Tub-to-Shower Conversions
Can My Bathtub Be Replaced With a Walk-In Shower?
In most East Texas homes, yes. A tub-to-shower conversion reuses the existing alcove and, where the drain position allows, the existing drain, so the tub comes out and a low-threshold base, floor-to-ceiling wall panels and new fixtures go in where it stood. Standard stocked conversions start three to five days from the date of sale and are installed in a single day.
What It Is, and Who It Suits
A conversion works inside the footprint you already have. The alcove your tub sits in is almost exactly the footprint of a stocked shower, and the drain is close enough to reuse in most of the bathrooms we see. That is what keeps it to one day rather than a renovation.
It suits the household where the tub has become an obstacle rather than a feature — a high wall to swing a leg over, a floor that gets slick, and nobody has taken a bath in it since the children left. It also suits a second bathroom that is never used because getting into it is a nuisance.
Three things decide whether your alcove converts cleanly: the condition of what is behind the tub, where the drain sits, and how the framing runs. We check all three at the free in-home consultation and tell you what your bathroom needs before you commit to anything. If the tub is not in an alcove, or the layout is changing, that is a complete remodel instead.
What Is Included as Standard
Tub out, shower in, room left clean. This is the standard scope.
- The old tub removed and taken away
- A Harbor Series low-threshold base — one piece, textured, with no grout lines
- Stocked sizes from 60 × 30 through 60 × 36, which is what most alcoves already are
- Wall sheets 4 ft × 9 ft, floor to ceiling — no horizontal seam, no grout anywhere
- Your choice of any of the 14 in-stock wall colours
- New valve and fixture trim in brushed nickel or matte black
- A grab bar safety package: three knurled bars, anchored into blocking set behind the wall at the design visit
- GE Supreme Silicone Kitchen & Bath at every joint — 100% silicone, neutral cure, ASTM C920, water-ready in 30 minutes
We do not tile the walls. Large panels instead of tile is the whole point of the system — there is no grout line to stain, crack or let water past.
The Choices You Make
The alcove sets the size. Everything inside it is yours to pick.
Wall colour
Fourteen colours, all in stock, restocked in a day. Sapphire Coast, Champagne Carrara, Aspen White, Urban Slate, Desert Sandstone and nine more.
Fixture finish
Brushed nickel or matte black, both stocked. Champagne bronze is a special order rather than a stocked finish — see the timeline below.
The fixture itself
A showerhead, a rain head, or a rain head with a handheld on a slide bar. A handheld earns its keep in a converted alcove, where the shower is also the place things get rinsed.
A niche
A recess in the wall for bottles, sized and placed at the design visit so it lands between the studs rather than through one.
Shelves
Corner shelves on the panel face, instead of or alongside a niche. No framing to work around.
Grab bars
Three knurled bars in your chosen finish. You say where; we set blocking behind the wall at the design visit so they anchor into timber.
Pick the colours and the hardware before anything is ordered
The alcove decides the size, so the colour, the finish, the fixture and the door are where the decisions actually are. Worth a look before the design visit.
The door: three options, and none of them costs you the others
This is a real choice, not a ladder. Tell us which you want and that is what gets fitted.
Semi-frameless bypass sliding doors
The stocked option. Two panels that slide past each other on a track, in the same finishes as your fixtures. Nothing to order in, so it does not move your start date.
A custom glass enclosure
For openings a stock door will not suit — an unusual width, a corner entry, a fixed panel and a swinging door. Measured for your bathroom and ordered to those measurements.
No door at all
Doorless, if that is what you want. A wider opening to walk through, a longer wall run, and no track or glass to clean. Plenty of homeowners choose this on purpose.
Which one suits your bathroom depends on the opening, where the shower head points and how much of the room you want to keep open. We work that out with you at the design visit — and if you want to read up on the glass itself first, we wrote about shower door glass here.
How Long It Takes
Three to five days from the date of sale
That is the wait until we arrive — not a schedule of work, and not how long the job takes.
A single day to install
Tub out and shower in inside one day. You are without that bathroom for a day, not for weeks.
Champagne bronze runs to seven days
Champagne bronze fixtures and doors are a special order rather than a stocked finish, which moves the start out to seven days at most.
The reason is inventory. We carry the panels, the bases, the doors and the fixtures, so the wait is scheduling rather than manufacturing. If you want the long version of why that is unusual, read why a bathroom remodel takes months when the work takes days.
What Changes in the Room
The Gilmer bathroom at the top of this page is the conversion in one picture: the same alcove, the step-over gone, grab bars and a corner seat in. Below, three details from other conversions.
Our Warranty
Lifetime warranty covering plumbing, wall systems, fixtures, shower pan, doors and installation. Transferable to a new owner, backed by RenewItHQ, documented in writing. Only exclusion is customer damage.
Why the Details Matter
This page is what happens and what you choose. The guides below are the why — what is behind the wall, what fails on other jobs, and what to ask whoever you hire.
- Why does a bathroom remodel take months when the work takes days?
- What goes behind shower tile or wall panels?
- Why does a shower pan flex or feel hollow underfoot?
- How should shower plumbing be connected behind the wall?
- Can a shower valve be serviced without opening the wall?
- Which caulk belongs in a shower, and how long should it last?
Where We Work
RenewItHQ is based in Tyler and works out to roughly eighty miles. If your town is not on the list, call and ask — the edge of the map moves with the schedule.
- Tyler, TX
- Athens, TX
- Gilmer, TX
- Mabank, TX
- Lindale, TX
- Longview, TX
- Fairfield, TX
- Henderson, TX
- Palestine, TX
- Rusk, TX
- Emory, TX
- Mt Pleasant, TX
- Canton, TX
- Linden, TX
- Quitman, TX
- Carthage, TX
- Crockett, TX
- Winnsboro, TX
- Jacksonville, TX
- Sulphur Springs, TX
Free in-home consultation anywhere in that area. We measure your bathroom, you pick your colours and hardware, and you get the figure in writing before anything is ordered.
Find Out What Your Alcove Needs
The consultation is free and it happens in your bathroom. We look behind the tub, check the drain and the framing, and tell you what the conversion involves in your house.