Tub-to-Shower Conversions in Columbus, Ohio

A tub-to-shower conversion removes an existing bathtub and builds a walk-in shower in the same footprint, which frees up floor space and removes the tub wall a bather has to step over.

It is one of the projects Columbus homeowners call us about most often. The tub gets used twice a year. The shower over it is cramped, the sliding door is permanently cloudy, and climbing over a knee-high tub wall first thing in the morning stopped being charming a while ago. Taking the tub out fixes all of that without touching the vanity, the toilet or the layout.

What a Tub-to-Shower Conversion Includes

• Removal and disposal of the existing tub, surround and door
• Relocating the drain and replacing the valve and supply lines as needed
• A new shower pan or mud-set base, sloped to drain, with a low-threshold or curbless entry where the floor structure allows it
• Full waterproofing behind the surface, whichever surround you choose
• Tile or a solid surround to the ceiling, with recessed niches and a bench if you want them
• New shower fixtures: valve trim, head, and a hand shower on a slide bar
• Frameless or semi-frameless glass, templated against the finished walls
• Blocking for grab bars, installed now or left ready behind the wall

How the Project Runs

1. Consultation and measure. A designer comes to the house, measures the alcove, and checks what is under the floor, because that determines whether a curbless entry is realistic and what moving the drain will cost. You see surround and tile samples in your own light and leave with a written quote.
2. Selections. You lock in the surround, the tile, the fixture finish and the glass configuration. Anything we have to order sets the start date.
3. Demolition and rough-in. Two to three days. The tub comes out, the drain moves, the valve is replaced and the framing is corrected where it needs to be.
4. Waterproofing, base and surround. The pan goes in and gets tested, the waterproofing goes on, then tile or the solid surround. This is the bulk of the on-site time.
5. Glass. Templated against the finished walls, then fabricated and installed three to four weeks later. The shower is usable before the glass arrives.
6. Walkthrough. We go through it together, adjust what needs adjusting and confirm you are happy before we invoice the balance.

What Affects the Cost of a Conversion

Your written quote is built around your room and the surround you choose. Four things move the number more than anything else:

• What is under the floor. Moving a drain over a joisted floor is a morning's work. Moving one through a concrete slab means cutting, re-plumbing and patching, and it is the largest single variable in the quote.
• Tile against a solid surround. Tile costs more in both material and labor, and it is where niches, benches and pattern become possible.
• The glass. A single fixed panel is a fraction of the cost of a frameless door-and-panel assembly with hardware. Glass is often the difference between the middle and the top of the range.
• Curbless against low-threshold. A curbless entry needs the floor structure altered. A low-threshold entry gets most of the benefit for much less.

We hold to the written quote you get after the in-home measure. If something unexpected turns up behind the tub, and in a bathroom it sometimes does, you get options and a price before we proceed.

Aging in Place, Without It Looking Like It

A good share of these projects are planned years ahead of when they are needed, and that is the right time to do it. A curbless entry, a bench, a hand shower on a slide bar, a slip-resistant floor tile and blocking behind the walls are all standard design choices that happen to make a bathroom safe to use for decades. None of them look clinical. If accessibility is the reason you are calling, say so at the consultation and the design will account for turning radius, seat height and reach as well as looks.

When We Recommend Something Else

A conversion is the wrong project in a few situations:

• It’s the only bathtub in a family home. Consider converting a second bathroom instead, or a full remodel that fits both a tub and a shower.
• The tub itself is the problem but you still want a tub. That is bathtub replacement, and it costs less.
• The vanity, floor and lighting are all dated too. Doing it as one full remodel costs less than two separate projects, because the demolition, protection and scheduling only happen once.
• There is active water damage in the subfloor. That gets repaired first, on its own scope, before anything decorative goes back.