Should You Remove Your Bathtub and Replace It With a Walk-In Shower?

Start with how often you actually use it

Not how often you imagine using it. How often you did in the last year.

A large number of bathtubs in Ontario homes are used as awkward shower trays and nothing else. If yours has not held water in two years, it is not a bathtub, it is a high step you climb over every morning.

If, on the other hand, you genuinely take baths, that is a real use and worth protecting. Nobody should talk you out of something you use and enjoy.

Stepping over the wall is the part that matters

A standard tub wall is a substantial step to clear, performed on a wet surface, often while turning. That is a demanding movement, and it gets more demanding every year.

Most conversions we do are driven by this rather than by aesthetics: someone has had a near miss, or a knee or hip has made the step genuinely difficult, or a family member has started to worry.

If stepping in and out has become something you think about, that is the strongest single argument for converting, and it generally outweighs the resale considerations further down this page.

Cleaning and the practical day-to-day

A walk-in shower with a non-porous surround and no grout is materially easier to clean than a tub and tiled surround, and there is no leaning over a tub wall to do it, which matters if your back is the problem.

A shower also tends to make a small bathroom feel larger, because a glass enclosure reads as open space in a way that a tub does not.

Households where keeping the tub makes sense

Be realistic about these before converting.

Young children. Bathing a baby or toddler in a shower is genuinely awkward. If you have small children or expect to, keep a tub somewhere in the house.

You actually take baths. Obvious, but worth stating.

Pets. People wash dogs in bathtubs more than they admit when planning a renovation.

It is the only bathroom and you plan to sell to families. See the resale section below.

Homes with more than one bathroom

This is the easy case. If you have a second bathroom with a tub in it, converting the one you use daily is low risk. You keep a tub in the house for children, guests and resale, and you get a shower you can step into safely.

Where there are two bathrooms, we would almost always suggest converting the primary or ensuite and leaving the other alone.

If it is the only bathtub in the home

This is the case that deserves genuine thought, and we are not going to pretend otherwise just because we do conversions for a living.

The usual advice is to keep at least one bathtub in a family home, and we think that is sensible. Buyers with young children expect one, and in a family-sized house in a family neighbourhood the only tub is worth keeping.

The picture changes in a condo, a bungalow you intend to age in, or a home whose likely buyer is not a young family. In those cases a well-designed walk-in shower may well be the more appealing feature, and your own daily safety is the more pressing consideration.

Does every house really need a bathtub?

The conventional wisdom is that a home should have at least one, and as a general rule it holds up reasonably well.

What is more useful than a rule is thinking about your particular property. A four-bedroom suburban house will be viewed by families who expect a tub. A one-bedroom condo will not. A bungalow that appeals to downsizers may be more attractive with a walk-in shower than with a bath nobody uses.

If resale is a live concern, a local agent who knows your neighbourhood will give you a better answer than any general rule, including this one.

When a conversion clearly makes sense

• You have another tub in the house
• You have not taken a bath in over a year
• Stepping over the wall is difficult, or someone in the house has had a near miss
• You intend to stay in the home long term
• You are in a condo or a home whose likely buyer is not a young family
• The existing tub and surround are failing anyway

When to keep the tub

• It is the only tub and you have or expect young children
• You genuinely use it
• You are selling soon into a family market
• You have a second bathroom you could convert instead

The options between the two extremes

It is not a binary choice.

Convert one, keep one. The obvious answer in a two-bathroom home.

A low-threshold shower rather than fully curbless. A low entry gets most of the safety benefit with less structural work than a zero-threshold build.

Keep the tub and make it safer. Grab bars at the right height, a non-slip surface and a handheld wand address a surprising amount of the risk without removing anything.

A shower-bath. A shorter, deeper tub with a wider standing area is a compromise some people are happy with, though the step remains.

If stepping over the wall is your only concern and you love your bath, start with grab bars and a non-slip surface before committing to a conversion.

Decision checklist

If questions 1 and 3 point to a conversion and there is another tub in the house, it is a straightforward yes. If it is the only tub and you have young children, it is probably a no, or a conversion of a different bathroom.