerations
As much as plumbing rerouting seems a shortcut, it’s easier said than done! You need to hire a licensed and qualified plumbing technician for such projects. Again, as a homeowner, you must stay informed of the local safety and legal regulations.
Also, don’t forget that the new plumbing renovations need routine maintenance. This will help check that issues arising from rerouting pipes are nipped at the bud before they get out of your hands.
Get Help from Schroeder Plumbing
In some cases, rerouting your home’s water pipes is much better than fixing the leak, especially if you experience frequent plumbing leaks. Don’t know where to begin from? Why not contact Schroeder Plumbing in Mesa, AZ, for help? We have over 40 years of experience providing a broad spectrum of plumbing solutions to our residential and commercial clients.
Our services include pipe rerouting, repiping, insurance repair, sewer cleaning, water heater installation and repairs, and video inspections. Talk to us today. We’ll be glad to answer your questions and help you with your plumbing needs. Buzz us today!
