Keep the Tub or Convert to Shower?

One of the most tossed about decisions I seem to get from clients, especially in the family bathroom is weather to install a new acrylic tub or convert to a full shower.  The kids are grown up, everyone in the house showers, but they just can't let the tub go and are worried about eliminating the tub completely for "resale value".
    

A former tub area converted to shower.  Could you get used to this?


A simple question seems to propel the decision: "When are you selling?"  Almost without exception, there is no timeline for selling in the foreseeable future.  As soon as the homeowner hears what is coming out of their mouths, they realize their concern is unfounded.  There is no reason to sacrifice your day to day comfort and lifestyle for some imaginary person ten or fifteen years down the road who may or may not want a tub to remain in the bathroom, even the main bathroom.  

Showers are becoming the norm by far.  Ten years from now, it may be a person who also loves showers who is sold on the full shower in your bathroom.  There is just no predicting who is going to buy your home a decade or even from years from now.  Don't even try.  Do it for yourself.      

Now, if it's the comfort of the current tub that is the issue (and it is probably a builder's steel enamel clunker that you've been stuck with), then a nice new, ergonomically designed acrylic tub might turn you into a bath person again, so do spend time testing out new tubs for the feel.  But if you just know your lifestyle makes you a shower person, then by all means go for the full shower conversion.   

I'd say 90% of the time when we renovate two bathrooms in a home, one of them is being converted from a tub into a full shower and the tub is being eliminated.  The existing ensuite likely has a separate tub and shower in most modern houses, so that becomes the default tub.  But even in older homes where the ensuite also has just the tub/shower as a single unit, it's still 30-40% of the time that both tubs are being converted into showers, so you will be part of the norm on the market down the road, if that is your concern. 

A shower conversion can be $15-1800 more than a tub replacement however, to account for the substantial base and waterproofing as well as for the custom frameless glass usually installed, so consider that as well.

So, to sum up-if you are on the fence, picture your existing tub area with a larger, more comfortable acrylic tub, maybe the bulkhead removed and a light above to brighten the whole area up.  If you think this change will entice you and your family back to using the tub for bathing rather than just as a shower receptor, then by all means stick with a tub set up. If you are a grown family with a busy lifestyle, need to get clean then out of the bathroom. staying put in the house for a while, treat yourself to a conversion to full shower.