We all lead pretty busy lives so unless you’re a lover of bubble baths, chances are you take showers and the bathtub in your master bathroom rarely gets used. As homeowners start to plan a remodel of this bathroom then, the big question is whether you can take the bathtub out to free up space for a large, spacious shower?

You’ve probably got another bathtub in the hall bathroom so the kids will always have a bathtub. Americans though are still reluctant to remove the master bathtub in fear that it will make it more difficult to sell their home. Unfortunately there is no right answer, or none that we’ve discovered yet.

As homeowners often ask us for advice, it made sense to explore online and learn what we could from others so here’s a summary of the best ideas we found regarding the topic – should you keep a bathtub in your master bathroom or replace it with something that supports your lifestyle better like a large, walk-in shower? We hope you find this helpful and wish you luck making the right decision for you and your family.

Best Tips Regarding Master Bathrooms and Bathtubs

The discussion online is varied with mostly realtors and contractors weighing in on the subject, although I also found some folks who write about all things related to green homes and seniors aging in place who find it difficult to climb over the bathtub side to take a shower. I had fun and you might too if you still want more information. Here’s what I learned from reading 5 or 6 websites, and maybe 30 opinions.

Of course I had my own opinion when I started and I was surprised that I picked up a few pointers too. Here’s my summary:

• Every home needs one bathtub for children, i.e. you might have overnight guests and most home buyers will be looking for a bathtub, if only for resale value.
• There appear to be regional differences in how people responded to the question. California seems to have more contemporary homes and likes showers. The southeast is more traditional and felt more strongly that a master bathroom needs a bathtub. The best advice for you is to check out your neighborhood and be consistent with your competition, i.e. when you’re selling your home and there are 3 or 4 similar homes on the market, you don’t want to lose out because you don’t have a master bathtub.
• While bathtubs can be a requirement to sell a home, an aging population has a greater need for wheelchair accessible showers and these are still quite rare. If you really want to replace your bathtub with a large shower, do it so you can sell your home as wheelchair accessible. You’ll need to make the shower big enough for a wheelchair to turn around and access must be viable, i.e. minimal/no threshold to get over and a door/opening wide enough for a wheelchair. Then you’ve got a feature that sells your home, versus worrying about the missing bathtub.
• Make your decision based on how long you expect to be in your home, i.e. for 5 or more years, do what you want. If you move every few years, don’t invest in home improvements that might not help sell your home.
• There can also find different style bathtubs which take up less space like a Japanese soaking tub that’s 47 inches in diameter (soaking tub shown here from SignatureHardware.com).

Have fun planning your bathroom remodel and if you need some help, we’re just a phone call away.