57" Alcove Tub - Does It Exist?

[WatertowMA]

We are remodeling the late 60's/early 70's bathroom in our 100 year old home. The current shower/tub combo built-in was not original to the house and was added by a previous owner remodel. It is an odd 57" length. We want to replace it with an alcove tub and tile the surrounding 3 walls. The mega home improvement store tell us the only option is to buy a 54" tub and to build out the walls to make up for the 3 inches. The only wall we could cut into to expand to a standard 60" tub would require major replumbing that we want to avoid. We can't believe we are the first to encounter this dilemna. Does a 57" length alcove tub exist anywhere? We'd really prefer to not do a clawfoot/freestanding tub since that makes showering, its primary purpose as opposed to bathing, much more difficult.

[jadnashua]

Are you absolutely sure it is a 57" tub? The tub is measured studwall to studwall, not between finished walls.

[hj]

NO ONE ever made a 57" preformed tub or shower module. If they had they would have had to creat a complete production line, costing mega dollars, and they would have only made and sold ONE of them to your previous owner. Because NO ONE else would EVER have built a 57" space for a unit. That being said, your unit is probably 60", but it is very unlikely that you would be able to jockey a new unit like that into the space, unless you have a very unique room design. One way to tell if a new one will fit is to try to remove yours in one piece. If you cannot get it out, then you will not get a new one in.

[Howard Emerson]

We are remodeling the late 60's/early 70's bathroom in our 100 year old home. The current shower/tub combo built-in was not original to the house and was added by a previous owner remodel. It is an odd 57" length. We want to replace it with an alcove tub and tile the surrounding 3 walls. The mega home improvement store tell us the only option is to buy a 54" tub and to build out the walls to make up for the 3 inches. The only wall we could cut into to expand to a standard 60" tub would require major replumbing that we want to avoid. We can't believe we are the first to encounter this dilemna. Does a 57" length alcove tub exist anywhere? We'd really prefer to not do a clawfoot/freestanding tub since that makes showering, its primary purpose as opposed to bathing, much more difficult.

As HJ pointed out it could very well be a 60" model. The other point to consider would be the fact that the house is 100 years old, although the bath was remodeled in the 60/70's.

It could be that there was a very heavy plaster coating on the walls and they just built walls out after the tub was in.

I have seen, in my own home, a re-tile job, where they built the tub walls over the existing plaster/lath/tile job and just capped the ends with wood corner-round painted to 'match'.

If you measured drain to head wall, it was close to 58". Another 1/2" on either end could do 57".

I think there's a 60" tub lurking under your tile..............

HE

[Cass]

Tear out the walls and measure end to end...I bet it is 60" +/- 1/4"