Designing Your Dream Home Despite Affordability Challenges

Designing Your Dream Home Despite Affordability Challenges: A Look at Above-Floor Plumbing

The Canadian housing crisis, characterized by skyrocketing prices and significant affordability challenges, has made homeownership a distant dream for many individuals. Those who bought into the market earlier likely reaped the benefits of low interest rates.

However, the scenario has shifted for prospective buyers seeking their forever homes. With the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage more than doubling, transitioning from starter homes to long-term residences is more challenging than ever.

Unlike starter homes, forever homes are built to adapt to changing lifestyles, family dynamics, and evolving needs over time. In the current volatile market, homeowners need to consider how their homes can adapt to economic uncertainties and market shifts.

Renovations that improve a home’s functionality and enjoyment are crucial. Adding features such as a laundry room, an extra bathroom, a finished basement, or an outdoor kitchen can enhance your living experience and offer significant returns on investment. Kitchen and bathroom renovations are particularly valuable, potentially increasing your home’s value by 20% and 16%, respectively.

However, modifying or adding essential spaces like kitchens, bathrooms, or laundry rooms comes with challenges, notably plumbing limitations, which are a frequent hurdle in remodeling projects.

Potential plumbing challenges

When renovators add a new bathroom or kitchen, a common challenge is the need for below-floor drainage. Introducing below-floor drainage for sinks, showers, tubs, and toilets can significantly inflate your renovation budget. Based on estimates, new plumbing can cost homeowners more than $2,000.

An affordable alternative to traditional plumbing

Exploring alternatives is crucial when traditional below-floor plumbing poses obstacles to homeowners’ forever home plans. Above-floor plumbing offers the best, most cost-effective solution. Unlike conventional plumbing, above-floor plumbing uses pumps to move waste and water efficiently up and out to the nearest sewer line without the need for extensive excavation or structural modifications.

Choose the best products for your dream home renovations

If you’re considering utilizing above-floor plumbing for additions such as new bathrooms or outdoor kitchens, opt for durable, affordable, and reliable products such as Saniflo Macerators, Grinders, and Drain Pumps.

For homeowners considering the addition of a new bathroom, the heavy-duty Sanibest Pro offers an excellent and adaptable solution for both full and half-bathroom installations. This grinder pump seamlessly combines a rear-discharge toilet with a powerful 1-horsepower pump system, typically positioned on the floor.

Designed for bathrooms frequently used by visitors and full-time home residents, the system can provide drainage for a complete bathroom, including a toilet, sink, and tub or shower. The wastewater from the toilet drains into the pump unit, which incorporates a powerful clog-fighting grinder system to quickly reduce the incoming effluent before discharging it to a sewer or septic system.

Above-floor plumbing doesn’t stop indoors; it can extend equally well to outdoor spaces. With the growing popularity of alfresco dining, more and more individuals are creating outdoor kitchens with essential features such as grills, hearths or pizza ovens, refrigerators, and even sinks.

Outdoor kitchen renovations can be expensive, particularly when installing a sink, due to the necessity for drainage. Fortunately, Saniflo drain pumps, like the Sanivite, make it possible to quickly and efficiently install a fully functional sink without disturbing existing outdoor structures.

The Sanivite is designed for commercial and residential applications and is powerful enough to discharge gray water from a sink or dishwasher to a drain line through a small-diameter plastic pipe that runs up to 16 feet vertically and/or 150 feet horizontally.

Using above-floor plumbing in kitchen and bath renovations offers homeowners practical and cost-effective solutions amid the Canadian housing crisis. With some creativity, homeowners can create their forever homes while adding long-term value to their properties.

For more information on Saniflo’s above-floor plumbing solutions, visit saniflo.ca.

ABOUT SFA SANIFLO®

SFA SANIFLO North America – whose parent company, SFA GROUP, originated macerating plumbing technology – offers a complete line of above-floor macerating and grinder pump systems, drain-water and condensing pumps, and heavy-duty lifting stations for a wide range of residential, commercial, and industrial applications. SFA GROUP 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 29 subsidiaries in 32 different countries on five continents, doing business in more than 70 countries. It has sold more than six million units worldwide since 1958. SANIFLO products are available through independent sales agents throughout North America, and the product line is currently available at most major plumbing wholesalers and hardware retailers.

●      For more information, contact Saniflo Canada at 1-800-363-5874. Or visit the Saniflo Canada website at https://www.saniflo.ca/en/.

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