M
manbehindthecurtain
Guest
The house I bought has a bathroom I intended on remodeling by repainting the existing clawfoot tub, retiling the bathroom, and putting in new toilet, vanity, and sink.
The previous decor in the room was so bad (wood paneling with stickers on the wall of pink stilletto high heels. No lie.), so I started pulling the paneling down and got the existing sink and toilet out of there. Now that everything is out, and I started measuring the space I would need for a shower attachment for the claw foot tub (ancient 60" cast iron beast that my wife is very attached to), I notice that there is only space for about 11-12 inches from the center of the toilet to the edge of the tub. I understand minimum code for my area is 15 inches. I never noticed this before, nor did my home inspector, apparently. I'm ok with the 15 inches clearance to the wall on the other side.
My first thought is to trash the tub, and put in a shower stall in the corner instead. My wife really wants to keep the tub. There is absolutely no room in the rest of the bathroom to reorganize the rest of the fixtures.
Do I have any options here? This bathroom must have last been redone in the 70s, am I still required to meet that code or is there any chance I'm grandfathered in? If I go ahead on my own, am I at risk of not being able to sell the house in the future because of this? Other alternatives are to trash this tub and put in a smaller one (my wife likes this idea), but at this point I would rather just have a standing shower.
I can take pics if that would help. I'm pissed at my home inspector. Never should have bought this house and I'm becoming less inclined to sink more money into it. God knows what else he missed.
In terms of cost, I am more comfortable installing a tub than a shower pan, but that will require another thousand bucks or so on a new acrylic claw foot tub, and some hard core demo to get rid of this one. Plus I will still need to pay a plumber to move the drain and water supply so I can fit the shower attachment where the ceiling slopes. What would you do? What should I do?
The previous decor in the room was so bad (wood paneling with stickers on the wall of pink stilletto high heels. No lie.), so I started pulling the paneling down and got the existing sink and toilet out of there. Now that everything is out, and I started measuring the space I would need for a shower attachment for the claw foot tub (ancient 60" cast iron beast that my wife is very attached to), I notice that there is only space for about 11-12 inches from the center of the toilet to the edge of the tub. I understand minimum code for my area is 15 inches. I never noticed this before, nor did my home inspector, apparently. I'm ok with the 15 inches clearance to the wall on the other side.
My first thought is to trash the tub, and put in a shower stall in the corner instead. My wife really wants to keep the tub. There is absolutely no room in the rest of the bathroom to reorganize the rest of the fixtures.
Do I have any options here? This bathroom must have last been redone in the 70s, am I still required to meet that code or is there any chance I'm grandfathered in? If I go ahead on my own, am I at risk of not being able to sell the house in the future because of this? Other alternatives are to trash this tub and put in a smaller one (my wife likes this idea), but at this point I would rather just have a standing shower.
I can take pics if that would help. I'm pissed at my home inspector. Never should have bought this house and I'm becoming less inclined to sink more money into it. God knows what else he missed.
In terms of cost, I am more comfortable installing a tub than a shower pan, but that will require another thousand bucks or so on a new acrylic claw foot tub, and some hard core demo to get rid of this one. Plus I will still need to pay a plumber to move the drain and water supply so I can fit the shower attachment where the ceiling slopes. What would you do? What should I do?