Plumbers in general do their job well, and can be a boon to you when something is flooding or stopped up. Or, I suppose, if you want your plumbing to be improved, more modern… However, they must typically be supervised, or you might find you require repairs to some of your floor joists or wall studs.
Plumbers are infamous for cutting away such structure willy-nilly in order to make room for their pipes and fixtures. It is a constant problem, and I have seen some very extensive damage by plumbers which compromised the safety of the floors we might have to walk on. Such was the case with this family.
When the new bathroom was inspected by the local building department, the inspector was, shall we say, appalled, and called for a structural engineer (my type of superhero) to remedy the damage. Here is an excerpt from the report CSES prepared, along with the details and calculations for the repairs:
“Large (roughly 6”x6”) notches are cut through some joists to accommodate 4” diameter PVC drain pipes. These notches have damaged the floor joists significantly, and this condition must be repaired.
Hand-drawn details (pages R1, R2, R3) showing both of these conditions are included with this letter, and indicate the nail plates needed for the smaller notches, and the method of repair for the larger notches. Once these repairs are completed, the serviceability of the damaged floor joists will have been restored to an acceptable state.”
In the end, though, the floor was repaired so that no one would fall through.
