Austin
Bathtub Removal
in Austin
The old tub is out of the wall and now it's the largest object in your house, sitting in a room it can't leave through. We section it and carry it out in pieces — $90 fiberglass, $185 cast iron, disposal included. Stairs and narrow halls don't change the number.
How tub removal works
1 · Photo it
The tub and the path out. If you're unsure of the material, tap it — cast iron rings dull and heavy; fiberglass flexes.
2 · Disconnect first
If it's still plumbed in, a plumber shuts off water and frees the drain. Already out? Skip straight to booking.
3 · Out in pieces
Drop cloths down, sectioned in the bathroom, carried out, floor swept. Usually under an hour.
What bathtub removal costs in Austin
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Bathtub — fiberglass or acrylic | $90 |
| Bathtub — cast iron | $185 |
| Toilet | $64 |
| Vanity | $93 |
| Water heater (tank) | $131 |
| Rolled carpet or flooring | $68 |
| Whole bathroom gut — quarter truck | $241 |
| Whole bathroom gut — construction debris | $120 / cu yd |
| Order minimum | $100 |
A tub on its own clears the $100 minimum comfortably. If the tile, drywall, surround and fixtures are all going, the quarter-truck rate is usually cheaper than pricing each piece — we quote both ways automatically. Full Austin price list.
Fiberglass vs. cast iron — why the price doubles
| Fiberglass / acrylic | Cast iron | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical weight | 60–90 lbs | 300–400 lbs |
| How it leaves | Often whole, or cut in half | Broken up in place, carried in pieces |
| Crew | Two people, straightforward | Two people, protective gear, drop cloths |
| Time on site | Minutes | Longer — the break-up is the job |
| Where it goes | Disposal | Metal recovery |
| Flat price | $90 | $185 |
Not sure which you have? Tap the side. Cast iron sounds dull and solid and won't flex at all; fiberglass gives slightly under pressure and sounds hollow. Enamelled steel sits in between and prices as fiberglass. If you photograph it, we'll tell you.
Why no bulk program takes a tub
A bathtub is remodeling debris, and construction material is explicitly outside Austin Resource Recovery's on-demand bulk collection — as it is outside every suburb's scheduled collection. Dragging a tub to the curb produces a notice rather than a pickup, and a cast iron one produces a notice you can't easily undo, since putting it back is harder than getting it there.
It's also the item most likely to sit in a garage for months. The demo happens on a Saturday, the tub comes out, and then the project stalls on the one question nobody planned: how does 350 pounds of enamelled iron get out of the house and into a truck? The full refusal list.
The Austin bathrooms this happens in
Central bungalows. Hyde Park, Crestview, East Austin and Tarrytown are full of pre-war and mid-century houses with original cast iron tubs, doorways under 30 inches, and one bathroom at the end of a hallway with a right-angle turn. Nothing leaves whole; sectioning is the only route.
Two-story suburban homes. Round Rock, Cedar Park, Circle C and Pflugerville put the primary bath upstairs, which turns a 350-pound object into a staircase problem. Same answer.
Condos and mid-rises. Downtown and The Domain add a freight elevator and a building schedule to the equation, which is a coordination problem rather than a pricing one.
Rentals mid-turnover. A cracked tub between tenants is a deadline job — same-day slots exist when booked by the 4 PM cutoff.
What's included
- Sectioning — cut or broken up in the bathroom, chips contained under blankets and drop cloths.
- The carry — down stairs, around corners, through halls the tub never fit through whole.
- Surround and tile — the wall material that comes with it, priced as debris.
- The other fixtures — toilet, vanity, water heater at flat published prices.
- Metal recovery — cast iron routes to scrap rather than landfill.
- A swept floor — the bathroom is left ready for the next trade.
Not included: plumbing disconnection, which a licensed plumber should do while the water is off, and anything hazardous. Asbestos-backed sheet flooring is genuinely common under old tubs in pre-1980 houses — if you suspect it, that's abatement work, and we'll say so rather than load it.
Before you break it up yourself
People do, and it's the right call sometimes — but two honest cautions. Enamel chips are sharp and they travel, which is why the professional method involves a blanket over the tub and eye protection under it. And an intact vintage clawfoot may be worth money: Austin has a real architectural salvage market, and a tub in good condition is worth a phone call before a sledgehammer. A builder-grade alcove tub from the 90s, on the other hand, has no market whatsoever — swing away, or let us handle it.
Bathtub questions, answered
How much is bathtub removal in Austin?
$90 fiberglass or acrylic, $185 cast iron — sectioning, carry and disposal included.
Why the difference?
Cast iron is 300–400 lbs and has to be broken up in place. Fiberglass is a two-person lift.
Do you disconnect the plumbing?
No — a plumber should, with the water off. If the tub's already out, we just take it.
It's upstairs at the end of a narrow hall.
Standard job. Sectioning makes access irrelevant, and the price doesn't change.
Can the whole bathroom go at once?
Yes — the gut prices as truck-fill from $241 or $120 per cubic yard, usually cheaper than piece-by-piece.
Is my old tub worth anything?
An intact vintage clawfoot, maybe. A 90s alcove tub, no. Cast iron goes to metal recovery either way.
Frequently asked questions
How much does bathtub removal cost in Austin?
$90 for a fiberglass or acrylic tub and $185 for cast iron. That gap is honest rather than arbitrary: a fiberglass unit is a two-person lift, while a cast iron tub runs north of 300 pounds and generally has to be broken up in the bathroom before anything moves. Both prices include the sectioning, the carry-out and the disposal.
Why is cast iron more than twice the price?
Weight and method. A standard cast iron tub weighs roughly 300 to 400 pounds empty, which is more than two people can safely carry down a staircase or around a hallway corner. The normal approach is to break it up in place with a sledge under a heavy blanket to contain chips, then carry it out in pieces. That's slower, needs protective gear and drop cloths, and puts a lot of weight on the truck. A hauler quoting the same price for both types hasn't looked at which one you have.
Do I need a plumber first?
For a tub that's still connected, yes — the water should be shut off and the drain and supply properly disconnected before removal, and that's plumbing work rather than hauling work. If the tub is already out and sitting in the room, the garage or the driveway, we just take it. Most of our tub jobs are the second kind, called in by a homeowner or contractor after demo.
Can you get it down the stairs or around a tight corner?
Yes — that's precisely what sectioning solves. Central Austin's older bungalows and the metro's two-story homes both produce bathrooms where nothing leaves whole, and the answer is the same either way: the tub comes apart and goes out in carryable pieces. Stairs, narrow halls and tight doorways don't change the flat price.
What about the rest of the bathroom?
Fixtures price individually — toilet $64, vanity $93, water heater $131 — or the whole gut prices as truck-fill starting at $241 for a quarter load, which is usually the cheaper way to move a full bathroom's worth of tile, drywall, surround and fixtures together. We quote both and you take the lower one.
Is an old tub worth anything?
Occasionally, and it's worth checking before you swing a sledge. An intact vintage clawfoot in decent condition has a genuine resale and salvage market in Austin, and architectural salvage outlets will sometimes take one. A standard builder-grade alcove tub from the 1990s has no market at all. Cast iron that does get broken up still routes to metal recovery rather than straight to landfill.
Ready to Get It Gone?
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