If you've ever installed a molded cast iron bathtub it can be quite the challenge to get everything level and supported correctly. 2x4 rails along the back side of the tub support the upper portion while the tub's feet support the bottom on the floor.

The rail in the back has to be just at the right height to match where the tub's feet are resting. Oh, some electrical box covers can act as shims for the feet but the back wall rail is kind of an all-or-nothing proposition.

I just got done fixing all kinds of water damage to the floor joists on the second level. The original installation crew notched one of the floor joists to accommodate the overflow plumbing of the tub. Given all the work I did to fix the exterior weather leak damage I was in no mood to cut up the repairs I just made in any way shape or form.

So, I decided to raise the tube by five inches or so... This should allow me to put standard ceramic tile as a kind of kick plate making the tub look like it's on a platform. In actuality the tub's feet are just on two pressure treated wood rails with 0.25" playing card sized pieces of steel to keep the feet from sinking into the wood.

The tub is very solid, level, and steady. However, I cannot use a traditional 2x4 rail on the front section of the tub's upper portion due to the plumbing and the gussets molded into the cast iron structural design.

Still, I wasn't comfortable with allowing the front entrance corner of the tub to remain unsupported.

I'll bet I could fab something up in steel to do the trick!

Below is what I came up with. It's just the scrap steel left over from my visit to the salvage yard to get plate steel last summer for the screw jack build for jacking up the house. Three sections of 0.25" plate are welded together to fit over a 2x4. There are four screw holds drilled on each side of the support.

Installation is just slipping them on to the 2x4 under the tub, sliding them up until the steel tongue contacts the rim of the tub from below, and screwing them into place.

There's no reason they need to be this beefy. It was just scrap so spending a lot of time on the fabrication was counterproductive.

The black Rust-Oleum kinda makes it difficult to see the details but the one installed on the 2x4 should be self-explanatory.


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