# level/trim a bathtub on an unlevel floor



## mrpurty (Mar 3, 2009)

I'm installing a new bathtub (enameled steel one piece bootz tub - LH drain - 60" wide x 30" deep - styrofoam padding underneath so you don't use concrete to level it - http://www.bootz.com/Product%20Pages/Aloha%20Page.html) in my house. It's an old house so the floor is out of level where i'm installing the tub. The high side is on the right (non-drain end). The floor drops an inch over the 60". I installed the ledger board to the back wall level so that the bathtub sits level on the right/high side. This causes the left (drain end) to be a good inch off the floor when the top of the tub is leveled left to right and front to back.

Any ideas on what I should do here? 

My first thought was to shim up the left front with plastic shims. It seems pretty extreme to try to caulk up and trim out later with half round or something similar though. So far this is the option I'm leaning toward. Jacking up the house isn't an option - the high side is the outside wall that is sitting on the foundation wall, where the low side is toward the middle of the house. I know there are floor leveling products out there, but with a full inch off by the time i get to the bathroom door i'm going to have a inch step up to get into the bathroom, which isn't exceptable.

I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts ...


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

What about lowering the floor on the high end of the tub?
Take the part of the sub floor up & allow the tub edge/rim to sit on the beams. My old tub only had an edge that sat on the sub-floor. So basically I could have cur a groove in the sub floor & allowed the tub to sit 3/4" lower on that end

Of course my new tub has a styrofoam pad on the bottom that would never allow me to do that


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## Plumber101 (Feb 25, 2009)

scuba_dave said:


> what about lowering the floor on the high end of the tub?
> Take the part of the sub floor up & allow the tub edge/rim to sit on the beams. My old tub only had an edge that sat on the sub-floor. So basically i could have cur a groove in the sub floor & allowed the tub to sit 3/4" lower on that end
> 
> of course my new tub has a styrofoam pad on the bottom that would never allow me to do that



geeeeeeez


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## mrpurty (Mar 3, 2009)

So use a router to rout out a groove for the front skirt so that it sits lower on the high side (right) and level with the subfloor on the low side (left)? And trim the foam as needed? Sounds pretty reasonable.

Or should I just ditch the styrofoam that comes on it?


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## mrpurty (Mar 3, 2009)

scuba dave - thanks for the advice. i did something along the lines of your suggestion and it worked like a charm


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## metx (Dec 24, 2008)

to set a tub properly , you need to put 2 things 1 a ledger and 2 a mud base,level out your ledger then use struterlite and set the tub right into a the bed then level .1 usually go 1 more step tin or fiberglass tub i will wrap with installation


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## mrpurty (Mar 3, 2009)

i hung my ledger level. the floor wasn't level though. there was no need for a mortar bed - it was a steel tub with thing layer of foam glued to the bottom. my first thought was to shim the high end in the front (on the front skirt) - but the gap was too big to be covered by the flooring i'm using. instead i notched the plywood subfloor on the low end - now the high end is level with the floor and the low end (just the skirt) sits in the notch. i left the foam on the bottom and skimmed a little off as needed. it worked perfectly. the problem wasn't so much how to level the tub, just how to prevent having a large gap where the front skirt hits the floor


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## metx (Dec 24, 2008)

even with the foam I still lay mortar ,because the lighter tubs will start to 
squeak .


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