bath tubs in tight spots

If you are swapping tubs, I presume the bathroom is a gut job? (Seeing as how tub goes in before bathroom is anything more than studs, to begin with). What does tub back up to, or one end butt up to? Sometimes the quickest and least painful solution is to yank a couple studs, and take it out through the next room, assuming you have the space and manpower to rotate it in mid-air to make it out through the hole. Look at it this way- you'll be doing drywall in the bathroom anyway. How hard is redoing one more wall?

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers
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Sledgehammer or sawsall to get it out, but how are you going to get the replacement in?

Reply to
hrhofmann

How do you get tubs out of tight spots in small bathrooms?

Seems like maybe we can saw it up. Does that work?

Looks like the tub is longer than the remainder of the space it's in.

Reply to
rb

Is it a cast iron tub or sheet metal. Either way you can bust it up with a sledge hammer. I just took a cast iron tub out that way and a "free scrap" note on Craigs list had it gone in an hour.

Reply to
gfretwell

Busting up a steel tub with a sledge migh be a job. Cast iron will be easy.

Reply to
Bob F

Can't do it that way. It backs up to an outside wall on one end, the other is facing another tub in an adjacent bath.

Reply to
rb

If it's a cast iron tub, go to

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and type "cast iron tub" in the search bar.

Reply to
Jay-T

I've removed and reinstalled a cast iron tub into the end wall of a bathroom that's exactly as wide as the tub, and done it single handed. If you're not going to reuse the tub then bust it up and carry the pieces out. If you're going to reuse the tub then you lift the tub up on one end until it's vertical, then lay it face down on a

4-wheel dolly for removal from the room. Installation is, as they say, the reverse of this process. I used a come-along to get the tub up to vertical and then back down to horizontal on the reinstall.

Tom Young

Reply to
TomYoung

Note that you may have to remove some blocking or nailer strips between the studs, especially on the apron side, for the tub to be able to tilt up. I've never seen a bath where the tub couldn't be removed through the door, but I have seen bathrooms where the vanity and toilet had to come out, and the prehung door had to be removed back to the rough opening, to do it. But even if you get it that far, unless you can get the tub up on end like a file cabinet, you will likely have trouble making the turn in the hallway.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

Don't try to do it with a sledge hammer, use a pick. One of the older kind with plenty of heft. Even if you have to rent one. I had an old (1955) tub reduced to pieces small enough to put one in my pocket in less than an hour.

Doing it with a sledge hammer just caused the sledge to bounce. Doing it with the pick caused a small hole and a crack line, and I followed the crack lines.

And I replaced it with a 5 ft shower base, with two seats. But that's another story.

Many years can cause some sag in the floor wood. Suggesting you put a level to it, and if it's a bit uneven, you bring up the base with some cement board, with fresh, wet grout under it. And more fresh cement without stone aggregate when you put the shower base in. That way, the water will always drain correctly, and when you're in it, the floor will be LIKE A ROCK.

Hey, do it right, > Replacement will be a shower.

Reply to
Michael B

Typical bathroom, 5ft X 8ft. When we did ours, one annoyance was minimum storage space for bathroom "stuff". I stripped the "water wall" which is made of 2x6's, added some

2x2's to them, and put cabinet doors (from a flea market) over the 7" deep space that I had created. That let us use a pedestal sink, making the area seem bigger. I arranged the sink to be centered at one of the spaces, so that three cabinet doors above it could have mirrors (attached with Mirror Mastic) and it served insead of a medicine cabinet. (Door on the right needs to have its hinge on its left).

And hey, the shift in the wall would have interfered with the commode. I put the tank up 21" and then connected it to the commode by way of a 2" pipe and an $11 plumbing fitting made for doing just that. Never a need for a double flush. Not that that was a ploblem, with my American Standard Cadet. But I was able to use a really cheap tank that way, too. Rather than the American Standard one. For most "flushing jobs", as soon as the water shows up in the commode, it's time to release the flush handle.

G> How do you get tubs out of tight spots in small bathrooms?

Reply to
Michael B

Replacement will be a shower.

Reply to
rb

Great ideas! Thanks to all who contributed. I think (hope) my tub is some kind of plastic or acrylic. Maybe it's as easy as sawing it up. I do have a big pick ax, in case it's iron tub.

This was what I was trying to get: the big way is to just saw 'em up to get 'em out.

Other good ideas included, too. Thanks.

Don't try to do it with a sledge hammer, use a pick. One of the older kind with plenty of heft. Even if you have to rent one. I had an old (1955) tub reduced to pieces small enough to put one in my pocket in less than an hour.

Doing it with a sledge hammer just caused the sledge to bounce. Doing it with the pick caused a small hole and a crack line, and I followed the crack lines.

And I replaced it with a 5 ft shower base, with two seats. But that's another story.

Many years can cause some sag in the floor wood. Suggesting you put a level to it, and if it's a bit uneven, you bring up the base with some cement board, with fresh, wet grout under it. And more fresh cement without stone aggregate when you put the shower base in. That way, the water will always drain correctly, and when you're in it, the floor will be LIKE A ROCK.

Hey, do it right, insulate the walls with Styrofoam so it won't be cold in the winter, and if there's a window, replace it with glass block. Just some suggestions, as applicable.

Reply to
rb

A magnet will tell you.

Reply to
Bob F

As will laying your open palm (or bare butt) on it first thing in the morning, to judge the heat transfer rate. Rapping with knuckles in a few places usually tells as well. Not to mention the eyeball test- if it has any sharply creased edges, it ain't iron. Still could be steel, but those sound like a car fender can when you rap on them.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

And if it's fiberglass, a sawzall makes short work of it too. BEWARE, the cast iron tubs are extremely heavy! My whirlpool had a 700 lb delivery weight!

Reply to
news.eternal-september.org

Were tubs ever made of actual steel in any recent times? Other than the old spaghetti westerns, I don't think I've even seen one that wasn't cast or fglas.

Twayne

Reply to
news.eternal-september.org

Before I discovered how relatively easy they break up with a sledge hammer, I used to stand them up on end to swing them out. Be sure to have enough help; it could go right thru the floor if it gets dropped!! And of course injure someone.

Twayne

Reply to
news.eternal-september.org

For several years before plastic or fiberglass tubs got cheap, stamped-steel (like a car fender) tubs were dirt-common in el-cheapo cookie cutters and apartment complexes. I oughta know, I humped enough of them off the truck as a kid. Looked and felt cheap, so when the plastic tubs came out, they quickly took over the market.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

They are very common. We take out several each year. Still plenty of them for sale at the supply house near me.

Reply to
DT

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