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Will be remodeling a bathroom soon and need to remove a 20 year old Kohler whirlpool bathtub that was built into the room and is too large for the door.
How do I reduce the tub to smaller pieces? Can it be broken up with a sledge hammer? Are there any other suggestions other than a cutting torch?
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If it's cast iron a big sledge will work. It'll shatter with impact, but it's kind of hard work.
are you sure you can't just tip it on its side and slide it out? must be a very narrow door. if it's cast iron, you can use a sledge, but it's no fun. wear your ear and eye protection. i know guys who prefer to burn through a few sawzall blades rather than bang it apart but it's your call. good luck.
brian
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Brian Roberts, Manager
I agree, it's always better to get things out in one piece if at all possible. Tubs can be re-enameled and sold or donated to someone who'll get many more years of use from them.
-- J.S.
You better have a few friends, a couple of cases of brew, and a good strong dolly if that sucker is CI. They are heavy, and too often embedded in the bad tile job that has to go with it. Not a lot of call for the old stuff around here, and the recycle guy will take it for free, one piece or a hundred.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Taking cast down stairs. ... Now there is fun..... Flip a coin and see who get to go to the bottom. Thats the place for the looser. Question is even if you get $100 bucks for it was it worth all that pain and lost paint off the wall. ( not to mention the back)
and the cost to the environment because of one more tub in the landfill????
sorry, not being serious, I'm in an enviornmental sustainability class, I am the anti-chirst to most in the class... your comment just brought to mind what I would expect to hear if I made a similar comment in class.
Cast iron shatters easily enough once you get it cracked. That takes a lot of pounding. Quite helpful to take a right-angle grinder and a metal cut-off wheel to score it in a couple places, then start whacking. Wear hearing protectors and goggles. Its quite loud and the enamel and bits of iron fly everywhere. For a fiberglass tub, use a sawzall. For steel, a few whacks with a sledge will crumple it.
If you're gonna go the route of busting it up and it is indeeed cast iron, cover it with a heavy balnket or similar. That way, the pieces won't go flying. I like the suggestion of scoring it first and then whacking it in that area.
C-4. Don't forget ear plugs.
I never met a tool I didn't like!