Should You Keep the Tub or Switch to a Shower?
How to decide between keeping a bathtub and switching to a walk-in shower, starting with how many tubs the house has and who uses the room.
Count the tubs in the house
Count how many tubs the house will have left when you're done. Keep at least one.
Two full baths and a barely-used tub? Converting it is easy. The only tub in the house is worth slowing down over.
Resale
No one can promise what a future buyer wants. Buyers with kids often want a tub; skip it and you may get fewer looks. A big walk-in shower appeals too. Selling soon, ask a local agent what's moving. Staying put, how you live matters more than a guess about who buys next.
Who uses the bathroom
Small kids are easier to bathe in a tub, and someone who soaks for sore muscles will miss it. But a tub wall gets harder to step over with age or after surgery, and a low-curb or curbless shower fixes that. In a house of adults showering every morning, a tub just takes up space.
Picture the next five or ten years, not just this one: a young family and a retired couple want opposite things from the same room.
Primary bath or hall bath
The primary bath gets used by the same people most days, so it's usually built around a walk-in shower. The hall bath, shared with kids and guests, suits a tub, or a combo of both.
Options in between
It's not always one or the other. A tub can stay under a new tiled surround, with glass instead of a curtain for a less dated look.
If the tub's in good shape, put the money into the vanity or floor. A bigger bathroom might fit tub and shower both, separately: see full bath remodel. A small one: see small bath remodel.
Questions to work through
- How many tubs will the house have if this one comes out?
- Is this the primary bath, or the one guests and kids use?
- Who uses this room now, and who's likely to later?
- Does anyone need a tub for small kids or for soaking?
- Does anyone have trouble stepping over a tub wall?
- Are you selling soon?
- Would a combo or a refreshed tub do just as well?
- What budget range are you working with?
If you land on a shower
See the tub-to-shower conversion page. It is work we do constantly, and the shower almost always fits right where the tub was.
