Disassembling of the bathtub - easy task to solve!

It is often said that the repair is worse than a fire. It is almost impossible to finish it. There will always be something that needs to be plastered, finish gluing, finish building, etc. However, this approach is rarely applicable to the bathroom. If you can somehow do without repairs in the living rooms or even in the kitchen, then without the toilet and bath you are unlikely to be able to live long.

If you are to carry out a complete bathroom renovation, one of the most pressing problems for you will be the dismantling of the bathtub. The fact is that even if you are not planning to buy a new bathtub, and are only going to make repairs in the room (to lay new tiles, change plumbing, pipes, etc.), you will need to completely free the room from any foreign objects, including the bath.

Find out who is required to deal with the disposal of bulky goods under the contract with your management company. The fact is that You are not allowed to throw any bulky waste and construction waste in the general waste bin. To dispose of such garbage in the yard of the house, an additional container may be installed, which is decided on at a general meeting. Your management company can provide you with this service privately for a fee. If none of the above options are available to you, you will have to take your garbage to a designated location, most likely outside the city limits.

Dismantle the old faucets - if you started a complete renovation, it makes sense to change all the plumbing at once. Especially since the lifetime of faucets in most cases is not long.

Estimate whether the bathtub will pass through the door or they will also need to be removed from the hinges, or even dismantle the entire door frame. Even if the dimensions of the bath fits in the aisles, you should consider that the tub may have more legs, which can easily damage the doors. In most cases, it is easier to take the door off its hinges for a while than to buy a new one. If you absolutely do not want to do this, then try to protect the door covering from damage with some kind of soft cloth or film.

If you do decide to dismantle the bathtub yourself, you will need to stock up:

• adjustable wrench and a set of wrenches;
• screwdrivers;
• pliers;
• chisel;
• hacksaw for metal;
• sledgehammer;
• crowbar;
• power harvester;
• safety goggles and a respirator;
• a large piece of cloth;
• silicone sealant;
• new rubber gaskets for plumbing;
• Construction debris bags;
• an extra pair of hands - doing such a serious job alone can be not only difficult, but even traumatic.

When dismantling the bath, as well as in any other responsible case, it is important to follow the safety rules:

1. Turn off the water supply. Do not forget that water is fed not only to the sink and bathtub, but also to the toilet flush. Therefore, it is best to immediately shut off the shut-off valve that is in the way of the cistern flush.
2. Seal the sewer inlets. For example, cover them with some waterproof film, attaching it with tape to the floor or wall.
3. If with the replacement of the bathroom you also plan to replace part of the sewer pipes, Bring new pipes in advance in order: they must be clean, match each other in diameter, the ends of the metal-plastic pipes must be cleaned.
4. Choose appropriate clothing. Since you have to work with heavy tools like a crowbar and a sledgehammer, it's best if you protect your body with thick pants and a shirt just in case. This will cushion the impact if something goes wrong.
5. Use safety glasses and a respirator - When working with a sledgehammer, especially if the enamel will be damaged, large and sharp pieces of construction debris can damage your eyes or get into your respiratory organs.

Many old bathtubs, especially cast iron bathtubs from Soviet times, were made on legs. Due to the high humidity in the bathtub, the feet will eventually get sour and it will become more and more difficult to remove them from the tub. If the tub legs stubbornly refuse to unscrew, you have two options - either leave them in their place and try to remove the tub with them, or saw them off with a grinder. In each case individually you need to look at the situation, whether you should leave them or cut them off.

Dismantling a cast iron bathtub is the most difficult, because such a bathtub weighs a lot. In some cases, the width of doorways will not allow you to take the whole cast iron bath out of the house.

If they have enough width, you can try to make the bathtub entirely, by adhering to the following plan of action:

• Make sure that the legs of the tub are firmly fixed and will not fall off when transporting it. If this happens, you could be seriously hurt and even suffer a fracture. Check to see if the wedges that hold the legs to the tub itself have been damaged over time.
• You should start by removing the siphon. Try to unscrew it with an adjustable wrench. Start where the bathroom drain is located. If you can't unscrew it, you'll have to resort to using a metal hacksaw, a screwdriver or a hammer and chisel.
• Old bathtubs, especially from Soviet times, used to be fixed tightly to the walls The old bathtubs, especially back in Soviet times, were traditionally fixed firmly to the wall with mortar, which was also used to coat the entire bathtub and tile it. All this mortar should be removed with a chisel. The bathtub should move freely away from the walls and floor.

• If the bathtub is embedded into the wall, you should first remove the legs of the tub from this side, put something under the tub to avoid damaging the floor and not to drop the tub on your feet, and then forcefully press the sides of the tub - the tub should detach and fall down.
• Next, you need to move the tub from the wall to a distance that one person could easily fit there. On average, this distance is up to half a meter. The easiest way to do this is to use a crowbar or a crowbar.
• Once the tub is pushed back, one person goes into the space created and helps turn the tub 90 degrees from below. Be careful! Don't let the tub fall or move out. To avoid the bathtub slipping, use gloves and, after the bathtub has been turned, prop it up with something heavy underneath.
• It is convenient to turn the bathtub from this position to horizontal position so that it could easily pass through the doorway and it would be comfortable for both of us to carry it.

If you can not take the whole cast iron bathtub, we will take it in parts:

1. Dismantle the trap and get rid of the mortar around the perimeter of the tub, as described above.
2. Try to move the tub away from the wall by at least 15 centimeters.
3. Cover the tub with a damp rag to protect your body from splinters that can fly off when you use a sledgehammer.
4. There is no point in hitting the entire surface of the tub with a sledgehammer - just a couple of precise, strong blows. You can use a crowbar: in this case, you will need to make one precise blow with the sledgehammer on the crowbar in the place where the drain used to be. If the bathtub did not yield, you can use a grinder and make small cuts on the sides, and then already work with a sledgehammer on the bottom of the bathtub.

The basic principles for removing steel baths remain the same as for the dismantling of cast iron baths, the only difference is that, firstly, steel baths weigh less and, secondly, To break such a bath with a sledgehammer will not work - if the tub does not pass through the doorway, it will have to saw.

Instead of a siphon, steel bathtubs usually use a special system of plastic or steel pipes, also referred to as bath strapping or overflow drainage system. Dismantle such a system is much easier than cast iron pipes. First try to unscrew the system.

The main advantages of the acrylic bath is its lightness (the weight of the bath is on average about thirty kilograms), and the variety of different forms. The whimsical curves of the tub can, in some cases, make it much easier to take the tub out through doorways, so acrylic tubs rarely have to be pre-sawed before disposal.

Difficulties during the dismantling of acrylic bathtubs may arise only if it has any additional equipment, such as a whirlpool system. In this case, it is better to contact professionals so as not to make the system unsuitable for further use.