How to Adjust the Plumbing for a New Tub

LESLIE: Tom in Arizona is working on a bathroom project. Welcome to The Money Pit.

TOM IN ARIZONA: I’m remodeling a hall bathroom. It’s a small bathroom and it has a tub, which is the original built, you know, in the house in ’79. It’s a cast-iron. It’s 30 inches by 60 inches by 14 inches deep.

Now, I was thinking and wanted to see about maybe putting in a 32×60 that would be 16¼ inches deep. It’s a KOHLER tub.

TOM: OK.

TOM IN ARIZONA: Now, how much problem am I going to have to have to move over the possibility of a new drain, a new fill and I understand there may be a vent pipe that could possibly be interfering there somewhere?

TOM: Well, first of all, when you replace your fixtures like that, you invariably have to make some adjustment to the plumbing. So what you’re describing is not necessarily further complicating this project in a really big way. You already had to do this. You would be – it would be very unlikely for you to find a new bathtub that fit in the exact space of the old bathtub.

But certainly, you’re going to have to do some plumbing. When you get the old tub out, you can make all those changes to move the supply pipes and the drain pipes to the proper rough-in locations and then you drop in the new KOHLER and you’re good to go.

TOM IN ARIZONA: The thing is, is it really worth the value? There’s nothing – I’ve got one, small chip in this tub that I have now. I’m looking at value. I live in Phoenix, where the home values are way down that …

TOM: Well, if you’re telling me that you’ve got one, small chip in a tub and for that you want to replace the whole thing, yeah, I would be hard-pressed to make that economic argument for a chip. But if you want a wider tub – I mean KOHLER is particularly good at accessibility issues and if you’ve got one that’s bigger and wider and going to be more comfortable for you, then that’s the reason to do it; not to replace the old, chipped tub that you had in the first place.

TOM IN ARIZONA: OK. I appreciate it, because it’s been a difficult decision to make, cost-wise.