Taking the tub out is the most common bathroom job on the Eastside, and the one most often sold badly. Done properly it is not a liner glued over what is already there. It is a demolition, a new waterproofed pan, new tile and new glass — and the price and the calendar follow from that.
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What it costs
| Band | Scope |
|---|---|
| $ | Tub out, tiled shower in, same footprint, same drain location |
| $$ | Same, plus frameless glass instead of a curtain |
| $$$ | Curbless entry, drain moved, floor reframed |
These are the same three scope bands the bathroom page uses, and they describe how much of the room moves rather than a slab. Which band you are in is settled at the free walkthrough. The figure arrives afterwards, in writing, itemized by line, and it does not move after you sign.
Three things move the number inside a band: whether the drain stays where it is, whether you want glass, and what the tile costs per square foot. Everything else is close to fixed, because the labor is the same whether the tile is plain white or handmade.
The days, in order
| Day | What happens | Bathroom usable |
|---|---|---|
| Demolition | Tub cut up and carried out, tile and backer off to the studs | No |
| Rough-in | Valve set, drain checked, blocking for the grab bar and the bench | No |
| Waterproofing | Pan built and sloped, membrane over pan and walls, water test | No |
| Tile | Walls and floor set, then grout the following day | No |
| Fixtures | Trim, door or curtain rod, silicone, walkthrough | Yes |
Those five stages are the whole job, and you get the dates for each of them in writing at the walkthrough. Glass is the one thing nobody can speed up: it cannot be measured until the tile is actually set, because it is cut to your walls and not to a catalogue size. The glass shop's lead time then runs on their clock, not ours — which is why we hang a rod and a curtain the day the tile is finished. You use the shower while the door is being made, instead of looking at a finished bathroom you are not allowed to use.
The toilet and the sink in that room keep working on most of those days. If it is your only bathroom, say so at the walkthrough and we will sequence it around that.
We do not do this in one day, and here is why
The loudest ads in this category promise a new shower in a day. That works by leaving your old walls in place and bonding an acrylic surround over them. A mortar bed that has been quietly wet for a decade does not stop being wet because there is new plastic in front of it, and when it finally leaks the repair is the whole thing again.
Waterproofing has to cure. Thinset has to cure. Grout has to cure. A shower built in eight hours skipped one of those, and the people who bought it write the reviews a year later.
What is under your tile right now
Most Eastside tubs sit against one of three things, and we can usually tell which at the walkthrough by tapping the wall.
- Mortar bed over wire lath — houses from the fifties and sixties. Heavy, hard to remove, and the reason the demolition day is a full day.
- Green board with tile stuck to it — the seventies through the nineties. It is drywall. It fails wherever water reached it, and it comes out in sheets.
- A one-piece fiberglass tub-and-surround — newer construction. It comes out fast, and behind it is bare framing, which is the cleanest start we get.
Whatever is there, it goes. New substrate, new waterproofing membrane over the pan and up the walls, flood-tested before a single tile is set. We photograph the test and send you the picture, because it is the one part of your bathroom you will never see again.
Keep the stone consistent
The curb, the bench, the niche shelf and the window sill get cut from the same slab as your vanity top, in our shop, on the same saw. It costs a little more than a tiled bench and it is the detail people notice first — one material, one color, no grout line across the seat.
Questions about tub to shower conversion
How much does a tub to shower conversion cost?
See the table above. The standard row covers most jobs: tub out, tiled shower in the same footprint, drain where it is. Moving the drain or going curbless is the row underneath.
What does it cost to replace a tub with a walk-in shower?
Same job, different words. People search both. The number is the same, and it is on this page rather than behind a form.
Can it be done in one day?
Not properly. Anyone doing it in a day is bonding a surround over your existing wall. Ours takes the days listed above because waterproofing and mortar need to cure before the next trade touches them.
Should I keep one bathtub in the house?
If the house has only one full bath and you might sell inside a few years, yes — buyers with small children still look for a tub. If it is a second or third bathroom, the shower wins on daily use every time.
Do you do tub to shower conversions near me?
We work in Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Bothell, Sammamish, Issaquah, Renton and Everett. Drive times are on the service area page.
Can you add a grab bar or a bench for aging in place?
Yes, and the time to decide is at rough-in, while the wall is open. Blocking goes in behind the tile so a bar can be mounted into wood, not into an anchor in the drywall. It costs almost nothing on the day and cannot be added properly afterward.
Next step
If the tub is the only thing bothering you, book the walkthrough. If the whole room is tired, the full page has the three budget tiers.
Book a free walkthrough — call (206) 643-9354. Leave a message and you get a call back the same business day.