Bathroom drainage pipe

Hello, we have our bathroom above the living room. To drain the wastewater, our architect says that space is needed for the pipes on the wall in the living room (it is an exterior wall with an adjacent garage, wall thickness: 36.5cm, T10ner stone).

For this, he wants / must (?) lead the pipes along the inside of the exterior wall. But this would mean that these pipes would have to be covered up in the living room. Since it’s not easy to just cover a pipe in a corner, the idea is to cover the entire wall with drywall. However, this would also mean losing another cm of living space.

I’m sure there are other possibilities. Can’t the pipes be concealed inside the exterior wall, or routed down through the garage wall (I wouldn’t mind that).

We accepted this from the architect at first, but now I spoke with my father, who also does a lot of drywall work professionally and says that in new buildings he has never had to cover wastewater pipes in the living space, only in the basement if at all.

What office options do we have? Is it simply possible to run the pipe inside the wall? Or through the wall and down in the garage?

I attached it once showing the rooms side by side and once stacked (I marked the drywall where the pipes are supposed to go in orange and the exterior wall in red).



Thanks for your help.

Hello Emer,

Hello, we have our bathroom above the living room.

Unfortunately, a common planning mistake seen by the architect department.

To drain the wastewater, our architect says that space is needed for the pipes on the wall in the living room (it is an external wall with adjacent garage, wall thickness: 36.5 cm, T10ner stone).

Correct. If you are extremely sensitive to noise, I would have the shaft additionally insulated.

I am sure there are other options. Can't the pipes be hidden in the external wall, or go down the wall in the garage (that wouldn’t bother me).

Walls generally must not be "perforated"; that means you cannot hide the pipe inside the wall. Outside on the external wall is also not possible; the pipe has to return to the drain.

We accepted this from the architect at the time, now I talked to my father,
he professionally does a lot of drywall work and says he has never had to cover wastewater pipes in living spaces in new buildings, only in basements.

In the basement it is largely irrelevant where the drains run down; a bathroom above living areas is usually avoided by a considerate architect - due to the problems you described.

What office options do we have? Is it simply possible in the wall? Or the pipe through the wall and down in the garage?

Cladded wall and thus loss of floor area or a boxing out on the wall. There is nothing in between.

Rhine regards

I would also clad the wall in such a way that some "shelves" or pedestals result, which can be staged with light or color. (like you plan the shelves in the bathroom)

I completely agree

Yes. We will come to terms with it. When planning, we only ever considered the orientation of the rooms based on the direction and the sunny side, and completely overlooked this. We will now "decorate" the wall and highlight parts of it so that it blends into the living room. On the other inside living room wall there is a fireplace; it will be done similarly, with the difference being that there are no pipes behind it. Then we'll add a few spotlights, and it will look nice as well.

Are you sure?
Do you also want to soundproof the ceiling again? I wouldn’t want a bathroom above our living room. You can simply hear it. You can also hear the water running through the drain pipe.

Well, it wouldn’t be the first house with a bathroom above the living room. Friends have it above the dining room and I have never "heard" anything about it. If it is done properly, I don’t believe it causes problems.