Perils of Landlording: Tubs of Terror

The bathroom in my vacant rental has become quite the chore to correct.  When I purchase the place years ago, the bathroom looked something like this:

Look at all that nice new tile.  Seems like a winner right?  Well, for starters, clawfoot tubs should never be enclosed like this because there is no reasonable way to contain the water that splashes out of them due to showers usage unless there is a wrap around curtain.  This tub did not contain the hardware to such.  To complicate matters, all the plumbing was tiled over and made inaccessible for repairs or adjustments.  And finally, the tile was not grouted correctly which allowed water to seep behind the tile and drop onto the porous subfloor behind the tub.  Nice!

So, several months ago, after complaints from the downstairs tenants about water leakage, I decided to "desurround" the tub and install a wrap around curtain.  That job took me a full day to accomplish.  Here is how it turned out:

I thought the clawfoot tub was good looking.  However, it was quite evident when the tile was removed that the floor beneath it has been ruined.

Thus, when my tenants vacated I got to work removing the bad flooring.  At first I thought I could just remove what was under the tub.  But, it quickly became apparent that the entire floor would need to go.  I tore through the tile, then the concrete substrate.  The subfloor was totally rotted so I removed that.  Then I discovered linoleum under that.  It's subfloor was rotted too so I tore it out.  Then I got down to the original tongue and groove floors.  Tore them out.  Finally, I revealed the original subfloor...whew!

In all, this took seven hours to accomplish.  I had my plumber come in and inspect the piping.  There is so much galvanized pipe in the building that it would be more cost effective to use it till it quite working rather than patch pex pipe in here and there.  He said that galvanized pipe has about a 100 year life span  So, we won't be replacing it for probably another 10 to 20 years...fingers crossed.     

Finally, take a look at the amount of flooring that I removed.  You can see the layers all there on the wall.   It's interesting to see how they used diagonal planks to strengthen homes and prevent warping and creaking on the floor joists.  Arts and Crafts construction was superior to Victorian for this reason.  It's reassuring to know the bones in the building are solid. 

I will post a photo when we get the bathroom done later this week.