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.

Tubs may not be that expensive, but removing them is. It costs much
more to take out the old one than to purchase and install the new one.
It's a mess and usually trashes the bathroom.

"Nobody" wrote in message
news:1PM1e.16376$AN1.11684@fed1read03...
(snip)
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"?

Short answer- the bathroom is basically built around the tub. Especially
true with the big 1-piece fiberglas units. They often have to pull a few
studs to get it in there. House is framed, tub/shower stall is dropped in
place, and then everything else happens. Plumbing is done from below/behind,
before walls are closed in. If you are on a slab, new tub needs to fit old
drain pipe unless you want to do concrete work, otherwise, figure on drywall
downstairs, and definitely figure on drywall or an access hatch on wall
behind the faucet. Don't forget to insulate behind/under new tub, especially
since it abuts an outside wall. Iron tubs get damn cold in winter, if next
to unheated space on the black side.

For 'old work' situations, some vendors offer tubs that (just barely) fit
through a 30" door, on end. (Assuming you don't have any tight corners in
the hall.) May have to pull the door casing off as well. Rotating it in the
room to get it oriented right will be the hard part.

But yeah, you are basically talking a total gut job on the bathroom, to
install it right. Once you have the old shower cut up and removed, you have
to redo surround with backer board anyway, and floor will also be trashed,
so you aren't really talking much more work to pull vanity. Compared to a
cast iron tub, vanities are cheap.

Hey, it's only money. Iron tubs are great- go for it.

aem sends...

I'm thinking that in my case I could pull the surround the weekend
before, and the toilet and vanity the night before. Then have the
installers replace the tub. Then go back and reinstall toilet and
vanity and I should be able to use my bathroom that night, correct?
Then at my leasure install a new surround or tile. Does that sound
feasable? It's the only bathroom in the house.