Bathroom Addition | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

we have done pier foundations, slabs, block, etc. From my experience, once you add in the wood, flooring, insulation, etc. The slab is the cheapest way to go. 

even if you poured a 6 inch thick slab, you are only needing just over a yard of cement, add in extra for a thickened edge for a monolothic slab, you're still under 2 yards, up here a yard run about 90 dollars, so you would be in it for under 200 dollars, you can add dye to the cement which doubles the price of the cement, but you have a finished floor

when we did the remodel at our business, we added the dye and cut a 3x3 grid in the floor, it looks like huge floor tiles, this is 7 years of use in a high traffic commercial environment 

when we did the patio out front of the house, we stained the cement afterwards for about 20 dollars

you can see the process here

http://thehomesteadi.....ent-patio/

That was 4 years ago, here is how it looked yesterday, being exposed to the weather and high traffic, it has worn in spots, I like it, my wife wants to restain it

we used the same product inside the house and it has held up much better, it has a pretty cool leather look to it

I have never acid stained, but it is only limited by your imagination

http://coatmasters.h.....ining.html

Another option for access is building access panels into the floor like this if you go with wood.

here is volume calculator for filling your cement blocks if you go that route, I used it when we filled the cores of the house and it was pretty darn close

http://concrete.com/.....alculators

as far as measurement concerns, each block will be different, small vertical gaps aren't a deal breaker, what we did though was we got a diamond tipped saw blade for the circular saw and cut down the blocks, you can see one here in the top right corner and gaps in the blocks

one thought to solve all the issues, clearance, access, etc. What about pouring a slab, framing a floor on top of that, then install access panels like in the picture above?

But if it was me, I would go the slab route, my only question is, if the existing house is already on slab, how are going to tie into the water and sewer?

for tying together, we drilled every 2 feet or so and pounded in 2 foot sections of rebar

we then used that for wiring our perimeter rebar to

I would recommend getting quotes from professionals, I think you might be surprised how little it will cost to have someone do it for you, same with the rough in plumbing under the slab, you really don't want to mess that up, so many things can go wrong, wrong height for the toilet flange, wrong pitch etc

as far as the cleanouts, we have one right where the sewer enters the slab, you can see it in the top right corner

the vertical pipes on the left are the vents for each one of the soil lines, we have cleanouts on each one of them

another option would be to frame out a access hatch before the pour and make a lid for it

icanreachit said
I suspect that I will still have to do the footer and dry stack around the perimeter just because I will need to back fill and compact it before pouring the slab. The only other way that I have found online is to just pour a really tall footer, back fill and compact, and then pour the slab in a second pour.

I'm finalizing the layout now but I will post pictures of it tomorrow.

Also, why did your pour the slab 6" thick? Everything that I have found indicates that 4" is more than sufficient and 5+ is only considered necessary in the event that a heavy point load will be introduced (as is the case for driveways). More thermal mass for climate control?

yeah, 4 inch is more than adequate, it's what garage floors are poured, I just use 6 inch when doing quick calculations, 6x10x.5 is much easier than 6x10x.333, well actually not really in that scenario, but you get the idea lol