Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - How to bust up a cast iron tub?

I have a bathtub that is original to the house. aprx 70 years old. I'm trying to break it with a 20lb sledge hammer. I keep smacking it and all it does is jump around about an 1/8 of an inch in its original spot. It dented a little also. There has to be a trick to this right? Any hints on how to get this thing out of my life?
Thanks again for all your help guys!

"Chase"

Well I hate to be the one to tell yoy this but it's possible that your
whaling away at a sleel tub and I don't mean any steel but nsteel
steel the kind they produced 70 years ago when made in the USA
meant something. If it were cast iron I'm sure it would have broken by
now.
Plan to get about 4 guys after you knock out the wall and detach it from the plumbing. I know you will think this is crazy but I have seen people actually cut out an opening to chunck the tub right out of the house and then install a window afterwards. Tearing out a tub is HECK most of the times. Cast Iron is brittle it should have broken already. I have also seen people cut them in Half. Is it possible for you to Quit the Hammering and Refinish the tub? This maybe a cost efficient option.

Next approach, call in somepne with a cutting torch or a cut off saw, and then you will have two pieces, a little lighter in weight.
Good l;uck!
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by chaseyme:
I have a bathtub that is original to the house. aprx 70 years old. I'm trying to break it with a 20lb sledge hammer. I keep smacking it and all it does is jump around about an 1/8 of an inch in its original spot. It dented a little also. There has to be a trick to this right? Any hints on how to get this thing out of my life?
Thanks again for all your help guys!

"Chase" <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

------------------
Gary Goel/Owner Newkote Kitchen & Bath Refinishing
We are just a shade better...
gary@newkote.com

[This message has been edited by Newkote (edited May 10, 2000).]

I agree with Gary. What you have is a quality "Made in the U.S.A." product. This quality is still available, but, few of us can afford it.

About 1/4 pound of C4 should solve the problem. Just remember to open the bathroom window so the blast has somewhere to go rather than into the hallway. This method of demolition can really mess up your carpets and the wall opposite the bathroom door.

As Gary said, these are really heavy and requires lots of muscles. Sounds like you've bashed the heck out of it and re-finishing at this point may not be an option.

Good luck with the removal. Please let all of us know what you did to get it out.

Thanks

Ted

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ted Heissner:
About 1/4 pound of C4 should solve the problem. Just remember to open the bathroom window so the blast has somewhere to go rather than into the hallway. This method of demolition can really mess up your carpets and the wall opposite the bathroom door.

Are you telling me to blow up my bathtub????
:-) Oh my! At least you made me laugh! Girl scout over here guys!!!! Seriously though I'm going over to the new (old) house this weekend, I'm going to measure the bathroom door. Wish me luck. Because if it doesn't fit I may end up using the C4 on my fiance Matt instead!

P.s Originally I had 3 inches of floated Mortar on all the bathroom walls.(which was a real pain to remove!) I should have blown it up then eh?

It's too bad that you've banged the begeezes out of it, because beleive it or not, I often have clients looking for those. Refinished, they are a nice looking tub in a home of that era.

If you get it out in one piece, tell your Matt that your going to plant flowers in it out by the end of the drive ;)

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the way I go about posting the update on my bathtub from @#%$^%&&!!!! It would seem that I am not after all Superwoman! The plumbers came today and broke my "cast iron" bath tub. Then they smiled nicely and removed it! Thanks for all your help....banging away in Pgh...Chase.

Hate to tell you this. If you would have just looked around. Folks would have come and got your problem for no cost.

All water over the dam now.

The fellow is right. Refinishing is in. All you probably had to do, is look in the yellow pages, found the refinish folks, poof, problem solved.

They are redoing these in the Boston area if you bring the tub for $100-300, a complete refire, many colors. Problem finding a good tub to bring, you just had one.

Go buy a new one and you will understand why I say it is a valuable item, even as is. They would have been jumping for joy to get it free.

I'm I reading you guys right!!! Someone will come and remove my cast iron tub for free??? Lead me to them..yellow pages? Under what? Refinishers?
I'm remodeling my bathroom (30 yr. old house) the tub is way too low, doesn't even cover 1/2 my body and I'm a small person. Only good point is that it's 70" long. Original color is blue but the previous owners had it sprayed white, now it's chipping and it's so porous that it's a nice shade of grey!
I would love to have someone take it away, instead of finding out that I'm not Superwoman like Chase did! Although, can I have my cake & eat it too by getting some money on top of them removing it?
Candy

My neighbor suggested that I break up my old cast iron tub (vintage 1963) to ease its removal. After many whalings with a 24 oz hammer, I successfully destroyed the porcelain in the immediate area and created a crack with a small hole. And I am somewhat of a big guy (200#), and am in good physical condition. It took me a while, but I concluded that not all cast iron tubs go to pieces "with a few whacks" as I was told.

In the end, I used the old tub to learn the procedure for removing it from my rather small bathroom. Knowing the procedure made the installation of my new cast iron tub quite simple.

Lee,

A 3 pounder would have been better but you're right. It ain't that easy but it sure beats carrying one out!

I broke mine up with a sledge, I tried before removing the toilet and also broke up the toilet. needed a new one anyway,