This series of posts is on a different type of project
than the usual subject matter. Here I am
going to go through a “simple” remodeling project consisting of removing a
huge garden tub in the master bath. We
have long wanted to remove it and recover the space for usable purposes. It’s about 7’ long 42” wide and 18”
deep. Filled half full it holds about
125 gallons of water and would completely drain our hot water heater. It does have a whirlpool motor but no way to
keep the water at temperature and is uninsulated. In the 12 years we have lived here it’s only use has been to rinse various things.
Before we bought the house, we asked the former owner if he had used it
much and he said only once. Here is what
the tub and its space look like. My wife
did run some water in it once and when she started the whirlpool pump it blew
out spiders and all sorts of stuff. That
was enough for her.
Before, getting started on the demolition I wanted to see
what potential surprises might be hidden.
Fortunately, there was a small 16” square access door on the outside of
the house so I could partially see what was under the tub. After carefully checking for scorpions, black
widow spiders and other things I stuck my head inside to look around. However, what worked the best was to stick my
camera inside and take some photos. That
gave me a record and an easy way to review the situation. After a careful review there was a lot of
good news. I had a full concrete slab
under the tub just like the rest of the house in lieu of exposed grade, the
electrical supply was an unsecured outlet box and the water supply was in the
common wall with the shower which is going to remain. So far, no deal breakers. Here are the photos.
Because the house was built in 1997, we knew the chance
of finding matching tile was going to be a stretch and sure enough nothing
matched. That left us with two
options. First is to use wood flooring
like we have in the bedroom. Since I
replaced the original carpet with wood a few years ago it is still
available. Second, is to find as close a tile match as possible and work to integrate it in the area. Deciding that wood flooring in a bath is
probably not the best idea we went looking for a compatible tile. We did finally locate a close match after
going to all the tile stores in the area.
Based on that here’s the third-generation rendering approximating our
plans. The original wall tile from the tub
deck up will remain and the new tile will go from there down the wall and onto
the floor. An alternating dentil strip
made up from some of the few original tiles and the new tiles will make the
transition. There are a couple of
assumptions made for this plan. First,
is that I can demolish the tub and remove the tub deck tile without damaging
the existing wall tile. Second, is to
salvage the existing bullnose tile along the front edge of tub’s deck so it can
be reused. Below is the rendering and a
drawing of the bullnose tile. As this is
only a rendering the actual tile, we found is closer to the existing than shown.
With the exploration work done it’s time to start on the
demolition. It starts by removing the
face of the tub surround so I can see what was hidden when looking in from the
access door. That’s done by breaking the
tile and gently pulling it off. I had to
be careful not to damage or chip the floor tile since they are to remain. So far, no real surprises at what’s behind
the tile or in removing the tile.
Next is to very carefully try and remove the bullnose
tile. That’s done by using a
reciprocating saw that instead of having a blade in it has a carbide grout
removal rake. To keep the dust down my
HEPA shop vac is used to capture the dust.
Once the grout is removed a thin putty knife is used to gradually cut
the thinset holding the tiles in place.
There are six full and two short tiles of which one of them was
cracked. I need four full pieces to be
reinstalled later. The first short piece
did not go well as I cracked it but all the full-length tiles came off in one
piece although most have a lot of thinset stuck to the back that will need to
be removed. Here I am sawing the grout
out with dust mask and safety glasses on.
By being careful all the face tile adjacent to the floor
tile got removed without any damage to the floor tile. It did make a pretty good mess though. Behind the removed tile face you can see some
of the plumbing that will need to be removed.
With the bullnose tile salvaged and the face tile removed
next is to take out the tub. It’s way
too big for me to remove in one piece so using a variety of tools but mostly a
framing hammer the tub got taken out piece by piece. Here are the demo tools, a progress photo and
the demolished tub ready to be hauled away.
With the tub out of the way the slab it sat on is next to
be removed. It ended up not being a
concrete slab but I think one made out of mortar. In any case it was pretty easy to break into
pieces small enough I could easily handle and remove.
Once the tub along with the slab was removed, I could get a
good look at the plumbing work that is going to be needed. As suspected from looking through the access
door the hot and cold-water supply lines are within the shower common wall so
that’s a good thing and will make capping the lines feeding the tub relatively
straightforward. The tub drain is in the
pit in the center so cutting and capping it should be easy. However, the ¾” copper water line on the
right (red arrow) that feeds the hose bib mounted on the outside wall used for
watering the back patio plants is a problem.
The plumber who did the original work used Type K flexible copper to
feed the hose bib and it is not run within the wall but arcs across the open
area under the tub. This means it has to
be rerouted to run within the walls.
Next Up – Finishing Demolition, Plumbing Work & A Problem
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