Tub-to-Shower Conversion Checklist

A tub-to-shower conversion has one giant cost fork — whether the drain and valves move — and a handful of decisions that follow from it. Work through the planning list first, take the questions into every bid, and run the permit checkpoints before demolition. Print or save this page with your browser's print function; it is formatted for paper.

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Planning steps

Settle these before asking for bids — they are what the price actually depends on.

• Decide between a kit in the tub's footprint and a custom tiled shower.

  Converting a bathtub to a shower runs roughly $2,000 to $12,000 nationally per This Old House — the low end is a prefabricated kit in the existing footprint with drain and valve unchanged; the high end is a tiled walk-in shower with new pan, glass, and reworked plumbing.SOURCED

• Check whether this is your home's only bathtub before removing it.

  National Association of Realtors reporting holds that a home needs at least one tub to attract the widest group of buyers — converting a second bathroom is a safer bet than converting the only tub.SOURCED

• Keep the drain and valve locations if you can — moving them is the biggest single cost jump.

  National labor data puts moving a piping run at roughly $935 to $1,140 before any floor or wall repair — and tub and shower drains rarely sit in the same spot.SOURCED

• Plan the wet area as one continuous stage: demolition through tile, done once, inspected once.

  Dry-side items — vanity, lighting, paint — can each be their own weekend later; splitting the wet area multiplies cost and risk.

• Have the base and valve on hand before demolition; expect glass last.

  Frameless glass is templated from the finished, tiled opening and fabricated to fit, so it is ordered after tile and installed after everything else.

Questions to ask every contractor

Conversion bids diverge mostly because contractors silently answer these differently — make every bidder answer them out loud.

• Does your bid keep the existing drain and valve locations, or move them?

  This is the question that explains most of the spread between conversion quotes — a bid that seems oddly high often just contains drain relocation the others left out, and a low one may be quietly excluding it.OUR TAKE

  Basis: The national conversion range's low and high ends in This Old House's sourced cost guide differ precisely on whether plumbing is reworked.

• What waterproofing system goes behind the tile, and who installs it?

  Tile is decoration; the membrane behind it is the actual shower. Get the system named in the bid.

• Are you licensed and insured — and can you show proof of both?

  The FTC's consumer guidance says to consider only licensed and insured contractors, to confirm the license with your state or county government yourself, and to ask for proof of insurance.SOURCED

• Who pulls the plumbing permit?

  The FTC lists asking the homeowner to get the required building permits among the signs of a home-improvement scam — a legitimate remodeler pulls permits under their own license.SOURCED

• What is the payment schedule, and how large a deposit do you want?

  California's licensing board caps a home-improvement down payment at 10 percent of the contract price or $1,000, whichever is less — a useful sanity check even where your state sets no cap.SOURCED

Permit checkpoints

Conversions usually touch the drain or valves — exactly the work that pulls in permits. Rules are local; use your metro's permit guide (linked below) for the actual trigger and fee.

• Ask your building department how it classifies a tub-to-shower conversion — before demolition.

  A conversion typically lands in permit territory because the drain and valves rarely stay untouched, but classification genuinely varies by city — some jurisdictions exempt like-for-like swaps, others permit even those.OUR TAKE

  Basis: Primary-source permit rules researched for this site's metro guides disagree on the trigger line; conversions sit on the strict side of most of them.

• Put who pulls the permit in the contract, in writing.

  The FTC lists asking the homeowner to pull required building permits among home-improvement scam signs, and California's licensing board says the contract should state who gets the necessary permits.SOURCED

• Schedule the rough-in inspection before the new walls close.

  Any reworked drain or supply line is inspected while it is still accessible; closing the walls before the inspection passes means reopening finished work.OUR TAKE

  Basis: How rough-in inspections are sequenced in the primary-source permit rules researched for this site's metro guides.