Changing from Left hand to Right hand tub

On my second floor bathroom, the tub is a left hand drain and runs the width of the room (5 ft). The toilet is spaced about 18" away from the tub on the left wall. Using the tub controls is a pain as you have to squeeze in between the toilet and tub in order to regulate the water.

I was thinking of converting the tub to a right hand drain, but I'd like to find out if it makes sense and most importantly will it meet code? I'm in Southeastern Pa. I'm guessing that the floor joists are 2x10, and the drain run would literally the width of the tub - 5 ft. Would I be able to setup the trap on the right side, run the drain line to the left side with the required pitch and tie back in?

I'm planning on a full bath renovation and will be replacing the floor tile, so the existing subfloor will be removed as the floor tile is on a wet bed. Thoughts? If you need a sketch I can make one.

It should be no issue at all to change the location of the drain during your renovation.

save your self the headache of moving the tub
and just move the water

What an interesting idea! Is moving the water controls and shower / spout to the opposite side a code compliant option? Will the tub drain properly?

The tub will drain just fine and no codes are broken. It’s just an esthetic thing.

Wiz02 said:

What an interesting idea! Is moving the water controls and shower / spout to the opposite side a code compliant option? Will the tub drain properly?

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There are no "code" issues moving stuff where you want it.

Aesthetics aren't my department, and the boss wants the controls moved. Thanks so much Frodo et al. you folks saved me a lot of work.

PlumbGate said:

There are no "code" issues moving stuff where you want it.

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True, but there may be permit and inspection issues, especially when you sell the property. You can sneak in a lot of mods, but this one will be way too obvious. A wizard idea, though.

you can put the shower head in the ceiling
you can put the spout on one wall and the valve on the other
heck man, you do not have to put the valve in the tub at all. it can be outside the tub

Frodo:
Love the tub graphic! What's funny is that I have a soak tub (that we never use) that looks similar to your drawing above, which proves your point. ( no showerhead though ) But still, I can't decide if it's because I've always seen the type of tub configuration I described at the beginning of the thread with the valve and spout on the same side of the tub as the drain or perhaps it truly is aesthetics, but it just feels weird to have the drain on the opposite side of tub from the valve/tub spout. When I demo the bathroom, I'll see if this novel (at least to me) idea bothers my sense of order sufficiently for me to run the drain line to the other end of the tub, or if I go with the "why do extra work if you don't have to" approach. Of course this means that I can't order a new tub until I demo the old one and look at the existing trap and drain configuration.