My wife & I are changing out all our faucets in our 7yr old home and I started on the hardest one first. I was able to remove the handles and old Roman tub spout but now I see that I will either need to remove the Whirlpool tub or cut a large access panel hole in the tile to access the plumbing fixtures to loosen the nuts which hold them in position. There is one access panel where the motor is plugged into under the sink in the base cabinet but this at the other end of tub and 6' or so from the plumbing that I need to reach.

http://deltacom.deltafaucet.com/medi...01_v1_426f.pdf

It looks like from the installation manual that this old Delta faucet would be easiest to work on if the tub was removed plus I would rather not cut a large hole to make an access panel. I'm also not sure if I can even reach the hot/cold pipe nuts from an access panel depending on how they framed the tub surround.

So my question is how easy and what do I need to do to remove the tub so that I can work on the plumbing fixtures and then reinstall it without breaking the fiberglass?

I took off the cover to the overflow tube and it looks like that is now free when I lift the tub out of the tiled enclosure. I assume that the tub drain just slides into the PVC pipe and doesn't need to be disconnected from below. I can unscrew the pull up plug but so far can't remove it from the drain. Do I need to remove this plug or can I just lift up on the tub and it all stays together?

Which should I do.. cut access panel or remove the tub?

 

If you disconnected the overflow plate along with the tub shoe drain piece, if no other piping is connected to the top part of this tub it should come out.

Sometimes the rubber washer glues itself to the bottom,,,,this might be the reason for the resistance.

Have you considered just changing the handles/trim on that Delta faucet instead of trying to remove the faucet all together?

Delta has many options with accessories since their stems are the same from years back.

 

Decided that I will go ahead and cut the access hole to see what I find. When I tried to loosen the stem for the spout it turned about 1/2 turn but stopped. I didn't want to break any pipes plus after looking at the manuals of similar Delta faucet there is a nut holding it tight to the fiberglass tub and a large washer on the top side. So it looks like I will need to cut the hole and might need to cut the pipe if it's sodered like the directions show in order to pull the stem out since the washer won't allow me to push it down along with the other hot & cold stems. The plumber must have installed the pipes/stems while the tub was in place and before the surround was sheetrocked. I'll post my results.

The reason why I just don't replace the old with Delta handles & new spout is my decorator/wife wants them all to match the new light fixtures from Price Pfister. Thanks for the help & ideas.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...315&lpage=none

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...K00&lpage=none

 

When you cut access, use one of those panels so you can access the area in the future. I can see the reason for following the logic on keeping everything matching. I think Delta has the best options for working on them, but I think they lack on variety of styles.