Keep the tub if it’s the only one in the house and you’re still bathing young children. Convert it if you shower every day, plan to stay in the home long term, or want safer footing. In Colorado Springs, most conversions happen as part of a full bathroom remodel Guest bathrooms range from $25,000 to $45,000 and master bathrooms range from $40,000 to $64,000 on average.
Most people who ask us this have already stopped using the tub. It sits there collecting dust, eating sixty inches of a bathroom that already felt tight. Then a neighbor mentions that a house won’t sell without a bathtub, and the project stalls another year.
We have been remodeling bathrooms in Colorado Springs since 2010, from Briargate ranches to older homes closer to downtown. The right answer changes house to house. It depends on how many bathrooms you have, who is living in them, what sits under your floor, and how long you plan to stay.
How much does a tub-to-shower conversion cost in Colorado Springs?
Get three quotes and they might come back at $4,000, $12,000, and $38,000. All three can be honest bids because they’re pricing different jobs.
The low end is a shower swap. A crew pulls the tub, sets a prefabricated pan and wall panels into the same opening, and leaves the rest of the bathroom alone. Nationally, that work prices out like this:
| What you’re building | What it involves | Typical national cost, shower only |
| Prefab or acrylic insert | Molded pan and wall panels, standard shower door, existing drain | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Tile shower, same footprint | Tiled walls and pan, waterproofing, framed or frameless glass | $6,000 to $12,000 |
| Curbless tile shower | Recessed subfloor, linear drain, barrier-free entry | $8,000 to $15,000 |
Those figures come from This Old House’s 2026 conversion cost data. Asked the other way, how much does a walk in shower cost on its own? Angi puts the national average near $9,000, with most projects between $6,000 and $12,000.
The high end is a bathroom remodel that includes a new shower, which is the work we do. A full bathroom remodel in Colorado Springs can cost anywhere from $15,000 to over $75,000 depending on size and complexity of the project. When you work with Aspen kitchens, those costs cover tile, vanity and countertop, the shower or tub, glass, fixtures and lighting, flooring, demolition and labor, permits and inspections, project management, and a designer working through every selection with you.
Neither number is wrong for every house. If your bathroom is five years old and you just want the tub gone, a shower swap is a reasonable purchase. If the vanity is original, the flooring is dated, and the tile has been on your list for a decade, replacing only the shower means paying a crew to carefully work around everything you’re going to tear out anyway.
What makes one walk-in shower cost twice as much as another?
Three things move the number, and two of them can be sneaky.
Tile, glass, and size. Material cost per square foot is the visible driver. Ceramic and porcelain sit at the low end, natural stone at the high end, and a frameless glass enclosure costs more than a framed shower door. Large-format tile means fewer grout lines to scrub later, but it needs a flat wall behind it, so labor costs can increase if the wall needs work.
Whether the drain moves. Read a national cost guide and you will find a warning about jackhammering concrete to relocate a drain. That warning mostly doesn’t apply here. Because of the clay soils along the Front Range, slab-on-grade is uncommon in Colorado Springs and basements and crawl spaces are the norm, so a plumber can usually reach the drain from below. Moving it still costs money, but it costs less than it would in Phoenix.
What we find behind the tub. Old bathrooms hide things. Rotted subfloor, failed waterproofing, supply lines that should have been replaced twenty years ago. Plumbing upgrades found mid-demolition are the most common reason a budget moves, which is why we build a contingency into the bid instead of pretending the walls will be clean.
Walk-in shower vs. tub: how to decide which your bathroom needs
Four questions settle the walk in shower vs tub decision faster than any pros and cons list.
- How many full bathrooms do you have? With two or more, converting the primary bath is low risk because a tub stays in the house. With one, you’re making a different decision entirely.
- Who bathes here? Households with young children use a tub in a way nobody else does. Don’t forget about grandkids.
- How long are you staying? Under three years, resale is more of a factor. Ten years or more, and you want to prioritize how you’ll actually be using the bathroom.
- How big is the room? In a small bathroom, pulling the tub and running tile to the ceiling with a glass enclosure genuinely opens the space.
Landing in the middle is common. A tub and shower combination in the hall bath with a proper walk in shower in the primary satisfies everyone, including a future buyer.
Do you need a permit to convert a tub to a shower in Colorado Springs?
Usually yes, because the plumbing often changes.
The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department handles permitting for Colorado Springs and El Paso County. Swapping a fixture with no piping changes is generally exempt. Move a drain, reroute supply lines, or open walls, and you are into permitted work, with plumbing and electrical pulled as separate trade permits by licensed tradespeople. Fees follow a valuation-based schedule, not a flat rate.
Skipping the permit is a resale problem waiting to happen. If an inspector finds unpermitted plumbing, the buyer’s lender will start asking questions, and a routine closing can turn into a negotiation.
When a curbless shower is worth the extra cost
A curbless or zero-threshold shower removes the lip at the entry, so the bathroom floor runs level into the shower with a slight pitch toward a linear drain. It costs more because the subfloor has to be recessed and the waterproofing gets more demanding. Framed floors over a basement give us room to work.
If you have concerns about safety with your current tub setup, the conversion to a curbless shower may be worth it. Per CDC data on older adult falls, one in four adults 65 and older reports a fall each year, and about 37% of them report an injury that needs treatment or limits activity for at least a day.
If it’s built right, it just looks like a good shower. Grab bars come in finishes that match the rest of the fixtures now, and a tiled bench reads as a design choice.
A note on one-day shower conversions
You have seen the ads: a crew arrives, an acrylic system goes in over the existing surfaces, and you shower that night.
For the right house it’s a real option, but you should hear the tradeoff now. These systems come prefabricated in standard sizes, they cover what is behind them instead of replacing it, and they do nothing about a soft subfloor or aging supply lines. If the rest of the room is dated, you’re putting a new shower into an old bathroom and paying twice.
Figuring out which one your house needs
If you have two or more full baths, converting the one you use every morning is an easy call. If you only have one bath, or you have younger kids in the house, it makes sense to keep the tub for a while.
Then look at what’s under the floor. Most Colorado Springs homes have a basement or crawl space, which makes drain work more forgiving here than the national guides suggest. We check that before anyone talks about tile.
The rest is shower designs and material choices, and that part gets fun once the structural questions are settled. Frameless glass or framed. A bench, a niche, a handheld on a slide bar.
If you want to start talking through your options, stop by our showroom at 5020 N Nevada Ave in University Village. When you are ready to price the work, a designer can come to your home to take measurements and see the space ($200, credited back to your project). Here’s how our process works.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a tub-to-shower conversion take? A tile shower in the existing footprint typically takes one to two weeks of active work, and the tile and waterproofing set the pace. Curbless builds and layout changes run longer. Prefabricated systems go faster because the pan and walls arrive finished.
Can I keep my plumbing where it is to save money? Usually, and you should if the layout allows it. Building the new shower in the tub’s original footprint keeps the drain and supply lines where they are, which takes a real chunk out of the shower conversion cost. It’s the easiest saving on the job.
Do I have to give up a soaking tub to get a walk-in shower? Not if the room can hold both. In larger primary bathrooms we regularly fit a walk in shower alongside a freestanding tub, though it takes more floor space than the original alcove offered.
Further reading
- The Homeowners Guide to Bathroom Remodeling in Colorado Springs: covers the full project: cost ranges, timeline, permits, and each stage of the work.
- Pikes Peak Regional Building Department is the official source for permit requirements and current fees in Colorado Springs and El Paso County.
- The 2025 U.S. Houzz Bathroom Trends Study shows what homeowners are choosing for shower designs and accessibility.
