Dental office renovation avoids costly breaking through concrete to install drainage for sanitary hand-washing sink

PWC Plumbing’s Paul Corcoran opted for Saniflo’s Saniswift Pro, preventing the tear down of 30 feet of concrete to install below-floor drainage, saving his client up to $3,000.

Problem

BARRIE, ONTARIO — A problem plumbers frequently encounter is to install plumbing fixtures in a space where no conventional, below-floor plumbing drainage exists. This was the case for a local company, PWC Plumbing, when approached by a general contractor to convert an office space into a dental facility. PWC Plumbing was tasked with adding a new sanitary hand-washing sink, including drainage, to the new space.

PWC owner Paul Corcoran is a master plumber with 15 years of experience in the industry. After working for another plumbing business for ten years, Paul was encouraged by his wife Cheyenne to start their own plumbing company.

Soon after, PWC Plumbing was established in 2018, with Paul in the field and Cheyenne handling the paperwork. What started out as a business based out of their basement soon progressed into an 1,800-square-foot shop with a pair of vans and two additional employees. Servicing Ontario’s Simcoe County, PWC mostly provides residential services, but also works an occasional commercial project, such as this office conversion. 

For this project, PWC Plumbing helped the general contractor, Capstone Renovations, transform the space into a dental facility with a functioning lunchroom and a procedures room for the new sink.

According to the general contractor, his client wanted a conveniently placed sanitary sink that allowed dental staff easy access to wash their hands before conducting minor dental surgeries and other procedures. 

The challenge? The room lacked accessible, below-floor plumbing, which led Paul to propose two alternatives: Break through the concrete to run 30 feet of drainage to tie into existing plumbing; or use Saniflo’s above-floor plumbing technology and eliminate the costly, messy, time-consuming chore of busting up concrete.

Solution

Not surprisingly, the dental office owner opted to avoid jack-hammering concrete because of the associated costs and inconvenience. “It would have been in the $2,500 to $3,500 price range to break up and repair the concrete,” explains Paul, “and that’s probably the lower end of the cost estimate.”

Additionally, breaking concrete would’ve likely required the dental office to temporarily close leading to an unnecessary loss of revenue.

Knowing the reliability of Saniflo products, Paul pitched the idea of using the Saniflo Saniswift Pro. The client immediately loved it after conducting a little bit of research online. Using the Saniswift Pro was clearly more cost-effective than breaking up concrete.

The Saniswift Pro is a heavy-duty drain pump used to pump gray water away from up to three fixtures in both residential and commercial applications. The powerful system can discharge gray water up to 14 feet vertically and/or 140 feet horizontally. 

The compact, installer-friendly design of the Saniswift Pro features a pair of two-inch inlets, positioned lower than those on most drain pumps to facilitate installation. A third, 1.5-inch inlet is located at the top of the pump housing. As a result, the unit can dispose of drainage from a sink as well as a shower, a urinal or even a washing machine (indirectly through a laundry tub). 

In this application, however, only a single drainage connection was needed, so Paul positioned the Saniswift Pro directly under the sink in a cabinet. Because “everything was wide open above in the commercial unit,” he was able to run drain and vent piping straight up the wall behind the sink and cabinet. Additionally, because the Saniswift Pro is a compact and quiet pump, it was a great choice for an office application. 

“The discharge pipe runs 10 feet vertically and then 25 feet horizontally to the other end of the building, and eventually ties into the existing plumbing stack,” he adds. “Typically, with the Saniswift Pro unit, once the discharge pipe hits the vertical section, I slope the drain line towards where I’m going to connect it. That way, the pump doesn’t need to push that entire head pressure.”

Results

Thanks to Paul’s previous positive experiences with Saniflo products, he says he was more than confident that the Saniswift Pro could withstand the wear and tear of daily usage by the dental office. If the drain pump, installed in March 2023, ever does need servicing, it can be done without disconnecting any piping to the unit. 

Paul adds that he would recommend Saniflo in a heartbeat. “Saniflo products allow me to provide my clients with options. Option A, we break up concrete, which involves major costs. Option B, we install Saniflo, which saves time and money.” 

Paul concludes that he appreciates Saniflo’s 4-year product warranty, which gives him the confidence that he is installing a quality product. “Warranty is a big consideration for us because we want to provide our clients with a product we know will last.”

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ABOUT SANIFLO
SFA SANIFLO U.S.A. – whose parent company originated macerating plumbing technology — offers a complete line of waste and drainage pumping systems for residential and commercial applications. Saniflo developed its innovative, “above-floor plumbing” technology more than a half-century ago and has led its commercialization worldwide. Today, the company markets macerating technology through 24 subsidiaries in 50 countries and has sold more than seven million units worldwide since 1958. Saniflo markets through independent sales agents throughout North America, and the product line is currently available at distributor and dealer locations throughout the United States and Canada.

For more information, contact Saniflo at 1-800-571-8191. Or visit the Saniflo website at saniflo.com.

For editorial assistance, including photography, contact John O’Reilly c/o GreenHouse Digital + PR: 708-428-6385 or [email protected].