CLEARWATER, FL — Converting office buildings into residential and hospitality spaces often creates significant plumbing challenges, particularly when the original infrastructure wasn’t designed to accommodate high fixture counts or modern plumbing layouts. That was the case for a 59,000-square-foot adaptive reuse project in Clearwater, where the project team turned to SFA Saniflo’s above-floor pumping systems to overcome structural constraints, minimize disruption, and keep construction on schedule.
Overcoming the Challenges of Adaptive Reuse
The redevelopment called for approximately 80 apartments and 40 hotel units, requiring more than 110 bathrooms in a building originally designed as office space. Traditional gravity drainage would have required extensive concrete slab penetrations and work beneath occupied floors—an impractical solution with active office tenants still leasing parts of the building.
“That many bathrooms using a traditional gravity system just wasn’t realistic in this building,” says Wayne Cassity, president of ABA Constructors Inc. “Because the floor below us was occupied, we would’ve had to do all the plumbing at night. Between the dust, the noise, and shutting down occupied space, it just didn’t make sense.”…