Dionysia

My 1926 bathtub is leaking from the drainpipe. We need to put in a new drain, but the original piping won't budge. Any hints on how to get it off? I really don't want to ruin the tub, as the only way to remove it for replacement would be to sledgehammer it to bits or cut a big hole in the side of the house.

isola96

We're exactly is the tub in the house? Is your house on a slab? If you can see the pipe upload photo to the forum.

Redwood

A picture showing what you have and where it is leaking from may be helpful.

Depending on what you have you may have something relatively easy to repair or, you may be looking at remodel time. In any case don't do anything rash as it may force the hand and change a small job into a large one.

Post the pics and approach this with caution.

Dionysia

OK, I made it to the basement with phone and long-corded light in hand to take a picture of the drain. I even figured out how to upload the photo The house has a full basement, so access to the drain area isn't a problem. I REALLYdon't want to be stuck demolishing the (original 1926 _Lavendar_!) tub because of a stupid drain, so I am crossing my fingers that houserepairtalk will come through for me...

isola96

Did you have some one run the water wile you were down there? The subfloor looks pretty bad is there a over flow on this tub was that checked as well? Check the hot or cold like that's on the left there as well.

Dionysia

It is definitely the drain. We can tell because it leaks during showers and when draining the tub, and my husband has checked it while it was leaking. The subfloor and joists have not been worked on, because we want to remove and replace the drain when we deal with this area. Everything else has been replaced at some point within the past 20 years. Only the drain is pushing 100 years old. We are just trying to figue out how to remove it without destroying our cool old tub.

isola96

Even though its that old of a tub there should be some sort of threaded nut holding the top piece together with a gasket similar to what is used now a days if this is the case you will need to pervent the top drain basket from moving when you try to loosen the bottom nut there are tools that fit this piece or you can use the handle end of pliers or channel locks to stick I'm in there were there should be a grate looking inside the top drain basket upload a photo of inside tub drain basket.

joecaption

I can clearly see three differant nuts that can be backed off to get this apart.
One in attached to the PVC trap and two steel ones on the drain tubes.
To get the strainer out your going to need one of these if the strainer
parts are broken off in the drain inside the tub.
Ridgid 342 Internal Pipe Wrench, 1-2 In Cap, 4 1/2 L

If there still there you need one of these.

Ridgid 66807 Faucet/Sink Install Tool, 3/4 And 1 In

There is no way to fix that sub floor from below the foor. The tubs got to come out to fix it.
As bad as it is there has to be mold, the bottom plate in the walls rotted and most likly also the bottoms of the studs.
If you do not fix this it's going to next to impossible to keep caulking around that tub.

isola96

Joe
You always got the good links to make your replays quick and to the point lol

Redwood

Well that picture doesn't quite show what I was interested in.

Some tubs in that time period have the tub spout coming through the side of the tub where the overflow would be on a modern style tub. Do you have one of these? If you do stop!