1920's tub drain

shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Dionysia

Dionysia

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2011
Messages
98
Reaction score
2
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.
 
Dionysia said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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...

tub drain.jpg
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
joecaption said:
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.
Click to expand...

Joe
You always got the good links to make your replays quick and to the point lol
 
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!
 
Yep, redwood, the spout originally came through the side of the tub. When we replaced the faucet, we removed it. Rightnow, there is an overflow cover on the hole, but we can't replace the drain assembly until we wrestle the drain off. The Mr. is no wimp, and he couldn't get the doggone thing to budge. We stopped before we created a massive problem with our only bathroom. I was just REALLY hoping someone had some secret trick for dealing with these antique drains.
 
OK, guys. I tried taking a photo of the drain from above. It is very ordinary-looking. Because of the age, it is a rubber-plug-to-keep-the-water-in style of drain. You can also see the cover where the spout originally came out. We have a nice modern tub and shower faucet on the wall above, because the spout inside the tub was too annoying for me to put up with anymore. There is no overflow tube, only the metal cover you see on the hole. When the kids splash too much water in the bath, we get occasional drips through the opening underneath the cover, but it has not ever really been a problem. IF we can get the drain off, we will install an overflow tube with the new drain.

As you can see, kids' mess aside, the tub is still in excellent shape and I really don't want to damage it. It is lavendar 2-sided apron tub with a matching pedestal sink, and original to the house. Replacing it would take a lot of the charm from the room, and be a gigantic headache.

tub drain topside.jpg
 
Last edited:
Look directly under the tub, see where it looks like someone tryed to use teflon tape to stop the leak around a tube nut? (never should have had to use tape or dope there, there's a plastic washer that's supposted to be used to seal it) That's one place it disconnects, it gets turned counter clock wise looking up.
Follow the tube down from there to the next nut, that one can also be removed.
The next one is that big one on the trap.
Once in a while one of the silver colored nuts will not come off but there's almost no chance all of them will not come off, I'm thinking he's turning them in the wrong direction.
Easy to do when there up side down.
Still will not come out, I use a Dremal tool with a cut off blade to cut through the nut, being carefull to only cut the nut, Once cut through one side I tap it with a chisle to open it up away from the threads.
 
Sounds like you have already made a big job out of it...

How do you feel about remodeling the bathroom and a new tub?

There should have been a clue when you saw that the drain was integral to the old valve and the spout was securing the standing waste tube in place...

Wrestling 90 year old plumbing around is never a good idea....

At least the waste line below won't have to be reconfigured to badly to connect...
 
Redwood said:
Sounds like you have already made a big job out of it...

How do you feel about remodeling the bathroom and a new tub?
Click to expand...

I really don't want to remove the tub. It would involve a sledgehammer and being without a bathroom for a while.

Redwood said:
There should have been a clue when you saw that the drain was integral to the old valve and the spout was securing the standing waste tube in place...
Click to expand...

My husband took out the spigot about ten years ago when we put in the new faucet with shower (there was no shower before). The drain was unaffected.

Redwood said:
Wrestling 90 year old plumbing around is never a good idea....

At least the waste line below won't have to be reconfigured to badly to connect...
Click to expand...

We are not worried about the waste line below. It needs to be redone because all the lines are run through the joist, which someone here has already noted is in bad shape. There isn't much of the house that the Mr. hasn't already touched. The bathroom tub is really the only thing that hasn't had much done to it - just the new faucet. It is a lot of trouble for an old house, but it has been in the family a long time :)
 
Dionysia said:
I really don't want to remove the tub. It would involve a sledgehammer and being without a bathroom for a while.

My husband took out the spigot about ten years ago when we put in the new faucet with shower (there was no shower before). The drain was unaffected.

We are not worried about the waste line below. It needs to be redone because all the lines are run through the joist, which someone here has already noted is in bad shape. There isn't much of the house that the Mr. hasn't already touched. The bathroom tub is really the only thing that hasn't had much done to it - just the new faucet. It is a lot of trouble for an old house, but it has been in the family a long time :)
Click to expand...

Try the steps joe has stated before with the links I'm shore you will be able to get it off.
 
joecaption said:
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
Click to expand...

I showed the Mr. this link. He says that is exactly the tool he needs to get this drain off. It's expensive, but I guess cheaper than a total bathroom demolition to destroy my vintage tub! the strainer broke when he tried one of those other wrenches on it before.

Thanks for the help folks. I'll try to post pics when we're done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top