Hello,
My fiancé and I just bought a duplex, we took the unit that unfortunately did not have a tub. It had a tiled shower with a tiled floor and tiled lip creating the basin at the bottom of the shower. I do like to soak, and was curious as to whether we could raise the lip a bit higher to accommodate a tub. We are handy people, we’ve done our own renovations and customs but tile is new to us this year, my fiancé is a mechanic and has done his share of construction and thinks this should be doable (we’ve checked the floor supports and all seems stable with no rot.) There is also a bathtub spout in the shower so we believe there was a tub here previously that was removed. We assume we could raise the wall, and use similar membrane behind the tiles used in pools for the inside of the wall, but we are unsure if that means we would need to do so for the rest of the surround to ensure waterproofing. The current tile job is mediocre so it’s not an issue if we do have to remove/redo it to ensure waterproofing. Any thoughts? Picture below of our current bathroom and an example of the kind of tub we want (minus the extra surround)
Replies
It would be better to just pull the tile and existing shower base down to the subfloor, and install a new bathtub, then replace the surround with either a proper tile job, or another surround.
First step is to measure the space to make sure a tub will fit.
Building a custom tub is going to be more complicated, all that water will weigh lots, and want to leak in places you will not like.
But if you really want that tub, you need to make sure the membrane is waterproof from the drain up to higher than the highest water depth.
The structure of the current walls are likely meant to hold the tile, and shed water, and may not be strong enough to stay put against the weight of water. any membrane needs a solid support.
What is the current base made of? You likely would need to pull it up, or cover it with the new membrane. the drain needs to be installed over the membrane to seal.
No, you can't, and if you find someone who says you can run in the other direction. Scratch-built tile tubs are hard enough to build as it is. Pull all the tile, put in a cast iron tub, and install new tile.