Shower or Bathtub?

MAUREEN: Hi. Can’t decide which way to go. We have a second bathroom that had a tub in it. We ripped the tub out and now we can’t decide whether to go with a shower or another tub. This is a second bathroom so that we already have a bathroom that has this whole tub in it.

TOM: OK.

MAUREEN: And we’re thinking also along the lines of resale value.

TOM: Mm-hmm. Well, if you already have one bath with a full tub and this bathroom you want to pick up some more room or, for whatever reason, you want to go with just a shower, I think that’s fine. I actually have a situation that’s very similar in my house. We have a bathroom on the first floor that happened to be a full bath but we didn’t really ever use it as for the bathtub; so we replaced that with just a shower and picked up a lot more room in the bathroom – and, in this case, we needed a bigger storage closet – and never was concerned about its impact on the house value.

MAUREEN: Oh, OK. And the drain. Would you move the drain to the center or leave it where it was – where the old tub was?

TOM: Really depends on the layout. You’re absolutely going to end up moving it somewhere and there’s not much difference between moving it two inches and moving it two feet. You know, if it doesn’t fit it doesn’t fit; unless the house is built on a slab. Is it on a slab?

MAUREEN: No, no.

TOM: Alright, so then it’s very easy to move it once you get underneath and that decision is going to be made by your plumber based on where the drain for the new shower ends up needing to be. OK, Maureen?

MAUREEN: OK, great. Thank you very much.