It's not so much the owner's financial situation, but rather that it'd be cheaper to build new homes than to retrofit a ten floor+ building's plumbing.

You'd also have to install a bunch of showers, which could be a significant problem on its own.

And then there's the increased amount of sewage, which the building might not be able to handle - even the local sewers might not be equipped to handle the uh... Load a large commercial building would generate with 24/7 occupancy vs 8/5 occupancy.

The reason you don't see folks converting commercial spaces into residential isn't because it's not wildly profitable, but because building new purpose-built residential buildings would be cheaper than a conversion for anything other than one or two floors.

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quickthrowman 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> You'd also have to install a bunch of showers, which could be a significant problem on its own.

Compared to installing a new domestic water pipe riser and drains in an office tower (plus pumps, pressure tanks, etc), installing a shower in each unit is essentially free.

Connect the in-unit supply lines to the tap, core drill a hole in the floor to get to the floor below and connect to the drain piping, done.

	▲	mothballed 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		You can also just raise the shower and toilet on a platform, plumb the waste directly to the wall while depending on the platform to buy you some vertical slope on the way out, and drill right through the side of the building and run the waste vertically down the side. It's not going to freeze on the way down unless you're in Yakutsk. The supply lines you might not even have to retrofit, just put a pressure tank on each floor for peak loads that are slowly topped off by the undersized supply lines.

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joquarky 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the increased amount of sewage

How is there more than an office full of people?

	▲	quickthrowman 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		More toilets, more sinks, plus laundry. A floor of apartments will use far more water than a floor used by an office tenant. A 20k sqft office tower floor might have 6-8 toilets and 6-8 sinks that see light usage for 40 hours a week.

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ReflectedImage 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Oh no, I live in a flat in a converted commercial building.

They have been going wild in the UK converting office space to residential.

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gopher_space 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> The reason you don't see folks converting commercial spaces into residential

I do see this. That's my point. Your plumbing problem has been solved by not jamming a ton of people into the building.