Tub to shower conversion in Tampa Bay.
Getting the tub out is the easy part. What this job costs comes down to something you cannot see from the doorway, and to which of two very different products you are actually being sold. Both are on this page, along with the answer almost nobody gives you: how many days you lose the bathroom.
Priced by written scope, never by the hour.
You are going to get two quotes that are nowhere near each other.
Ask three companies in Tampa for a tub to shower conversion and the numbers will not be close. It is not that somebody is overcharging. You are being quoted two different products for the same hole in the wall, and almost nobody says which one they are selling. Here they are side by side.
| One-day acrylic system | Tiled shower, built in place | |
|---|---|---|
| What it actually is | Moulded acrylic or composite panels and a matching pan, fitted to your measurements | Backer board, a waterproofing membrane and tile, built in place in your bathroom |
| Time on site | Often one or two days | Longer, because two of the stages are curing time, not work |
| The old wall behind the tub | Usually stays where it is. The panels go over it | Comes out. What is behind it gets looked at, and repaired if it needs it |
| Grout | None, which is genuinely easier to clean | Grout lines, which get sealed and need maintenance over the years |
| If the wall behind is already wet | It gets closed in behind a new panel | It gets found before anything new goes on top of it |
| Repairs years later | The panel is one piece | Individual tiles can be lifted and replaced |
| Where it is the right answer | The wall behind is sound, the budget is tight, and you want it finished this week | There is damage behind the tile, or you want a tiled bathroom that can be repaired piece by piece |
Maplex builds the tiled version. That makes us slower, and usually not the cheapest number you will hear. We are not going to pretend otherwise. If the wall behind your tub is sound, your budget is tight and you want the bathroom back by the weekend, an acrylic system is a perfectly good answer and we will tell you so on the walkthrough rather than after you have signed something.
The drain decides the price, not the tile.
A bathtub drain sits at one end of the tub. A shower drain usually wants to be nearer the middle. Whether those two points can work together is the single biggest number in this job, and it gets settled standing in your bathroom, before the price, not after demolition has started.
Same footprint, drain stays
The shower lives exactly where the tub lived and the existing drain serves it where it is. This is the short version of the job and the least expensive one.
Same footprint, drain moves
On a concrete slab, relocating a drain means opening the slab. That portion is plumbing work performed by the licensed plumber we coordinate, and it goes into the scope with its own line before anything is cut.
Wider than the old tub
The moment the shower grows past the original alcove you are moving a wall as well, along with the framing, the drywall and anything running inside it.
What was behind the tub
Water has usually been sitting somewhere for years. Soft subfloor or rotten framing is priced when it becomes visible, item by item, and never guessed at up front to make an early number look good.
How much lower is the step, exactly?
This is the reason most people do this job, so it deserves a real number rather than the word easier.
A standard alcove bathtub wall
That is what you step over today, every single time.
A tiled shower curb
The usual result of this conversion, and the difference people feel immediately.
Fully curbless, no step at all
Possible, but on a Florida slab it means cutting the concrete or raising the bathroom floor. Different job, different price.
The exact height for your bathroom goes in the written scope, because it depends on the pan and on where the drain ends up. If somebody quotes you a step height before looking at your drain, they are guessing.
What is included, and where it ends.
A written scope is only worth something if it says where it stops. These are the boundaries we put in writing before anyone starts.
How long the bathroom is out of use.
Every other page you will read on this answers that question with the words timeline varies. Here is what actually fixes it, so you can judge any schedule you are given, including ours.
Two of the stages below are not work. They are curing. The waterproofing has to cure before tile can go on it, and the grout has to cure before water touches it. No crew can shorten those, and a company that promises to has either skipped a layer or is planning to. If the drain has to move there is also a licensed plumber's visit and an inspection between demolition and tile. Your written scope carries the real dates for your bathroom.
When we tell you not to do it
Every company on your list will say yes to this job. Here is where we say no, and why. It costs us the odd project and it saves you a great deal more than that.
It is the only tub in the house and you may sell
Buyers with small children filter listings for a bathtub. If you might sell within a few years and this is your last tub, keep it. We would rather tell you now than have you find out at closing.
You want no curb at all and the slab will not allow it
A curbless shower needs the drain to sit lower than the floor around it. On a slab with no crawlspace that means cutting concrete or building the whole bathroom floor up. We tell you which one your house needs before you pay for a design.
The wall you want gone is holding something up
If the shower you have in mind needs a structural wall removed, that is a different job with an engineer in it, and it should be priced as one from the start.
An acrylic system would genuinely serve you better
Sound wall, tight budget, and you need the bathroom back fast. That is not our product and we will say so instead of talking you into a tiled job you did not need.
Questions we actually get asked
Why is one tub to shower quote half the price of another?
Because you are being quoted two different products. One is an acrylic or composite panel system that fits over the existing walls and goes in fast. The other is a tiled shower built in place, where the old wall comes out and a waterproofing membrane goes in before any tile. Both are legitimate. They are not the same job, they do not cost the same, and they do not fail the same way. Ask each company in writing which one they are selling you.
Can you reuse the existing drain?
Sometimes, and that is the cheapest outcome. A bathtub drain sits at one end of the tub. A shower drain usually wants to be nearer the middle. Whether those two points can work together is checked at the walkthrough, and the answer goes into the written scope, because it moves the price more than any finish you pick.
Does converting the tub hurt my resale value?
Only if it leaves the house without a single bathtub. A house with two or three bathrooms and one tub left is fine. A house whose only tub just became a shower narrows your buyer pool, because families with small children filter listings for a tub. That is worth deciding before the demolition, not after.
How soon can I actually use the new shower?
Not the day the tile goes up. The waterproofing has to cure before tile, and the grout has to cure before water touches it. Using it early is how a new shower starts leaking in its second year. The date you can use it is written into your scope and we do not move it to make a schedule look better.
Do I need a permit for a tub to shower conversion?
It depends on the county and on what the job touches. Work that moves plumbing generally requires one, and the licensed trade performing that portion is the one who pulls it. Your written scope names which permits your job needs before you sign anything.
How much lower is the step compared to my bathtub?
A standard alcove bathtub wall is roughly 14 to 16 inches to step over. A tiled shower curb is usually around 4 to 6 inches. That difference is the reason most people do this. A fully curbless shower is possible, but on a Florida slab it means cutting the concrete or raising the bathroom floor, which is a different job with a different price.
Lifetime warranty on our workmanship.
If the work we did fails, we come back and fix it, for as long as you own the home. Not one year. Not five. As long as you live there.
A warranty is only worth what its exclusions say. Ours are above, in the same size type as the promise. Ask any other company you are talking to for theirs in writing, and check how long the tile is covered for.
The other bathroom services
Where we work
Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties. If your town is not on this list, call and ask: the answer is often yes.
A walkthrough, then a written scope with one closed price.
We look at where your drain sits and what is behind the tub before we give you a number. Never hourly, never a verbal figure. Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties.