I’m getting ready to remodel my bathrooms. At least update them.
The guest bath has a shower/tub combo and the master bath has a shower separate from the tub. One contractor told me that removing the tub from the master bath and extending the shower would be fine since there is a tub in the guest bath. Any thoughts? I would think a tub in the master bath would be a major selling point on a house.
Are you remodeling for you, or for potential resale? Do you use the master tub? Would you miss it?
I think enough people don’t use a tub that’s it’s not a huge deal for resale, although I, personally, strongly prefer a tub, and just paid a contractor a ton of money to put a much larger tub in my master bathroom (along with other upgrades.)
We bought a house a year and a half ago, and we renovated two of the three bathrooms. We now have no bathtubs in the house (3 1/2 baths).
We did it for pretty solid reasons, I feel: the one in the master bathroom was a jet-tub that was just ridiculous, super-high walls to climb in and out of, yet not deep enough for me to take a bath if I even wanted to. Converted that one into a very nice frameless walk-in shower. The other one we renovated is connected to the front bedroom, where my in-laws are living. He has severe rheumatoid arthritis, and he can’t step up into a bathtub, so we redid that tub into a shower too.
The third full bath is between the kids’ bedrooms, and for some reason that one was a shower-only unit from the start. Wouldn’t you think you’d put a bathtub in the kids’ bathroom? Weird. But, there you have it.
Anyway, the showers we’ve put in are quite nice, and I can’t see it hurting the value whenever we eventually sell.
I wouldn’t miss the tub at all. In 14 years in this house that tub has been used about 5 times. Plus we have a second tub if I’m desperate for a bath.
The remodel is mostly for resale purposes. We’ll get some use out of it, but I’m not picky about bathrooms and I don’t even really notice much about them. Does the shower spray hot water? I’m good.
I think if there’s a tub still in the house (for washing kids, dogs, window blinds…) you’re good.
From what I see on home improvement shows, a fancy, roomy shower in the master bath is going to be a bigger selling point than the lack of master tub would be a deterrent to sale.
If the remodeling is for selling, talk to your real estate agent, and ask “Will I recoup the cost of converting this existing tub into a really nice shower?” Because that is really the question. Will you get your money out of it?
How big is your master shower if you keep the tub? Used to be, you would see huge tubs and tiny showers (3x3) in the master, but people now want larger showers. Most people use the shower every day, and it’s nice to have one that is at least 42" deep and 48" wide, with a bench.
I have it in the back of my mind that you can’t get a VA or FHA loan on a house without a tub. I think a realtor told us that eons ago, but I can’t find a cite at the moment. If that’s the case, you’ll narrow your potential market when you’re ready to sell.
Just something to think about.
I’m an agent. Keep one tub. Make a nice, big fancy shower in the master, using the cheapest materials possible since you’re moving. I very rarely have a buyer that wants that big tub in their master. But a tub somewhere is usually a must.
When you say “master bath” do you mean the bathroom off the master bedroom? And the “guest bath” as the one that’s accessible to the other bedrooms without going through the master bedroom?
The accessible bathroom is the one that needs the tub, assuming you want someday to sell the house, and you want families with kids as potential buyers.
Kids take baths. Parents would rather not have them traipsing through the master bedroom and cluttering up the parents’ bathroom with their stuff.
I so wish I had a tub at the master bedroom. I feel bad when I kick guests out of the guest bathroom so I can do my bathtub PT (that’s “physical therapy,” not “a torpedo boat”).
The wifey loves the bathtub, but it’s in the guest bathroom. Our master bathroom only has a walk-in shower.
One tub in a house is a must (and I say this as a guy who hasn’t taken an actual bath in decades).
Two tubs in a house is one tub too many.
mmm
Let me be the contrarian voice who says that the lack of a tub in the master bath is strike against the house. I only take showers if there is no other choice; I find baths relaxing, plus the hot water immersion is good for my gimpy ankle.
Sounds like the bottom line is: you’ll lose potential buyers no matter what you do. Four of the houses we owned didn’t have a tub in the master - two that we built that way, one was that way when we bought it, and one that we remodeled. We had no problem selling the 3 we’re not living in at the moment.
Two of our houses had Jacuzzi tubs in the master - I doubt that we used either half a dozen times, and they were a pain in the patoot to clean. But we had no problem finding buyers for them, either.
Bottom line, unless you’re remodeling to sell right away, do what you like. If someone won’t buy your house because of the presence or lack of a tub, they’d probably find another reason not to buy it anyway. I feel safe opining that there’s no way any one house will appeal to everyone. So make yourself happy.
This. Remodeling can be very expensive. Be careful not to spend more than you can recoup.
If you are remodeling to sell, then my answer will be do a cheap cosmetic update. Pretty up a few things but don’t spend real money. Remodeling the bath probably won’t be financially lucrative.
If its for you and you are going to be there a while, then do it. Our master bath has a shower. We bought the house that way, and while we redid the bathrooms, we didn’t add in a tub, since we have one in the kids bathroom.
I love soaking in the master bath…
That being said, we bought a house with an inadequate master bath tub, and it took us 20 years to upgrade it. Also, very few of the houses we shopped had a nice master bath tub. Many just had a fancy shower enclosure. Others had some giant thing with jets that looked like it would take an hour to fill, and I’d worry about the residual water in the jet plumbing being clean. (Or rather, growing crap on it between uses.) Others had the default cheap shallow tub we bought. I don’t think any had a nice solid soaking tub.
I don’t think the plumbing is a major selling point so long as it works.
A new shower head, a new coat of paint, and new blinds are all cheap. New light bulbs may make it look more cheerful, too. Cleaning the grout with some bleach may perk up the room. New faucets aren’t all that pricey, either. And, added bonus, they may work better than old faucets with embedded crud.
Anyhow, that’s what I’d be looking at if i were just prepping to sell.
Well… there are a few people such as myself who will never buy a house that lacks a bathtub. But we’re a minority and balanced out by the minority who see a lack of a bathtub a feature and not a bug.
So, really, you’ll sell your house regardless of what you actually decide to do. Seems to me that having at least one bathtub captures the widest audience, but like I said, either way you’ll be able to re-sell it.
If you’re not intending to re-sell it then do what makes YOU happy.
This is probably true. We have 3 full baths in our house, 2 have tubs and one (the master, oddly enough for this thread) is shower only. So long as there is a tub available for bathing kids/grandkids/dogs/occasional soak I think you’re fine.
This is not true. As you can see from the answers in this thread, a tub in the master is not going to be a “major” selling point. In this case, do what ye will but don’t sink a whole lot of money into it.