How do you break a cast iron bathtub?

Question

my dad and i are re-doing our bathroom and the bathtub is too big and heavy to move, only option is breaking it.

Answer 1

get a circular saw with a blade suitable to cut iron, and cut into small pieces

Answer 2

if you ever see some mexicans standing around in a parking lot at like a home depot (or some other store), they're day laborers. get 4 and give them 10 bucks each to get that tub out the door. if you really can't afford 40 bucks then there isn't much left that costs less than 40 bucks that's destructive (and totally legal) to break a cast iron tub. Maybe you're doing it wrong. Cast iron is a metal, very hard, and extremely heavy (as you have learned). Since it's hard, most likely it would be brittle and not as malleable as other metals. Its a clue as to what kind of force needs to be exerted to break tub like that. You would be looking for something that creates a powerful shockwave to force that metal to move in ways it can't. The shockwave would shatter the material, which would allow you to break it apart and take it outside. I can't think of anything that's not a bomb and that wouldn't destroy the rest of the house and that's legal that displays that kind of properties. I guess if you continuously bang on it with a sledgehammer or axe on the same spot on the edge of the tub over and over again it would break. How long that would take I have no idea. You'll need hearing protection because all that banging may dive you deaf.

Answer 3

Drill a line of holes in the tub and use a sludge hammer to hit along the holes. If you think you can, just hit with the hammer near the edges and chip it away piece by piece.

I have done the same thing with bathtubs and heat exchanger

Answer 4

Just did one. Not that it was so heavey-which it was- but no room to move it around. I took a big hammer and started beating. You have to start in the middle were it is the weakest. You won't be able to break it at the bends so look at the underside and you will see where there are no supports. thats where it will break and thats where you want to hit it. wear eye protection as the enamal tend to fly. also don't hit so hard that you rattle the plumbing or you will have to stop and fix a leak as i did!

Answer 5

Three pound sledge and a cold chisel to get things started.
Use a plastic drop cloth in the bottom of the tub and pound through that, so the shards don't fly as much.
Need I add, use ear, eye and hand protection.
Remember cast iron is recycleable, you may get a few bucks for it.
Best of luck.

Answer 6

did this, use a 3 lbs hammer, the sledge hammer makes to much a mess.....tip: put on eye and ear protection, cause ur ears will ring..

if u can flip the tub over upside down.....tap it in the middle along the edge and working toward the bottom and back up the other side...repeat this but striking it a little harder each time....

it will crack on that line and reduce mess and damage...then repeat it on the 2 pieces u just created and u will have 4 easy to remove pieces.....

lic. gen. contractor

Answer 7

i do not envy you the job at hand...try a sawsall with large hacksaw blade, you may use a few blades and sweat great oceans of sweat, that is an awfull lot of work. i had to do that once, and we wound up removing some walls and rebuilding them. some of these remodel jobs can be quite a chore...

Answer 8

A Big sledge hammer will work. Be prepared for noise and sweat.

Answer 9

Sledge hammer?

Answer 10

just had that issue when my fiance and i remodeled our bathroom - your best bet is to use a sledgehammer - once you get one crack in the tub the rest is pretty easy to break apart