Walk-In Shower or Keep the Tub: What the Plumbing Side Involves

Before you decide between a walk-in shower and a tub, it helps to know which parts of the job are plumbing, which are not, and where the cost actually sits.

This question usually arrives for one of three reasons: somebody in the house has started finding the tub hard to step into, a bathroom is being redone anyway, or a rental needs to stop looking like 1988. The right answer is different in each case, and the plumbing is only one part of it.

The short version. If it is the only bathroom in the house, think hard before losing the tub. If it is a second bathroom, or the people using it are struggling to step over a rim, a walk-in shower is usually the better outcome.

What is plumbing and what is not

This matters because it decides who you are hiring and in what order.

Ours: the tub or the shower pan set and levelled, the drain and overflow, the trap under the floor, the mixing valve in the wall, and the trim on the front of it. We test it before anything gets closed up, because the one thing you cannot do cheaply is find a leak after the wall has gone back on.

Not ours: tile, glass, surrounds, and the finish work around them. That is a separate trade. We schedule our work around whoever is doing it, and on a bathroom being redone that normally means we are in twice: once for the rough work and once to fit the trim at the end.

Where the money actually goes

Most people assume the fixture is the expensive part. On the plumbing side it usually is not. The valve is.

A shower or tub mixing valve runs $500 to $1,200, and the reason it sits at the top of the fixture range is that the wall has to come open to reach it. If you are already opening that wall for a conversion, replacing the valve at the same time costs far less than doing it as its own job two years later. The full fixture price ranges are here.

If the valve is old enough that it is not pressure balancing, replacing it is worth doing regardless. That is the valve that stops the shower swinging hot when a toilet flushes, and it is code on new work.

Reasons to keep the tub

• It is the only bathroom. Families with small children look for a tub, and a one bathroom house with no tub narrows who will rent or buy it.
• The tub is sound and only the valve or the trim is tired. A valve and trim job is a fraction of a conversion, and it makes an old bathroom feel considerably newer.
• The drain would have to move. A tub drain and a shower drain are not in the same place. Moving one means getting under the floor, which on a Shore house means the crawlspace, and that is a bigger job than the fixture suggests.

Reasons to go to a walk-in shower

• Somebody is stepping over a rim they should not be stepping over. This is the reason that matters most, and it is the one people put off longest.
• It is a second bathroom. Keep the tub in one, put a shower in the other, and the house covers everybody.
• The tub has gone soft underfoot or cracked. At that point you are replacing something either way, so the choice is free.

On rentals and second homes

A lot of the bathrooms we work on around Chincoteague and Cape Charles are in houses that are only occupied part of the year. Two things are worth knowing. First, a bathroom that sits unused for months has a trap that can dry out, which is where the smell comes from when you open the house up. Second, a slow leak behind a shower valve in an empty house runs until somebody visits. If the place stands empty, shut the water off at the main when you leave, which is the same advice as for finding a hidden leak and for much the same reason.

Whichever you choose, the trim comes last

Valves, diverters, spouts, and shower arms are the visible end of all of this, and they are also the part that gets changed most often. If you like the bathroom and only the trim looks tired, that alone is a cheap job. See faucet and fixture work for the trim side, or bathtubs and showers for the rest of it.

How much does it cost to replace a shower or tub valve?

$500 to $1,200, because the wall has to come open to reach the valve. It is the top of the fixture price range for exactly that reason.

Do you do the tile and the shower surround?

We do the plumbing side: the tub or the shower pan, the drain, the valve and the trim. Tile, glass, and surround finishing is a separate trade, and we schedule our work around whoever is doing it.

How long does the plumbing side of a tub replacement take?

Usually a day for a straightforward swap. If tile or a surround is being redone, our work happens in two visits around that.

Why does the shower go hot when someone flushes a toilet?

The flush pulls cold water out of the line, so the mix at the shower swings hot. A pressure balancing or thermostatic valve evens it out, and it is what we fit as standard.

Is a walk-in shower better for resale on a rental?

It depends who rents it. A house with only one bathroom is usually worth keeping a tub in, because families with small children look for one. A second bathroom is where a walk-in shower makes the most sense.

Written by the team at Shoresteady Plumbing, Temperanceville, Virginia. Master plumbing licensed in Virginia and Maryland. Prices shown are typical ranges for the Eastern Shore, not a quote. Your written estimate is the only number that binds either of us.

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