The plumber's 20 second advice changed my whole bathroom reno plan

I was tearing out a cast iron tub in a 1920s bungalow in Columbus, Ohio. The guy I hired to help with the drain line, old Pete, just stood there watching me for a bit. Then he pointed at the wall and said, "You're gonna put the new tub in before you check the studs, aren't you?" I was about to, yeah. He showed me how they were rotted near the bottom. That one comment saved me from setting a $1,100 tub into a wall that woulda collapsed in a few years. I spent the next two days sistering in new lumber instead. Fixed the floor joist from the earlier water damage too. Has anyone else had a pro catch a simple thing that would've cost you triple later?

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wright.richard27d ago

Cast iron tubs are heavy enough that folks forget the wall behind em is doing real work, not just looks. Rotted studs usually mean the leak was happening for years, not months, so that water damage probably went deeper than the bottom plate too. Old Pete saved you from a whole different kinda headache, good on him for speaking up before you buried the problem.