Cast Iron Bath to go upstairs??

pennylemon

Hi

We have just moved into a brand new house and I have an old cast iron bath I want to get into the bathroom upstairs. My partner reckons it cant be done as it would be too heavy.

Does anyone know were I would even find out this kind of information?
I asked my local plumber and he doesn't know! I know it would be a mission just to get it up the stairs and round two turns, but will the bathroom floor take the weight even full of water? We managed to get the piano upstairs last week and it took 5 men 15 minutes to do it.

Outkast_IRE

i cant see why it wouldnt i would put a sheet of 3/4 ply on top of the floorboards first though that will help spread the weight more evenly underneath it .

But ya you see cast iron baths upstairs in old houses all the time , mind you i would only bother if it was a cast iron bath that was good quality/design in the first place there plenty of crap looking ones out there.

Master and commander

can't see any problem with it. ply should not be nessecary really. its not that heavy that it'll go through the floor. Just plenty of strong men under it and use the noggin and it should go in.
recently me and 3 others carried a coffin (specially made) for a 26 stone man out of a tiny house with two 90 degree doglegs in the stairs. i though impossible but the undertaker man when how to manage adn it was out in no time.

pennylemon

Thanks, I thought so.

The bath is the old fashioned free standing type, with the four legs. It is fairly big and is very very heavy. I know this because it was moved out of a house in Dublin, downstairs and into a trailer and now its sitting inthe garage (what a waste)

It just needs to be re enameled.

Joey the lips

Its not as straight forward as highlited.

Houses that were built previously to take a cast iron bath would have extra batton support and side by side support on the joists in the bathroom;

Just pop along over to the construction forum and they will explaing how to do this. I have been lucky that i have only had to have it done a couple of times and the lads i had working for us knew what they were doing.

Regardless of what support you put in unless the bath will be free standing and on display stand it on blocks of sold wood. If you plan to have ball and claw feet as a display then use heavy sheets of ply under them

pennylemon

Joey the lips wrote: »

Regardless of what support you put in unless the bath will be free standing and on display stand it on blocks of sold wood. If you plan to have ball and claw feet as a display then use heavy sheets of ply under them

Ok thanks for that, So I'll repost this over in construction I suppose it's not really a plumbing issue then? And yes, it has the ball and claw feet so I think wooden blocks under would look silly.

Thanks for your help

Sparkpea

I don't see a problem, theres no reason why it wouldn't take the weight

it will take at least 4 men to carry it up the stairs

AlexJohn24

There may be some benefit to raise the floor and then cover it to help distribute the weight, but it is something that could only be advised after a site assessment by a qualified professional. It is certainly not something you want to be guessed.