Does Every House Need a Tub? Rethinking a Tub-to-Shower Conversion in Colorado Springs

Will removing my only bathtub tank my home’s resale value? It is the first question homeowners ask when they start thinking about a tub-to-shower conversion, and it is a fair one. The short answer: keeping one tub somewhere in the house matters to buyers with small kids, but the bathroom you use every day should be built around how you actually live. A tub-to-shower conversion in the right room usually helps your daily use and your resale, not the other way around.

Let me walk you through a real-world decision, then give you a framework you can apply to your own floor plan.

The Broadmoor bluff scenario

Picture a couple in their late fifties in a three-bath home near the Broadmoor bluffs. Their primary bath had a deep drop-in soaking tub they had used maybe twice in eight years, plus a cramped corner shower with a leaky door. The guest bath down the hall had a standard tub-shower combo, and there was a second full bath in the finished basement.

Their worry was textbook: “If we pull the tub in the primary, are we the weird house with no tub?” Answer: no. They still had a tub in the guest bath. Buyers who need a tub for bathing kids or pets would find one. That single fact freed them to build the primary bath they wanted.

They converted the primary to a curbless walk-in shower with a bench, a handheld wand, and a fixed glass panel instead of a swinging door. The old tub footprint and the cramped shower became one generous wet zone. Their daily use went from “nobody touches the tub, the shower door drips” to “this is the best room in the house.”

What actually drives the resale worry

The resale fear usually comes from one rule of thumb realtors repeat: a home should have at least one bathtub. That is broadly true, and it is worth respecting. What it does not mean is that every bathroom needs a tub, or that your primary suite has to keep one you never use.

Here is the way to think about it, room by room:

• You have another tub in the house. Convert freely. The primary suite is where a walk-in shower pays off most in daily comfort and buyer appeal.
• The tub you are removing is the only one in the house. Pause. Consider keeping a tub in a secondary bath, or choosing a shower design roomy enough that a future buyer could add a tub later.
• You are in a family neighborhood with lots of young kids nearby. Keeping one tub somewhere is the safe play.

If you want the full framing on the trade-offs, we laid it out in our tub-to-shower conversion guide.

Running the numbers on the Broadmoor bath

Rough, realistic figures for that primary conversion:

• Demo of the drop-in tub and old corner shower, plus haul-away: about $1,400.
• New curbless shower pan, waterproofing, and tile (roughly 45 square feet of wall and floor): about $6,500.
• Frameless fixed glass panel, valve, handheld wand, and bench: about $3,800.
• Minor plumbing relocation and a new exhaust fan: about $1,800.

That lands the project in the low-to-mid teens, and the room went from dead space to the feature buyers remember on a walk-through. The point is not the exact number, it is that the spend went toward a room they use twice a day, not a tub gathering dust.

Compare that with a guest bath in a starter home where the tub-shower combo is the household’s only tub. There, we would talk the homeowner into keeping tub capability, maybe a sleek alcove tub with a tiled surround and a glass screen, so the house stays flexible for the next family.

A simple framework you can use tonight

Walk your house and answer four questions:

1. How many tubs do I have, and where? Count them. If the answer is two or more, your primary is a strong conversion candidate.
2. Which bath do we actually use every morning? Build that one around real habits. If nobody soaks, a walk-in shower wins.
3. Who is the likely next buyer? Empty-nesters and downsizers often prefer showers. Young families want at least one tub.
4. Am I planning to stay a while? Aging-in-place needs, like a curbless entry and a bench, favor a shower now and age well for resale later.

If your daily bath is the one you are converting and you still have a tub elsewhere, you are almost always making the right call. When you are ready to see options for your specific layout, our full bathroom remodel service and our Colorado Springs team can walk the room with you.

The specialist edge on a conversion

Because bathrooms are all we do, we quote the parts that hide behind the wall before the demo starts, so the number holds. That matters on a conversion, where the biggest surprises are old cast-iron drains, undersized supply lines, and subfloor rot around a long-neglected tub. We cover how we keep pricing firm in our piece on change orders and fixed quotes, and you can see how a full room comes together in our bathroom remodel overview.

A tub-to-shower conversion is often finished in days, not weeks, when the scope is clean. Get the decision right first, and the build is the easy part.

Frequently Asked Questions

Won’t a house with no tub scare off buyers? Only if it is your last tub. Appraisers and agents generally want one tub somewhere in the home. If you keep a tub in a guest or secondary bath, converting your primary to a walk-in shower typically helps appeal rather than hurting it, especially with the buyers common in Colorado Springs.

Isn’t this just a way to sell me a bigger project? No. Sometimes the honest advice is to keep a tub. In a starter home with one bathroom, we will often recommend a tub with a tiled surround instead of a full conversion, precisely to protect your resale flexibility. The right scope depends on your floor plan, not our invoice.

What if I decide in five years that I want a tub back? That is why we design the wet zone with enough room and standard plumbing rough-in where it makes sense. A well-planned shower space can accept an alcove tub later without tearing the room apart. Tell us during the design consult if future flexibility matters to you.

Not sure whether your primary bath is a good conversion candidate? Call for a free in-home design consult and we will help you make the call, tub or no tub.