How do you remove a bathtub and a fiberglass shower surround?
In this video, my buddy, Steve White, from SRW Contracting, is going to show you step
by step how to do this.
And in the end, we’ve got an awesome surprise for you, courtesy of DeWalt.
So learn Steve’s skills in this video, and in the end check out the surprise that we
have in store for you, all right?
Let’s jump into the tutorial right now.
We’re going to go ahead and get this fiberglass unit out and set up the one-piece fiberglass
unit which was installed before the framing of the bathroom we’ve put in.
So there’s no way to get this out in one piece.
And it would be pretty tough to get down the steps and everything else, too.
So the first thing I do is turn off the water and take out the pieces off.
Each one is a little bit different.
So I’m going to have to check out what’s needed.
And this one just threads out.
Then I have two screws set up over here.
Take the handle off.
Take the two screws off the trim.
Take the shower head off.
Okay, and then sometimes you get the shower arm out of the wall with a screwdriver in
the end.
Just wind it out.
It gives you a bit of the leverage.
So, and you normally want to try to take the drain assembly apart so that when you’re
pulling out the tub, you’re not destroying any plumbing underneath.
Sometimes this can be tricky if it’s pretty old.
Sometimes some of this stuff doesn’t want to thread out.
And there’s not much you can do about that.
Sometimes I just take a grinder and end up cutting the tub area out around it just to
make sure that you don’t have a problem.
If you have access behind it, you can take the drain assembly apart behind it sometimes.
But more times in life you’re going to be able to get this unthreaded.
Sometimes that little removable tool for the drain assembly is with a pipe wrench.
Gives you all of the leverage to twist it out.
So this bottom pipe, I can’t get out.
So I’m just going to use my grinder and just cut off the pipe.
It doesn’t have to be pretty.
Okay, then you can see actually it has a tile-surrounded tub.
So I’m going to remove parts of that first.
Okay, so now you got that all kind of exposed all the way around the tub.
Okay so there’s a little flange that that drywall sits down onto.
And that goes all the way around this tub as well.
Now if I were keeping this bump-out of wall, I would saw this all down along the side of
the tub as well to cut this flange because the flange goes all the way down here.
Well I’m not keeping this corner, so it doesn’t really matter because I’m turning
this into a walk-in shower.
So I don’t have to worry about keeping this drywall corner.
And honestly, even on the other side, I would do the same thing if I were keeping the drywall,
but I’m re-drywalling the room.
So that won’t really matter either.
So it’s really just as simple as getting a saw is all.
I use like a wood/metal blade.
Multipurpose.
I usually just go with something…
What is this?
Like 6”, 8”?
Oh, this is 9”.
So it’s something not too, too long or it’s all going to be bind up or whatnot.
But always shut the water off because you never know exactly how the plumbing’s done
until you get into this.
I’ve seen it where sometimes even water lines are behind the tub, feeding it.
So running the saw along the corner, you can potentially cut that.
So shut the water off before you even do this.
And you know, just we’re pluming the walk-in shower, any plumbing that might be existing
there over place.
So I’m going to show you how much an area there is behind it.
That’s why sometimes plumbers just run all their stuff kind of loose behind the tub because
there is space there.
So as simple as sawing the corner.
Like I said, I don’t really care about that corner.
When I use that Sawzall, I always kind of angle it down a little bit because you can
see how there’s wires in that wall.
You don’t want to have it too far in a wall where you might cut the wires.
So I always kind of angle the Sawzall down a little bit.
So now we got the drain assembly out and stuff like that.
We can just simply pull out the tub.
So this is kind of a perfect example of what you might run into when you try to do a tub
conversion to a walk-in shower.
You can see the vent stack that’s inside the shower area where the tub was able to
cover that area.
So we’re going to have to reroute the vent stack to be inside the wall and run through.
So that’s actually a prime example of what you might run into when you remove the tub.
All right, I hope that was helpful.
I mean, there’s really nothing pretty about demo, but you just really have to muscle through
it and use a Sawzall and run through it.
Again, that’s why I really enjoy… that’ why… let me say that again.
And that’s another reason why it’s best to kind of demo everything.
The more time that you have to kind of consider drywall corners and trying to pull things
out, the longer it’s going to take really to do everything because, chances are, when
you’re converting to a walk-in shower , you’re going to be able to make that a little bit
bigger to be able to finish the drywall a lot nicer.
In this bathroom alone, we’re already taking out the mirror, we’re rerouting the plumbing
for the sinks, we’re rerouting this for the shower.
It really makes no sense just to leave three pieces of drywall left in here to finish.
So take everything down with the saw, and start from scratch.
It makes it a lot easier.
So hopefully it was helpful.
Thanks.
Well there you have it.
That’s how you remove a bathtub and a fiberglass shower surround.
If you’re doing a bathroom remodeling project, these skills and tips can really come in handy.
And thank you, Steve, for showing us how to do it.
So here is the surprise.
DeWalt is partnering with us, and they’re providing a brand new 20V Max lithium-ion
reciprocating saw.
So they’re going to give away one with us on Home Repair Tutor.
So go to HomeRepairTutor.com, check out the latest tutorial, and you’ll see how one
random, lucky person is going to win this reciprocating saw.
It’s fantastic.
It’s a tool that comes in handy whenever you’re doing a fiberglass shower surround
demo project or removing studs, you need a reciprocating saw, and you need one that is
powerful.
And the 20V Max reciprocating saw by DeWalt is fantastic.
So I hope that you liked this video today.
Again, check out the giveaway back on over at HomeRepairTutor.com.
And for all DeWalt’s latest tools that are coming out, you can go to DeWalt.com as well.
Thanks for watching.
Take care, and we’ll see you in the next video.