Need advice on pouring concrete--should I rebar?

[iGas]

christ on a cracker...get a bag or two of quikete 5000 fill it up and be done with it...

LOL!

You can't expect any less from Skoob. Even Mrs. Skoob can make a quicker decision and accomplish more even when she is pregnant.

That said, it would take more than a couple of 80lbs quikete bags because concrete shrink to 1/3 its volume going from dry to wet. PS. have fun hand mixing the concrete

 

[Imp]

I've spent days designing concrete beams and slabs in school and still can't offer good advice. Well, here it goes anyways.

Two reasons I'd put rebar in is for temperature reinforcement when the slab expands/contracts; it's in the basement, below frost penetration so that shouldn't be that big an issue.

Another is regular flexure from settlement of the base in case it isn't compacted equally. Then it'll have to support self-weight and any live loads. But worst case scenario, it cracks, you fill it in, it cracks and it's not load bearing, so meh. Just don't hose down the slab so water washes away your base.

 

[DrPizza]

If so, have you got a plumber to calculate the drainage load on the existing drainage that you are connecting into?

If the load isn't calculated properly and pipe size isn't increase or venting is improper install could give you grieves when the bathroom drainage backup.

Are you implying that the OP is going to go to the bathroom more often because he has more toilets?
:\

 

[iGas]

Are you implying that the OP is going to go to the bathroom more often because he has more toilets?
:\

No, but code call for load calculation when additional fixtures are added. It is not that the load is going to grow, because there is additional fixtures during normal usage. It is there so that there wouldn't be a problem when there is a party or an occurrence that all or most fixtures are in use all at once.

Load calculation is quite important for ground/basement floor because it can backup/flood easily.

Load calculation is extremely important for septic tank/field, and often enough it is not thought out, and easily dismissed as an necessary cost. The over sight have cost many home owners 10 of thousands in repair costs. And, over saturated septic field is a very common problem.

 

[iGas]

PS. Plumbing code is there for a reason.

 

[DrPizza]

Oh, I agree completely with the septic system - and unless I'm mistaken, the size of septic systems is determined by the number of bedrooms in a home, not the number of bathrooms in a home. Some jurisdictions use the number of occupants in a home, or the number of gallons per day used in the home (and when the initial tank is put in, that's an estimate based on the number of people who will be living there, else the number of bedrooms.

I've never heard of the number of bathrooms being used. Link?

 

[iGas]

Oh, I agree completely with the septic system - and unless I'm mistaken, the size of septic systems is determined by the number of bedrooms in a home, not the number of bathrooms in a home. Some jurisdictions use the number of occupants in a home, or the number of gallons per day used in the home (and when the initial tank is put in, that's an estimate based on the number of people who will be living there, else the number of bedrooms.

I've never heard of the number of bathrooms being used. Link?

You are right that the tank is calculated by number of bedrooms/occupants in the structure that it serve and the field/drain pipe is calculated by the percolation rate and tank volume. However, a smart installer would know to increase tank size & field size if there is more bath rooms in the structural to safeguard against abnormal occurrences that saturate the field such as a party, etc...

 

[StageLeft]

Regarding the plumbing, I am doing this basement remodel under permit so the inspector oked my plumbing and it was plumbed according to a couple of books, including getting the proper drain pitch, pipe sizes, sweeps in elbows, etc. It all hits the house's main 4" drain just before the exit and I'm using an air admittance valve under the vanity to vent the whole branch.

I did it tonight, I bought 19 80lb bags to have a buffer of concrete and we used 16.5. We were probably a bit too sparing on the water so the floating was a bit of a bear but the final result looks pretty good.

Mixed them all with a piece of 6 mil poly doing the two man method with that. I saw it on youtube--it worked pretty well. I assume that mixing this in a wheelbarrow would have sucked, but the plastic method does a thorough mix in no more than a minute per bag. The hardest thing about it was screeding and properly floating it, actually.

Thanks for everyone's input! I didn't use any reinforcement at all. I did a final check at lowes for proper steel dowel pins and they had none suitable for this--all were way, way too thick, so I used nothing.