Walk-in shower vs bathtub: which is right for your bathroom?

The short answer

If you shower every day and nobody in the house takes baths, a walk-in shower makes more sense. It is easier to step into, easier to build for safety, and often looks cleaner. If you soak, bathe small children, or the tub is the only one in the house, a tub still earns its place.

Many homes need only one of them in the main bathroom. Some homes need both, in two different bathrooms. This guide helps you sort out which kind of home yours is. For the cost of the conversion itself, see our guides on tub-to-shower conversion cost and curbless shower cost.

Who uses the bathroom decides it

• Adults who shower daily: a walk-in shower is the better fit.
• Children under a certain age: a tub is easier for many families. Decide how long you will need it.
• Anyone with trouble lifting a leg over a tub wall: a walk-in shower is easier to enter. See our guide on aging in place. AARP's 2024 survey found that 75 percent of adults 50 and older want to stay in their current homes as they age.
• People who soak: a shower will not give it to you.

Space and layout

A walk-in shower can often take the footprint of a tub and use it differently. A tub-to-shower swap changes the plumbing and the wall behind it, so the layout decides how much work it is. It is also where you choose between a shower with a low curb and a curbless shower, which has no step at all. Curbless takes more planning in the floor.

If your bathroom is small, one of them may fit and not both. Our guide on small bathroom layouts shows how that plays out.

Cost: what the published ranges say

We do not give Hildebrand prices here, because every job is quoted after a visit. Published national ranges give you a rough frame. This Old House's 2026 tub-to-shower guide, based on a national survey, puts the overall cost at $2,000 to $12,000. By type it lists a prefabricated stall at $2,000 to $6,000, a walk-in at $5,000 to $12,000, tile at $6,000 to $12,000 and curbless at $8,000 to $15,000.

A second This Old House guide on walk-in showers gives a wider range of $4,000 to $20,000 with an average of about $12,000, and says curbless designs move a project into higher pricing. The two guides do not match exactly, which tells you how much depends on what you choose. These are national numbers, not Florida prices. Do not read them as a quote.

Resale: ask before you take out the only tub

Many homeowners wonder if buyers want a tub. We do not have a verified Florida answer, so we will not guess. If your house has only one tub and you plan to sell in a few years, ask a local real estate agent how buyers in your price range see a home with no tub. If you have two bathrooms, converting one and keeping the other is often an easy way to hedge.

On the resale value of the remodel itself, Zonda's Cost vs Value report (South Atlantic region, 2025) lists a midrange bath remodel at a $25,609 job cost with 75.3 percent recouped, and a universal design bath at $41,203 with 61.5 percent. These are regional averages. See does a bathroom remodel add value.

Safety features that go with a walk-in shower

A walk-in shower is the base for the safety features many people want. Published national figures from the same This Old House guide put grab bars at $150 to $500 each installed and a fold-down shower seat at $300 to $800. Decide on these before the walls are closed, because grab bars need solid backing behind the wall. Our guide on accessible bathroom dimensions has the published heights and clearances.

Types of walk-in shower

"Walk-in shower" covers several builds, and they differ in cost and in what they ask of the floor. The This Old House guide separates them into four types: a prefabricated stall (a factory-made unit), a walk-in, a tiled shower built on site, and a curbless shower. Prefabricated is usually the simplest and curbless the most involved, since the floor has to be shaped so water runs to the drain with no curb to hold it in.

Ask which type is in your estimate, and what is under the floor of it. Two showers that look the same on a drawing can be very different jobs. Our guide on tile shower vs acrylic surround compares the two common wall finishes.

How Hildebrand handles it

Hildebrand does bathroom remodels, including tub-to-shower conversions and walk-in showers. One licensed contractor runs the whole job, and plumbing and electrical are done by licensed trade partners that we manage and coordinate. We pull every required permit and meet Florida Building Code inspections.

Start with a free in-home consultation and written estimate, no trip fee. We look at the bathroom, ask who uses it, and quote it in writing after the visit. The price does not change without your written approval. See our bathroom remodels page and bathroom remodel cost guide.

Questions homeowners ask