Whirlpool Tub

whirlpool

Project Manager Renee Metro

Jack of all trades Peter Metro

Since my daughter Adrienne’s death some years ago , the bathroom which was built for her went unused and became a storage area. It did not have a tub, just a accessible shower. The area was large enough to fit a standard size tub without major remodeling. Most of the bathroom is also tiled and would be expensive to replace and later, as we found out hard to match the original discontinued color. My daughter Renee, suggested the installation of a whirlpool bath, having done some research via the internet she found a new whirlpool tub on Craiglist that someone had purchased and did not want to install it or include it in their remodeling project. At such a discount from the new price the project started………..A quick check via the internet downloading specs of the tub for sale and some measurements it was possible to determine that the plumbing and electrical wouldn’t require major gutting of the bathroom for installation.As to water supply there was an existing shower valve that could be re-plumbed to a required tub spout. The mixer cartridge would have to be replaced as many years had passed without use and the pressure balancing portion had rusted in place resulting in no hot water only cold.The whirlpool was an American Standard 5′x32′ Left hand apron and came complete with drain kit and heater. With Renee’s assistance and her friend’s pickup truck, the whirlpool tub was delivered from NewYork .

tub detail, heater is installed inline in place of tube

Before the tub was installed, I hooked up the tip toe drain and centered it over the main floor drain, filled the tub and ran and
extension cord from the bath outlet and fired it up for a leak check. Passed!

it was time to start the demolition.

tile removal is tricky business, if the one next to the tile you remove cracks, guess what !
several methods like drilling and then cracking or routing out the grout with a dremel may work.
But they are glued to the substrate and take patience to remove.

the top, output of the diverter, was re-plumbed in a u-turn to a spout
below.

The wall had to have framing pieces installed where the tile was
removed to support the replacement cement board.

In retrospect there would be many
changes I would have done to make the
installation easier, but that is how things go the first time around.
Also this is a retrofit to existing walls, instead of knocking them out and framing and
tiling entire walls to tub specs. Not being a framing expert, I built
off the studs the required spacing to install the leveling stringers required by the manufacturer. I
blocked the faming with plywood for strength because this would
have to be stable and level and plumb in all planes enough for cement board and tile, even though tub manufacturerrequires that this tub be bedded in mortar across the bottom foot print and the stringers are just for leveling.

After much measuring, it was determined that the tub would be located close to equal distance from the front and back walls anda set distance from the side wall to center it on the supply
diverter and tub spout and the drain connection wouldn’t interfere with the floor joist. It would probably have been easier to just build a separate framework to make up the space and just nail it in, but leveling it to the existing floor. would be tricky because the floor is pitched to the center drain. Gutting the floor would be major work as it is a waterproof installation..

the stringers were attached to the framing ( not shown)

As it turned out I was able to use a-lot of plywood scraps that Renee had collected from people on Craiglist looking to get rid of unwanted materialand some she had bought when she constructed her benches for her glassworks. Some stringers and 2×4′s were purchased. One of the biggestproblems looked like it would be the drain line. As far as venting it was just after the floor drain anyway and it so happened that the floor drain(centered in the stall) could be cut and the tub drain could be plumbedin within the manufacturer dimensions . There is no easy access by way of the basement as this bathroom was a conversion from a garage and the access is only a about approximately 2 ft. from thegarage floor to the joist. After the plumbing parts arrived and after cut and dry fit of the drain lines/ and required overflow kit, drain and overflow lines could be assembledand glued in place and the tub (care fully !) dropped into place over the lines and connected without access from below ! WHEW ! I would just have to insure that the reqired gaskets could be put into place and the slip joints be properly dimensioned to the tub drain and overflow connections.

tub requires extended spout, online search quickly gave us may options.

On the electrical we would need 2 GFCI breakers and enough wire to the breaker panel to power the pump and heater.The receptacle was installed and the top and bottom of each outlet of the receptacle was separated for individual feeds.Do to an keypress error some of the other photos i took were deleted from the hard drive.Not shown, primed and painted framing, wiring to outlet and outlet installation, drain line dry fit and assembly, insulation installation final tub fit and mortar bedding mixing and seating.(more to follow later)

Fast forward

The tub is installed, less heater and temporarily can be powered by a GFCI existing outlet till the electrical connections are completed. I have used it several times. One nice feature of this tub is the overflow is plumbed from the top rim to what looks like 3 holes for a faucet mount. This provides maximum water depth for soaking. It’s much better than a standard size tub even
it it didn’t have the whirlpool function because it is deeper and you can fill it to the brim without worrying about the overflow as with a standard overflow mounted to the front wall of the
tub.

The tile for the horizontal space surrounding the tub (bull nose) has to be purchased. None was found to match the original green wall color but some close to the color of the trim and accent tile will be purchased. Lucky we were given the tile left over from the original conversion but not enough bull nose.

Peter Metro 4/23/2011

disclaimer: don’t let these pictures fool you, if you are attempting to do this project on nights and weekends, there is alot of labor involved in a project like this, it took several months to complete each phase. Invest time on planning and research.

best advice : measure at LEAST twice, cut once…..