Monday, April 16, 2007

How to put in a tub

1. Cut scary-looking hole in the subfloor for the tub drain. Make a little smaller than recommended, just cuz it looks so gaping huge. After all, it was a lot of work to put the dang floor down in the first place.

2. Wrestle tub into place using a combination of brains (iron pipe inserted underneath as roller), brawn (lift with the legs!) and dumb luck (nobody stepped in the subfloor hole or dropped 300-lb. tub on their foot-- Happy day!).

3. Lift tub and slide shim made of 2x4 under wall side in a blind attempt to level. Nope, too high.

4. Maybe an inch and a quarter would be perfect. If only we had something that thickness…like that piece we just cut out of the subfloor!

5. Perfect!

6. Move tub away from the studs and cut notches, using jigsaw and lovely new chisel, for the edge of the tub to fit into.

7. Put a new stud in next to the sketchy-looking old one with an S-curve at the top and a disturbing dark color that probably means water damage.

8. Nail 2x4 brace along studs to hold up the tub. Consider how unlikely this arrangement seems as a way to support such a heavy object. But hey, that's how it was in there before we came along.

9. Move tub back in. Damn, we've moved this tub to China and back by this point. Level it, square it, stand on it to test for wiggling.

10. Notice: the bathroom is getting smaller, and more like a bathroom. Things are progressing as planned.

11. Dub thee "tubbed."

- Erika










John here: It rained and rained and rained that night, and we knew that poor Toes was back at home, outside. She was a wet cat when we arrived but started purring again after we towelled her off! She doesn't understand why we're always coming home so late, smelling of sawdust and ladybugs.



No comments: