CASE STUDY · LANCASTER, PA · 7 WORKING DAYS
Goodbye Tub Nobody Used: A Tub to Shower Conversion in Lancaster
JOB CARD
The owners of this Lancaster rowhome had taken exactly four baths in nineteen years, and two of those involved a sick toddler. The tub occupied a third of the bathroom as a full time towel shelf. Meanwhile, stepping over its wall was getting less funny every year for knees that had opinions about it.
A tub to shower conversion is the most requested single project in our bathroom work, and this one shows the whole anatomy: what leaves, what has to be built behind the new walls, and why the good conversions cost more than the kit from a TV commercial.
What a conversion actually involves
Day one, the tub came out, and with it fifty pounds of grout, old caulk and the story of every leak the wall had been hiding. The drain moves in almost every conversion, because a tub drains at the end and a shower drains where the slope says. That means opening the floor, resetting the trap and building a properly pitched pan. Anyone quoting a conversion without discussing the drain has not done many.
From there it went like our full shower builds: cement board, a bonded waterproofing membrane over every inch of the wet zone, a flood tested pan, then marble look porcelain and a glass slider. Seven working days from tub to towels back on the hooks, in the same footprint.
The invisible upgrade: blocking
While the walls were open we added solid wood blocking at grab bar heights, even though the owners did not want grab bars yet. Blocking costs almost nothing during construction and makes future bars a ten minute install into solid wood instead of a hollow wall gamble. The National Institute on Aging's fall prevention guidance is blunt about bathrooms being where falls happen, and a conversion is the one moment the fix is nearly free.
We put blocking in every shower we build now, for clients of every age. Nobody has ever complained about wood they cannot see.
Cost and whether it is worth it
This conversion landed in the middle of the $7,000 to $14,000 range we publish on the bathroom remodeling page. The TV commercial acrylic systems quote less until the fine print arrives, and they solve the problem by covering it in plastic. Tile and real waterproofing cost more once and then stop costing anything.
One honest caveat we give every conversion client: keep a tub somewhere in the house if small children or resale within five years are in the plan. This house had a second bath with a tub, which made the decision easy. Our thinking on that tradeoff is in the bathroom cost guide.
SHOT ON SITE BY OUR CREW. NO STOCK, NO STAGING.