Tub or Shower? A Colorado Springs Guide to a Tub-to-Shower Conversion

Should you keep the tub or turn it into a walk-in shower? If you have a tub nobody uses, a step-over that’s getting harder to manage, or a guest bath that feels dated, a tub-to-shower conversion is probably the fastest way to fix it. Here in Colorado Springs, this is one of the most common projects we get asked about, and the honest answer is: it depends on how you actually live in the space. Let’s walk through the decision the way a bath specialist would, so you can see which option fits your home.

Start with how you use the room

Before you look at tile or glass, look at your habits. A tub-to-shower conversion makes the most sense when the tub is dead space. If you can’t remember the last time you took a bath, that tub is costing you square footage and making the room feel smaller than it is.

Ask yourself three questions:

• Do you actually soak in this tub, or just step over it to shower?
• Is stepping over the wall getting harder for anyone in the household?
• Is this your primary bath, a guest bath, or a kids’ bath?

If the tub goes unused and stepping over the wall is a daily annoyance, a walk-in shower usually wins. If small children bathe in it every night, or it’s your only tub in the house, the math changes. Resale buyers in El Paso County generally want at least one tub somewhere in the home, so keeping a single tub in a secondary bath is often smart.

The three main options

Most homeowners are really choosing between three paths.

Option 1: Direct tub-to-shower conversion. Remove the tub, build a low-curb or curbless shower in the same footprint. This is the cleanest, fastest route. Because the plumbing rough-in largely stays put, a straightforward conversion can be done in days, not weeks.

Option 2: Full layout change. Move the shower, relocate plumbing, reconfigure the vanity. This is a bigger project and belongs in a full bathroom remodel conversation, not a simple swap. Choose it only if the current layout genuinely doesn’t work.

Option 3: Keep the tub, refresh around it. Sometimes the tub stays and you update surround tile, fixtures, and lighting. This is the pick when the tub is used and the space just looks tired.

The criteria that decide between them are use, mobility, resale, and how much wall you’re willing to open.

Weighing the tradeoffs

Here’s where realistic numbers help. Think of these as ranges, not quotes, since what hides behind the walls always matters.

A same-footprint tub-to-shower conversion with a solid-surface or tile surround, a low curb, and a glass panel typically runs a homeowner in Colorado Springs somewhere in the mid-single-digit thousands to low five figures, depending on materials. Because we aren’t moving drains far, the labor stays predictable.

Now compare that to a full layout change. Once you relocate the drain and supply lines, open multiple walls, and reroute for a new vanity position, you’re often looking at double the cost or more, and a timeline measured in weeks. That’s a fine investment if the room truly needs it, but it’s overkill if all you wanted was to stop climbing over a tub wall.

Example: a couple in their 60s near Broadmoor kept their hall bath tub for resale and converted their primary suite tub into a curbless shower with a linear drain and a fold-down bench. They got the safety and daily ease they wanted while preserving a tub in the home. That’s the balanced play.

Another example: a young family in Briargate had two full baths. They converted the rarely used primary tub to a large walk-in shower and kept the hall tub for the kids. Nobody missed the second tub.

Don’t skip the waterproofing decision

The single most important part of any conversion isn’t the tile you can see, it’s the waterproofing you can’t. A tub contained water inside a molded basin. A shower relies on a properly built and sealed pan and wall system to do that job. Get it wrong and you get the exact failure we describe in why walk-in showers leak and how a rebuild fixes it.

This is why we push fixed pricing that accounts for the waterproofing done right, not the cheapest possible pan. A shower that leaks in two years isn’t a bargain.

Our recommendation

For most Colorado Springs homeowners with an unused tub, a same-footprint tub-to-shower conversion is the best value: fast, predictable, and a real upgrade to daily use. Keep the layout unless it genuinely fights you. Preserve one tub somewhere in the home for resale. And if accessibility is on your mind, plan for it now with a curbless entry and bench, which we cover in our guide to accessible bathroom layouts that still look great.

If you’re weighing this against a larger project, our overview of bathroom remodeling in Colorado Springs lays out the bigger picture, and you can see how we work in the Colorado Springs service area.

Frequently Asked Questions

Won’t removing my only tub hurt resale value?

It can, which is why we recommend keeping one tub in the home if you have the room, usually in a secondary or hall bath. Converting a rarely used primary-suite tub to a walk-in shower while preserving a tub elsewhere gives you the best of both. If you only have one bathroom, that’s a real tradeoff worth discussing before you commit.

Is a tub-to-shower conversion really faster, or is that a sales line?

A same-footprint conversion genuinely moves faster because the plumbing rough-in mostly stays in place and we aren’t rebuilding the whole room. Many are done in days, not weeks. A conversion that also relocates drains and walls takes longer, and we’ll tell you upfront which one your project is instead of quoting the fast version and doing the slow one.

How do I know the shower won’t leak like some conversions do?

The answer is in the pan and wall waterproofing, not the visible tile. Ask any bath company exactly how they build and seal the shower pan and walls, and get it in a fixed quote. We’d rather explain the boring waterproofing details than hand you a low number that skips them and fails in a couple of winters.

Thinking about making the switch? Call us for a free in-home design consult and we’ll walk your bathroom, talk through your options, and give you a clear, fixed plan with no pressure.