Should You Keep a Tub in Your Primary Bathroom Remodel?

Short answer: keep a tub in your primary bathroom if someone in the house will actually use it and you have the room for both a tub and a good shower. If the tub is just taking up space, put that space and budget into a bigger walk-in shower. On our recent luxury bathroom remodel in Reisterstown, the homeowners kept a tub, but swapped a dated drop-in jetted tub for a corner jetted tub with a glass front, and made the shower much bigger.

It is one of the first questions we hear in a primary bath remodel. Here is how to decide.

Signs you should keep a tub

• Someone in the house takes baths regularly, not once a year.
• The room is big enough for a tub and a comfortable walk-in shower.
• It is the only tub in a home that has young kids, or will.
• The tub is a feature you will enjoy, like the jetted corner tub in Reisterstown that sits between two windows.

Signs you should skip the tub

• The tub is used as a shelf for towels and bottles.
• Your shower is cramped and you would rather have a bigger one.
• There is another tub elsewhere in the house.
• Getting in and out of a tub is getting harder.

Drop-in, freestanding or corner tub?

Drop-in tubs sit in a tiled deck. They were popular in the 1990s and 2000s, and the deck takes up a lot of floor space and collects dust and grout stains. The Reisterstown bathroom started with one.

Freestanding tubs are the look most people picture today. They need open floor space around them and the plumbing usually comes up through the floor.

Corner tubs tuck into a corner and make good use of a room with windows on two walls. The Reisterstown tub is a corner whirlpool with a glass front panel, gold trim and two headrests, set right between the windows.

Jetted or not?

Jetted tubs feel great but they need their own electrical, and the jets and pump need occasional cleaning. If you will use the jets, they are worth it. If not, a plain soaking tub is simpler and costs less.

What it means for the rest of the room

Keeping a tub doesn't mean settling for a small shower. In Reisterstown, we took out the drop-in tub and its deck, reframed the old shower alcove into a larger walk-in spa shower, and replaced two separate vanities with one long double vanity. The room has a tub, a big shower and more open floor than before. Read what it takes to build a spa shower to see how the shower came together.

See the before and after photos on the Reisterstown luxury bathroom project page, watch the before and after on YouTube, or read what drove the cost of that remodel.

Deciding on a tub near Reisterstown?

We do bathroom remodeling in Reisterstown, including tub-to-shower conversions when skipping the tub makes more sense. Call (410) 949-0063 or request a free estimate. MHIC #117279.