New Construction Plumbing in Lawrenceville, GA

A gut renovation takes a house down to bare framing, and once the walls are open the plumbing is usually rebuilt as new construction plumbing instead of being patched. Drains, vents and supply lines are laid out to the new floor plan, then roughed in, tested and inspected in the same stages a brand-new house goes through. What makes it different is that the old house still sets some limits: the slab or crawlspace, the building sewer and the water service all came with it. In Lawrenceville, the city code also spells out when swapping old pipe for new becomes new work.

What stays and what goes

Open walls reveal exactly what the house was built with. Galvanized steel supply pipe corrodes from the inside and narrows over the decades, and polybutylene, the gray plastic used in many homes from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, has a poor record at its fittings. Neither belongs behind new drywall. Cast iron drains may have years left in them or may be scaled and cracked, and only a look inside tells which. The decisions usually sort out like this:

• Supply piping in the walls: nearly always replaced, because it will never be easier to reach than it is with the studs bare.
• Drain and vent piping above the floor: replaced wherever the layout changes or the pipe is in poor shape; sound sections can sometimes stay.
• Drains under the slab: checked before anyone cuts concrete, since breaking the floor adds a whole extra phase to the job.
• The building sewer and water service: judged on their own condition, not replaced automatically along with the interior.

When replacing pipe counts as new work

Lawrenceville's code draws the line. Clearing a stoppage or stopping a leak needs no permit, but new pipe that replaces a defective concealed drain, waste or water line is treated as new work, with a permit and an inspection. On a gut job almost every replaced pipe ends up concealed once the walls close, so budget time for permitted, inspected plumbing from day one. The city's Planning & Development Department handles plumbing permits and takes applications online.

Fitting a new floor plan into old framing

Most gut renovations move something, such as a kitchen opening toward the family room or a hall bath turning into a laundry. Supply lines will bend to nearly any layout, but drains need steady slope and every fixture needs a vent path to the roof. On a slab house, relocating a toilet or shower means trenching through the concrete to reach the existing building drain, while over a crawlspace the new drain lines can usually hang beneath the floor framing. Joists in an older house were never cut with today's plan in mind, so the plumber should walk the bare frame with the designer and mark every place a drain would have to notch or bore more than the framing can safely take.

Tying the new system into what stays

All of those new interior drains still empty into the old building sewer, so its condition matters as much as the new work. A sewer camera inspection before demolition shows whether the line to the street has roots, cracks or sags that would undercut a fresh interior system. If the connection to the public sewer has to be uncovered or changed, Lawrenceville's code requires a written permit from Gwinnett County before anyone opens, connects to or alters that sewer. On the supply side, the main shutoff and the point where the service enters the house are worth upgrading while the wall is open, and the service should be large enough for any fixtures the new plan adds.

Gut renovation or repipe?

Not every tired house needs the full treatment. When the drains are sound and only the water lines are failing, whole house repiping replaces the supply side through small openings and leaves most finishes in place. A gut renovation makes sense when the walls are coming out anyway, for a new layout, rotten framing or old wiring, so drains, vents and supply can all be redone in one pass. That single pass is planned, tested and inspected the same way as new construction plumbing on an empty lot.

Gut renovation questions in Lawrenceville

Can we live in the house during a gut renovation?

Usually not comfortably. With supply lines cut and drains open, there will be stretches without a working kitchen or bathroom, and the building sewer may be capped while new drains are tied in. Some owners stay through part of the job when one bathroom can be kept running, but plan for the weeks when it cannot.

Should the drains under the slab be replaced as well?

Only if their condition calls for it. A camera run through the under-slab drains before demolition shows whether they are cracked, sagging or badly scaled. If they look sound, they can stay and the new piping ties into them. If they are failing, it is far better to cut the slab now, while floors are already coming up, than after new flooring is down.

Can we keep the existing water heater?

Sometimes. If it is fairly new, sized for the fixtures the new plan includes and located where the new piping can serve it, it can be reconnected. A plan that adds a bathroom or a large soaking tub may outgrow it, though, and a gas unit's venting has to work with the new layout. Many owners replace it while the area is open.

Before the first wall comes down

Taking a Lawrenceville house back to its studs? Reach Alpha at (404) 409-4448 while you are still planning, and we can check the old drains and sketch the new plumbing alongside your designer.