What is commercial remodel plumbing?
It's the plumbing work tied to changing what a commercial space is used for, or how it's laid out — moving a restroom, adding a break room sink, converting retail to a restaurant, splitting one tenant space into two. It's different from a house remodel because the building doesn't stop running while the work happens, and it's different from new construction because you're tying into pipe, stacks, and a slab that are already there, often decades old.
The work usually includes cutting into existing supply and drain lines, running new rough-in to match the new floor plan, relocating floor drains and cleanouts, adding or moving grease interceptors for food service, and setting fixtures once walls and floors are closed up. On older buildings it also means figuring out what's actually in the walls before anyone commits to a layout on paper.
When does a business need this?
- A tenant improvement (TI) before a new tenant moves in — the shell has stubs in the wrong place for the new floor plan.
- A restaurant, café, or bar buildout — grease waste, floor drains, and a mop sink that weren't there before.
- Converting office or retail space to a use that needs more fixtures — more restrooms for occupancy load, a second break room.
- A landlord repositioning a building between tenants, replacing old galvanized or cast iron risers while walls are already open.
- Code-driven work: an inspector or a change of occupancy triggers accessible restroom counts or backflow requirements that the existing plumbing doesn't meet.
How the visit goes
We start by looking at what's actually there — the building's shutoffs, the routing of the main stack, whether the drain lines are cast iron, galvanized, ABS, or a mix from three different decades of patch work. A sewer camera run often answers questions faster than guessing from old drawings, especially in a building that's changed hands a few times.
From there we walk the new layout with you or your GC and mark where rough-in needs to land relative to framing. On a live business we talk through sequencing before anyone cuts anything: what can be done during closed hours, what needs a water shutoff (and for how long, and who we tell), and whether the job can be phased so one restroom or one section stays usable while another is under construction. Demo and rough-in come next, then inspection, then trim-out once finishes go in. We coordinate around your GC's schedule rather than running our own separate one.
What affects the price
- How much of the existing system stays vs. gets replaced. Reusing sound drain lines costs less than tearing out old cast iron.
- What's in the slab. Under-slab work means saw-cutting concrete, which adds time whether or not the pipe itself is complicated.
- Grease waste and interceptors. Sizing and placement for a commercial kitchen is its own scope, separate from ordinary drain work.
- Fixture count and type. A single-user restroom is a different job than multiple ADA-compliant restrooms with floor drains.
- After-hours or phased work. Keeping the business open costs more in scheduling than doing the whole job at once with the space closed.
- Permit and inspection path. Occupancy changes and larger commercial permits go through more review than a like-for-like fixture swap.
- Building age and access. A 1920s Pearl District or Old Town building with unknown pipe routing takes longer to verify than a space built in the last twenty years.
We don't price sight unseen for commercial work — too much of the cost depends on what's actually behind the wall and how the schedule needs to move.
What's specific to Portland commercial buildings
A lot of Portland's commercial stock is old for a working building — brick storefronts in Old Town, Sellwood, and inner Southeast; mixed-use buildings along Hawthorne, Alberta, and Division with plumbing that's been added to piecemeal every time a tenant changed. It's common to find galvanized supply lines that have never been touched, cast iron drains with root intrusion, and rough-in from a 1990s buildout that doesn't match current fixture counts. On the newer end — Pearl District, South Waterfront, parts of Beaverton and Hillsboro — buildings are more consistent but still need plan review tied to occupancy.
The City of Portland (and the equivalent departments in Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, and the other cities we work) requires permits and inspection for commercial plumbing changes, and change-of-occupancy work often triggers a closer look at accessible fixture counts and backflow prevention. We pull the permits and schedule inspections as part of the job so there isn't a gap between "the work is done" and "the work is signed off."
Why Sheltons Construction
We're a licensed Oregon plumbing contractor working the Portland metro — Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties, and out to Salem for larger scheduled jobs. Commercial remodel work sits alongside the rest of what we do: tenant improvement plumbing, commercial plumbing service and repair, and new construction plumbing for ground-up or shell buildouts. If a leak or a drain backup turns up mid-project, that's emergency plumbing and leak detection and pipe repair, not a separate call to a separate company. We work trade to trade with GCs and property managers, not just homeowners.
What to do now
If you've got drawings or a scope already, talk to us about your project and bring the plans — we'll walk the space before quoting anything. If you're still early and just need to know what's feasible with the existing plumbing, that's worth a site visit too. Check the FAQ for answers to common scheduling and permit questions, or call if there's an active leak or backup on a space that's mid-remodel — that's emergency plumbing, and it doesn't wait for the rest of the job.
We work commercial remodels across Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Tigard, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Oregon City, Milwaukie, Happy Valley, Clackamas, Wilsonville, Troutdale, Sherwood, and down to Salem for scheduled larger projects.