I have a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, 4 level home where the steel tub has been covered with a vinyl liner and the walls are ceramic tile. The tub area is leaking and really needs to be replaced. There is no other shower or bath facilities in the home. The half bath only has a toilet and a sink. Is there any practical way to replace the tub and walls in a day or two while the family is living in the house?

I would appreciate any advice and any practical experience where you have done something similar.

You say "the tub area is leaking" - why not fix the leak?

Locating a leak and fixing it can be done in as little as a couple of hours.

However if you want a total bathroom remodeling, you are talking more than 2 days.

steel tub covered by fiberglass liner? so the only place that it could leak is the drain area? of the fiberglass?

Even if you are super organized & well prepared unless the occupants cooperate you'll be lucky to get it done in several days.

Last year we updated a bathroom for a client while they lived there. The also had a half bath which help makes the project doable. Before we got there on day 1 the owners had removed all of their stuff from the main bathroom. We gutted out the tub's wall area & replaced the mixing valve the first day. At the end of the day we hung temporary sheets of poly on the studs so they could use the shower. The next day we removed the old tub, fixed the floor under the tub, installed a new Kohler Vikrell tub & waited for the plumbing inspection. We had planned on installing the walls before the end of the day but the inspector didn't show up for our 2:00 inspection until almost 4:30. We installed some more poly for the night. The next day we installed the walls & put SR & tape on the space above the wall panels. Over the next couple of days we put a temporary patch in the floor by the tub & finished the SR. A couple months later while the family was away for vacation we removed & replaced the whole tile floor. Normally we would have scheduled the whole project to be done while they were away. However a the existing tub developed a major leak so we changed our plans.

The trouble with doing things like this in an occupied place is work hours are normally restricted, you have to be organized and you have try not to disturb their routine too much. No matter how much they say having workers there & not having their bathroom won't bother them, it does.

The simple answer is not practical while occupied, one thing wrong and there is a day hunting a way to solve the problem. Your tub reminds me of the tub over tub calamity my nephew had about 5 years ago, the seller just had this done, the tub was 68 inches which is larger than the common 60, after a couple years the liner lifted in the center so the tub always had water in it, we tried to tighten the drain thinking that was the problem, it wouldn't turn so we left for the day while he shopped for a better tool, he stopped to try the new gizmo and the extended part that allows the tub inlay broke, a whole new hunting expedition was born and none of the supply houses had any thing to help but at one place we talked with a plumber who used to work with these companies, they ignored any ugliness and just put up the overlay tub and walls quickly so the glue would dry while they cleaned up and went back to the shop to collect everything for the next day. So be prepared to replace decayed walls and flooring you can not see today.

We have tried to fix multiple leaks, some have worked and others haven't.

We removed a tub once as part of a total bathroom gut. One of my finest moments was heaving that old cast iron tub off of a second floor balcony into a dumpster. There's video. The apartment was unoccupied at the time.

can you ask them if there planning any spring or summer vacation? Otherwise put them up in motel for 1 week. They just need the shower-- and still live at there place.

If it's tile there's no way I would be considering replacing tub. This is a 3 or 4 hr repair. Get concrete backer board. Find the loose tiles and take them down-- the sheet rock behind will be wet so remove it-- don't take down the good or sound tiles. Clean up area and use the concrete board--- clean old tile back and thin set the old tiles back. Use large black trash bags and tape it over your reset tiles overnight. Next day comeback and grout.