Todays plumbing fun....

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Rich B

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OK tonight when I got home from work I decided to start working on removing my 50+ year old Kohler cast iron tub........Tried a sawzall with one of those special blades for cast iron.......would have taken forever.....and was clearly a waste of time.......had a 2 lb hammer......gave it a few whacks.....another waste of time...time for the heavy artillery.....big sledge hammer and covered it with a moving blacket.......Success...busted it up...got it out without and damage to the rest of the plumbing and that was very important as this is a 2 family home with bathrooms back to back and I need to keep my side operational.........So now I have much better access to the rest of what I need to do......replace a horizontal 4" C.I. waste branch that serves both sides......Pitch is UP to the vertical stack, not down and cast iron and lead bends will be gone soon....
 

hj

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The next cast iron tub I remove by busting it up will by my first one. I ALWAYS remove them in one piece, (doing it correctly makes it a one man job), so no shrapnel, no cleaning up busted pieces, and no destroyed moving blanket.
 

Cass

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I don't know why not busting it up would be the correct way and busting it up is the wrong way, but I do know that busting it up with a hammer makes it much lighter to carry out and much easier to navagate through the house...my back thanks me all the time and the homeowners like the fact that their house had 1 less thing to possibly cause damage.

hj...do you cary them out or use a dolly or how do you do it when it is in very tight areas...by your self...
 

Rich B

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The next cast iron tub I remove by busting it up will by my first one. I ALWAYS remove them in one piece, (doing it correctly makes it a one man job), so no shrapnel, no cleaning up busted pieces, and no destroyed moving blanket.

Good luck with that HJ! I have another one in the other bathroom.....anytime you want to show me how it's done I'll be here waiting for you......It's a 5 x 8 bathroom.....tub is a Kohler cast iron made in the '50s and it's on the second floor.......Seems like everyone of your posts is the same....someone is not doing things up to your standards or is beaking a code......You must be the Picasso of plumbers and mighty strong to be able to remove a cast iron tub by yourself and in one piece........I would guess that tub weighed a couple hundred pounds +.....Oh and the moving blanket survived and so did I.....All you need is an 18lb sledge....a broom and a dustpan and a garbage can and good legs to go up and down a flight of stairs carrying two pieces at a time. And a metal dumpster and I have that as well.....I'm 61 and it was good excercise.......If you get one you need busted up, call me...I'll do it just to relieve tension...LOL
 

hj

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A second floor tub would need a second person to get it down the stairs, unless it was like one my dad did years ago. Him and the helper left the tub on the porch while they went inside to check something and when they came out the porch, stairs, AND tub were on the ground below. I did not say it was wrong, I just said I would never do it that way. If done correctly the tub comes out very easily, and if you are going to install a new tub, once you get it out you know how to insert the new one. OF COURSE I use a dolly to move it. The tub weighs quite a bit more than I do. Breaking it up just creates a lot of unnecessary mess and noise.
 

Kingsotall

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HJ...The Picasso of Plumbers...
Does have a certain ring to it. Like cast iron when it's being busted up... :)
 

hj

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If you are going to bust the tub up, why not make it interesting by leaving the blanket off. It would be like the high school restroom years ago when kids put an M-60 firecracker between two urinals.
 
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