I have two bathrooms upstairs. Both have vinyl floors and the one piece
plastic/fiberglass bathtub/shower stall deal. I'm thinking about redoing the
floors with tile and would like to tile the showers as well. Obviously thats
an issue with a one piece liner. The whole thing would need to be ripped out
and replaced with a tub with a tiling flange correct? If I am going to be
ripping out the current tubs, I would like to replace them with cast iron.
One of the bathrooms is the master bath, so there is a lot more room to
maneuver a 300lb to 400lb tub there, but the other bathroom is smaller...
let me attempt to describe it
Its rectangular, width is about 58" to 59"
inches with finished drywall. The tub is crammed all the way at the end of
the bathroom between the two side walls and the back wall. There is a toilet
on the left side and a vanity on the left side corner with the front wall.
So it seems like for the master bath, there would be minimal demolition to
get the tub in, but what about the second bathroom? Is it possible to
manuever a 60" x 30" cast iron bathtub into a 3 wall alcove situation
without gutting the entire bathroom? The toilet can be removed no problem,
but as with most bathroom vanities, this is an el cheapo and would probably
not survive a "temporary" removal. I really don't want to touch the vanity
at this time.
What is curious is that both bathtubs are sort of "hermetically sealed"
units. How on earth can you connect the plumbing (ie, the drain) with a
sealed bathtub, is it just dropped in and some how water tight sealed from
above?
Is this a typical situation for a bathtub installer and they can just get a
couple of 'roid freaks
to muscle it into place without trashing the
house? or is it really "redoing the entire bathroom"?
The bathtub I priced for the smaller bathroom was about $300 a basic Kholer
cast iron 30" x 60" tub. What would I be looking at labor wise to get it put
in?
Are there any other options? I've seen adds where they can drop in liners
with little to no damage, but...
Thanks for any info.