Was only fitting that the Tub From Hell lives in Satan’s Bathroom… the site of our current project. This place must have been built to survive a direct nuke strike. Had to demo some of the metal lath and concrete walls. They are over 2 inches thick PLUS 2 layers of tile, the older layer has to be 1/2″ thick and I’m convinced made from Titanium.
When it was time to demo the tub, which we had asumed was CI, I confidently gave it a couple real solid licks with a sledgehammer and I swear it laughed at me. I’m convinced I can see strange alien hieroglyphics etched into the sides and am thinking this thing was made in Atlantis or on some other planet. I did manage to chip the porcelean but that’s it. OK… I spit on my hands, wind up… big swing, a bang reverberates for miles andddddddddd… nothing. I look at the chipped finish and the dent in the side and think “holy cr*p… this thing is 3/8″ steel”. The plumber comes over and expresses doubt. “Fine… YOU give it a whack… I’ve never seen cast iron dent that deep without cracking”. He does. Once…twice… three times and not a crack. To make it worse it’s installed in such a way that there’s no way it’s coming out intact.
Fast forward to me grunting my way through a cut with the Sawzall down the side of the tub. One cut through one side has taken half a hour and 3 blades so I’m praying the cut may create a stress point. I pick up a bigger sledge hammer (always the key to success). Four or five swings overhead and finally a chunk blows out of it. Holyyyyyyyyyyy smokes it IS cast. Everyone’s looking at this thing in awe, was almost like watching some primeval beast finally keel over and die. I whaled on it for another ten minutes with everything I had and only managed to bust off enough to get it out of the opening and onto a handtruck for the 3 flights down to the truck. We also found once we turned it over that it had so many rebar-like struts welded across it at several points that it would put most bridges to shame.
The scale at the scrap yard tells me that it weighed 475 lbs, enough to treat everyone to lunch. Now I’m just waiting for a phone call from the unit below that I cracked their ceiling…thank God they don’t make em like that anymore.
PaulB
Replies
You didn't swing hard enough!! LOL!!!!!
“Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.”
Reagan....
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
-Truman Capote
I ran into one of those tubs about two months ago.
I beat the hell out of it, only paint fell off.
I was telling the guy that worked with me how CI breaks when you hit it with a sledge hammer. After that tub he didn't believe me.
I had to cut mine in half as well. Used a 6" ginder and a metal wheel.
Woods favorite carpenter
Of course if it was a CI hub you were praying wouldn't crack, a hard sneeze does it...PaulB
Isn't that the truth.
I didn't find a manufacturing stamp on the one I encountered. Not sure who made it. Forged in the pits of hell. Woods favorite carpenter
Mine did have a litle pitchfork logo... just a coincidence I'm sure.PaulB
I've found that many CI tubs will shatter--if you call the way a warm chocolate bar breaks "shattering"--they shatter about the way old leather or tree bark shatters. But the porcelain enamel is another story--that stuff's chipping and pinging off for minutes after you stop beating on the tub like some time delayed hand grenade. And those little shards or enamel are sharp!
I remember whaling on a tub my boss told me was CI and had dented the rim in about three inches. I told him I thought it was steel and he didn't think so--until he beat on it for a couple minutes and managed to put a couple dents in it. I finally cut it in half with my reciprocating saw and got it out that way.
Tub from Hell...
...sounds like a "Hot Tub" <g>
LOLLLLLLLLLLL...excellent.PaulB
I've had a few that seemed "soft".
Break damnit! I ain't interested in putting dents in it.
[email protected]
I tried it one time with a big sledge BONGGGGG!!!
I vibrated for an hour and was deaf for a week. Cut a hole in the end wall and dragged it out.......................in one piece.
roger
I vibrated for an hour and was deaf for a week
LOL!
Did the same thing! Never thought about the noise. Just did as someone told me and grabbed a sledge and hit what I thought was hard or should have broken it. My ears rand like a mudder, Dw came running into the bath wondering what had happened.
Grabbed a set of ear plugs and a set of ear muffs and really swung this time! It did the trick but thought I was going to tear the house down.
Now I know why I have tinninitus........
“Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.” Reagan....
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. -Truman Capote
At least the way you described it made for entertaining reading for the rest of us.
Good job.
Paul
I took a tub out in my house a few months ago that's probably the evil twin to yours!
I couldn't do anything with a sledge except remove the porcelain, had to get the sawsall out and cut the damn thing in half, still wouldn't come out so I had to cut one of those halves in half and finally got it out. Used about 8 or 10 Milwaukee Torch and Lenox Lasers, Mine only weighed about 375 but I got enough money to buy myself lunch!
Doug
And on the other side of the problem . Mine was a 5' x 5' x 22" cast iron corner tub with skirts that was salvaged out of a 1920's hotel. Had man handled down a 30' x 30" hallway , moved though two doors and installed in the corner of a bathroom barely big enough to turn it around in. Only to find out the plumber needed it moved out of the room to finish his rough in. I think the corner of the house settled 2" when we finally got it into place.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
I had the opposite problem, sort of...
I was doing a gut renovation on an inner city duplex for affordable housing for a church-run family shelter and someone donated a nice old cast iron tub which was to go to the upstairs unit.
We just didn't have the backs to lug it up an L-shaped stairwar, so when the drywall was delivered on a boom truck I asked the driver if he'd mind beaming it up to an upstairs window (which we had removed).
He had to park the truck on the street about 20' from the side of the building, and reach over a chainlink fence and 8' tall shrubbery. He didn't want to risk dropping the tub, so he lifted a pallet of drywall onto the forks, brought it to the ground and after we loaded the tub on top, he asked me to ride it up to the window.
I wasn't working on this church project because I was religious, but I learned to pray that day!
Solar & Super-Insulated Healthy Homes
Speaking of CI tubs, I managed to be out of town when they dragged this one up the stairs. It was in my wife's house when her parents bought the house in the early 50's and sat in the yard for a generation or so (thankfully the wood rim was under cover). You may notice that the tub sits on a little platform on the floor. It's about 1" tall at one end and 3" at the other. Over 200 years, I guess we all sag a little here and there. When you walk into the bathroom, you sort of fall into it as the floor slopes away from the door.
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