by Tool Belt Wayne
Today, most of the old is torn out! This is great fun! Out goes the old tub, toilet and vanity!
First, the toilet. After shutting off the water supply and emptying the water out of the tank, the tank bolts are removed to separate the tank from the base. The base bolts that hold the base to the floor are removed along withe the water supply connection. After the toilet is removed, a rag is stuffed into the drain to keep sewer gases from backing up into the house. This process is about a 10 minute job and creates a sense of false security.
The old vanity is next. The water supply is shut off and disconnected. The drain pipe is also disconnected. The sink is removed from the vanity. The vanity is unscrewed from the wall and ripped away from the wall. Other than making a few saw cuts around the water pipes, this also goes pretty quickly.
Before the tub/shower is taken out, the sheet rock around it needs to be removed. Since the ceiling will be left in place, I make a cut between the wall sheet rock and ceiling sheet rock with a utility knife. Using hammers and hands the wall sheet rock is torn out. NOTHING relieves stress and frustration like smashing holes in walls!! This creates a huge mess of dust and small pieces of wall on the floor. I am careful to only take out the sheet rock that needs to be replaced and expose wall studs to the point where new sheet rock will be installed. Thinking ahead will save time and aggravation later in the project.
With the sheet rock out of the way, the tub/shower is next. A search for the water supply shutoffs reveals they don’t exist. UGH!! This means the water needs to be shutoff for the whole house for a period of time. I decide once the tub is removed, I will install shutoff valves that can be accessed from an adjoining closet.
With the water turned off, the tub/shower fixtures are removed and the screws holding the tub in place are removed from the wall studs. The unit is too large to be taken out of the bathroom and down the stairway, so it must be cut apart and taken out in pieces. After a half hour or so of cutting with my saw, the pieces are small enough to be removed.
The pickup is loaded up and the demolished “stuff” is hauled off to the transfer station for disposal.
With debate ongoing as to whether or not to replace the ceramic floor tile still unresolved, it is left in place for now.
However, removing the tub reveals some major issues that will need to be solved before the new tub goes into place. In the meantime, the water to the entire house will be off for an unknown amount of time!!
Next, plumbing problems raise the ante on this project!