[MiamiBeach]

Hello!

My kitchen remodel is based on taking out most of the walls between the kitchen and the living/dining areas in my apartment. I took out the plaster/drywall walls this week to see what was inside them.

Electrical Rerouting 

In this picture, the continuous red line marks the edges of the "new" kitchen walls, everything else will go.

There were no surprises, except for the area in the circle near the floor. I was hoping to have the wall completely disappear in that space. Here are the closeups of that area:

(front)

Electrical Rerouting 

(back)

Electrical Rerouting 

The large PVC pipe on the right (left on the second pic) is just the A/C drain which will be going elsewhere. No idea what the short pipe on the left (right on the second pic) is, but that one can just be cut shorter. The two other metal pipes are power to the A/C units on the roof (which is right above me) for the two apartments below me. They seem to go right into concrete.

Ideally, both conduits would be rerouted 20 inches to the left and over and around the kitchen passthrough, and back to the roof. Basically, the concrete would need to be chipped, and the conduits would need to make a 90 degree turn, and continue for 20" until they get to the new half wall. Question is, is that even feasible?

I won't be doing the work, and I am planning to ask a contractor for his opinion when I hire one, but I was hoping to get an idea of the feasibility because if it's not possible, then I have to rethink the whole kitchen's plans. I have checked with lots of friends and opinions seem to vary, but no one I've talked to has ever tried to do something like this. Not sure if it makes a difference, but I currently have hardwood floors, but they will be going away to be replaced by stone tiles. The area over the 20" passage would need to be tiled.

Has anyone ever attempted something similar?

Thanks in advance!

[climber_grrl]

Short answer: It may be possible, but is it allowed?

Long answer:
We had to re-route a ton of electrical when we torn down walls in our remodel. Fortunately we have a single family house so we could do whatever we wanted. My first thought when you mentioned living in an apartment was, "What are your building's restrictions?"

Have you talked to whoever is in charge of your building to find out what you are legally allowed to do in this situation?

I'd also be cautiously optimistic considering there is concrete between the floors. If it was 2x4 construction it would be easier, but the concrete might be structural to the point of not being able to destroy it.

I'm totally taking a guess 'cause I neither have a concrete foundation nor a contractor's license ( ), but I would definitely get someone to authorize your work.

[MiamiBeach]

Originally Posted by climber_grrl

Short answer: It may be possible, but is it allowed?

Long answer:
We had to re-route a ton of electrical when we torn down walls in our remodel. Fortunately we have a single family house so we could do whatever we wanted. My first thought when you mentioned living in an apartment was, "What are your building's restrictions?"

Have you talked to whoever is in charge of your building to find out what you are legally allowed to do in this situation?

I'd also be cautiously optimistic considering there is concrete between the floors. If it was 2x4 construction it would be easier, but the concrete might be structural to the point of not being able to destroy it.

I'm totally taking a guess 'cause I neither have a concrete foundation nor a contractor's license ( ), but I would definitely get someone to authorize your work.

Thanks for that. I am on the board of directors, so I would be one of the people authorizing the work .

[DesignDiva]

That's convenient! I would check codes regarding rerouting, it is possible you might have to bring something up to code if you're moving it, and I personally never mess with electric or gas...I hire pros for those jobs.

[splatgirl]

Rerouting the conduit isn't an issue assuming you can overcome the physical barriers, but you may need to have a completely new run pulled from the breaker to the AC unit(s) if there is not enough slack in the existing run to allow you to move it. The alternative would be to cut it and splice in a new section which has to happen inside a junction box so you'd have to find a home for that...BUT...I'm not sure if that is allowed on a dedicated, high amp circuit that I would expect to be serving the AC unit. Do you know how many amps that run is?

I should add that extracting concrete is not a big deal (assuming it's not structural). You can remove a lot of material with a small jackhammer in an hour or two's worth of tool rental time. Also keep in mind that conduit and wire do not make 90 degree bends, so you'll need to account for the fact that there will need to be nice, gentle radius bends that take up a little more space.