As part of doing a couple of other things in the bathroom, but wife wants to replace the bath and is looking in the sales.
The one we've got - Ideal Standard Tempo Cube (we think) - has quite angled sides and is actually very narrow at the bottom. Not a problem for her, but the kids are getting bigger and it could be quite narrow for any visitors. Would also be handy to have a bath with a grab handle.
The existing bath has been tiled around, so I'll need to cut the silicone around the bath to get it out, but I don't want to have to take any tiles off, if I can possibly help it. I'll also need to remove the shower screen. I'm concerned that, because of the tiles, I'll probably need to remove one side of the door frame to slide it out from under the tiles, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue to replace. Whoever fitted it in the first place would have had room to take it in vertically and then lie it down before the tiling went in.
Now, we've found a Carron bath that seems to fit the bill, made out of their own Carronite material, which claims to be thicker, stronger, more rigid and retains heat better than a standard acrylic bath - they're also more expensive than an acrylic bath, but we've found one at an acceptable price.
So, my questions are firstly, are they worth the extra money and, secondly, how hard are they to fit, given the weight and that I've got very limited space to manouvre in the bathroom?
I will have taken out the sanitaryware for the other jobs, but it'll still be very tight, as I'll only have about 7" clear at one end. Existing plumbing should match up and I don't need to drill any tap holes, as it fills via the overflow - mixer tap on the wall above the bath for bath/shower.
Thanks in advance.