Heavy Bath & Stairs - Help!

[richo106]

Hi All

 

I've been putting this off for a while but its finally time to try and get my new (heavy) bath upstairs. My bath is 180kg (unpackaged) and is 760 x 1800mm but rectangular (no rounded edges)

https://www.lussostone.com/products/ethos-freestanding-stone-bath-1800mm

 

I have also attached a couple of pictures of my stairs to try and help, the shortest width of my stairs is 805 (from inside post to inside riser)

 

I have a few strong mates I could ask, would 4 of us manage to get it upstairs just by lifting?

 

I am open to any ideas/suggestions that would help with getting the bath upstairs!

 

Have to got any shape/size of wood cut to act as runners etc..

 

Any help would be very much appreciated as my bathroom fitter is coming in 3/4 weeks so starting to panic abit now!

 

[Russdl]

I presume it’s still in its box? Get some rope attached around the box for starters - something to grab hold of when gravity tries to do its thing. 
 

My son and I dragged a similar heavy Lusso bath upstairs during the build. We laid scaffold planks on the stairs to make a nice smooth slope and then push/pulled it up, belayed with a rope secured at the top of the stairs.
 

In the photos you posted it doesn’t look like the belaying option is available without trashing your finished walls/carpets, but plenty of muscle as a backstop should work just as well. 

As we got to the top of the stairs with the bath at a precarious angle we lifted the last two scaffold planks (joined together after the bath had passed) to get the bath horizontal and then slide it sideways onto the landing.
 

Looks like that may not work in your case because of the bannister but you could probably get the bath vertical at the top of your stairs and then with all the muscle around and rope around the box manoeuvre it into the bathroom. Piece of cake!

[G and J]

Genie lift till above the balustrade and four strong peeps to lift it off the lift down onto the landing?

[Redbeard]

I still have vivid memories of getting my cast-iron bath up our stairs (incl 2 winders) 38 years ago. I was younger then, and had 2 friends who were built like 'masonry toilets' (phrase amended for delicacy). One got underneath 'wearing' the bath like a turtle-shell, and the other one and I (definitely the weakest link) took the ends. I do not recommend this method, and I very much like G&J's idea, which could not have worked for us. The only circs in which a Genie lift might have helped would have been if we had removed the bathroom window - and we hadn't! Why ion earth did we choose a cast-iron bath? Because we had bought our replacement 'suite' from my preferred bathroom supplier, the local scrap dealer. He had plenty of plastic baths, which I wanted as much as a hole in the head,but I wanted a pressed steel one. They did not have pressed steel, but 'we've got this'... From the manual handling point of view, not one of my wisest choices! It's still in situ, though.

[ProDave]

Can the glass banister panels be removed?  I like the Genie lift idea, but it would be a lot less frightening if the glass could be removed and the bath only then needs lifting to floor level and sliding over from the lift.  Then glass replaced.

[Tetrarch]

I would suggest that trying to slide this upstairs sounds attractive, but sounds hellishly dangerous for the guys UNDERNEATH

 

I like the idea of a genie. The trouble with a genie is the weight transfer when you try shift it laterally. I had a large problem trying to move a 75kg skylight through its own "hole" - up was fine - it was just the transition from vertical to horizontal that was a challenge.

 

Removing the glass would make things enormously easier. You can then genie the whole bath and fix some scaff boards across the diagonal to take the weight straight off the genie

 

Very best of luck

 

Regards

 

Tet

[Russdl]

2 hours ago, Tetrarch said:

 

I would suggest that trying to slide this upstairs sounds attractive, but sounds hellishly dangerous for the guys UNDERNEATH

 

What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

(I’m delighted to report that somehow nothing went wrong)

 

 

Edited yesterday at 12:07 by Russdl

[Mike]

Sliding along runners works well, but at 180KG it could go dangerously wrong for the people beneath. I've slid heafty gluelam beams to roof level before, using a pulley on the scaffold to avoid anyone beneath.

 

I think I'd probably do similar by building a scaffold tower (metal or timber) the full width of the landing at the head of the stairs, to get the pulley up near ceiling level. That would enable you to pull the bath up the stair sliders and up onto its end, then move the pulley and lower it down onto its side again.

 

 

[Mr Punter]

I think you can hire a powered stair climber.