While I was at the restaurant the plumbing inspector came by and gave the thumbs up. That means next time I’m here these pipes will be covered with concrete.

I first learned about this construction called “slab on grade” at our East Cambridge location. It still feels sort of crazy to me. Concrete is cast over dirt. I don’t know why they do this in commercial construction, cheaper than a basement? I don’t know of homes made that way.

So when you want to run electrical and plumbing you have to cut up the concrete floor. They use these big wheel things, similar to what you’d see on a highway project. And pull back the concrete, then dig our the trenches (by hand in our case). At the end you’d never know what was under your feet. It’s this complex network of pipes. In the case of Burlington we have a sanitary waste line, we have a grease waste line (separate from sanitary). Each of these terminates in several locations. We have 6 vents, one for each drain. We have electrical under there. It’s really amazing. We’ll have some photos next week that will have this looking more like what you know as a restaurant.