Help? Anyone? Tub Repair -- Drain

[nwwoman]

Hey Folks --

I am replacing tub today and tomorrow. First hiccup has already occurred and the day has just started!

Began looking at removal of drain from current tub. This is a 54X23 plastic tub. Friend borrowed drain wrench from local plumber. He said the drain wrench would not fit and he discovered that two of the four limbs on the cross piece in the drain (+) were gone. Who knows how or when. He tried a bit more to remove the drain and the remaining cross pieces broke.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to now remove the drain????

[Yanita]

Hi,

Welcome to the site.

I am going to move this to the Repair forum, someone will be along directly to help you out.

Yanita

[nwwoman]

Hmm, so my second screw up? All in one morning? Good grief. Thank you for moving it. Not sure where I first posted it.

I have been reading the manual. Nice manual, I must say. Good distraction from the drain pipe removal issue.

Well, my friend is at it in the bathroom. He used some sort of tool to crack the perimeter of the drain -- per instructions of and tool provided by local plumber friends. But, now that that three-hour job (ick!) is done, he is yipping about not being able to still remove it from the pipe. It looks like there's no choice other than to crack the tub. Oh well. I guess the tub was already cracked, so who cares at this point.

I did see in the manual how one can go in through the wall to get to the pipe. I mentioned it to my friend.

I suspect testosterone is preventing him from going in through the wall? Or a desire to crush something? Maybe that's one and the same?

Well, back at it.

[Yanita]

Hi,

If I am not mistaken generally the drain pipe can be removed from under the home, the shower water lines etc are in the wall.

Yanita

[nwwoman]

Hi --- You might be right. Not sure. Mark's manual says that you can access the drain pipe either through the wall or from below, depending on home. I have an access panel right behind the tub wall on the flip side (behind dryer). So, I am crossing my toes, that we can access both from there. At this moment, he was able to snap the drain pipe metal topper (the round washer-like ring that sits inside the tub) completely off -- after three hours of being at it. The last piece fell into the pipe. Oh what fun.

His thinking is that he can now simply life the tub up. We'll see.

I am trying to figure out how to remove the rivets that hold the edge trim at the bottom of the surround. They looked like screws initially but now I see that they cannot be unscrewed.

Gosh, I hope the surround can be removed from the board. It looks like the surround and board backer are as inseparable as the wallpapered walls.

I am sure grateful for this web site and Mark's manual!