RSS Feeds: We're Replacing our Master Bathroom Bathtub with a Shower
We're replacing the bathtub in our master bathroom with a shower and the reason is simple. It's a crappy bathtub, made of plastic, and it wasn't installed correctly to begin with.
In the past, I took a lot of heat for the mistakes that were made when our house was built, such as the when the plumbing was being put in and when the paint was being applied. I shouldn't have been too hard on myself. The contractor picked the month we were out of the country to do the brunt of the things we've found wrong in the last two years. It's too late to complain about it to anyone that matters and it's not really worth it — the contractor is in prison for various counts of fraud, according to our contacts in the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation, kind of like the FBI in the US).
A Bad Bathtub
My wife had insisted, like just about everything American-looking in our house, that our master bathroom would have a bathtub, complete with a sliding door. The bathtub that was installed is a standard size and it looks like the bathtubs you find in modern homes, but that's where the similarity ends. It's made of plastic, not porcelain or fiberglass, both of which are much stronger. This one cracked right down the middle after a year. A piece of fiberboard, covered with white duct tape is covering the crack and is merely a temporary solution.
In modern US homes, the bottom of the bathtub is usually sunk into the floor so that the standing surface is level with the outside floor. Our bathtub was simply placed above the cement floor which serves as part of the ceiling for the first floor (causing it to be a couple of inches higher than the outside floor). To make it solid enough to put in place until the supporting walls (since it isn't surrounded by an enclosure), they put sand under it. When the plumbing leaked, the sand compressed, hence the reason it cracked — the support in that spot had dropped a couple of inches at least.
We weren't here when all this was done. One of my brothers-in-law observed and told us how it was put in. He didn't know how it was "supposed" to be installed since most Filipino homes only have showers, at least the ones my in-laws have ever been on the inside of.
What kind of shower?
My house has two other bathrooms in it. Both have showers, albeit too small for my tastes, but still functional. We'll have much more space when the bathtub is removed, giving us ample room to move around in. I'm considering designing it like one of the handicap showers I've seen on the net, but without the chair in the wall (I could always add that later when I really am old enough to need it). The advantages of handicap showers are the rails on each wall, in my opinion. Something to grab onto when an accidental slip occurs is a good idea. I'm not disabled, but I like the safety factor (and the extra facecloth hanging space).
The sliding shower door is exactly the same size as those in the other two bathrooms, so it should be easy to cannibalize it for our shower.
What's wrong with showers?
It hasn't taken much for me to convince the wife we need to replace the bathtub with a shower. It's what I grew up with (in my parents' home) and it's what she grew up with. When I lived in military barracks and served aboard ships, showers were all I could use.
Frankly, I'm too tall to use a bathtub as a bathtub anyway and we have no small children anymore. Both of my sons enjoyed the use of bathtubs when they were small enough to fit into them. My wife and I have always used our bathtubs as showers, so why bother with the actual tub? A tiled shower floor is good enough for me.
It'll be a couple of months (or longer) before we can actually do the change. We ran out of savings money while building our dirty kitchen and laundry room extension — it still needs a roof and paint (but everything else is done, including the counter tops and plumbing).
Oh well, at least we have a plan.
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We have just one bathroom in the house. On my "to do" list is to change a large closet in the master bedroom into a small bathroom. It gets incredibly inconvenient here just having one. Good luck with your project.
Sounds like a very interesting project, if you were stateside I could definitely make some recommendations but regional differences in plumbing practices can make a big difference in how you would go about a change like this one. Be sure to post before and after pictures when you get everything done.
You'll be glad once you get that shower installed (and your wife probably will be too!)
We remodeled our master bathroom last year. Initially it had a corner shower, no tub. We could have put in a shower/tub moving around the fixtures but opted for a larger shower for two, with dual shower heads. We love it. If I want to soak,take a bath which I rarely do I use the tub in the hallway bathroom.
That's what my bathtub is turning into – a shower big enough for two adults.
Shower is good. But it's not possible to compare it with Japanese bathtub for example (which is my favorite)).
Thanks for the interesting post. Good Luck in replacing your bathtub with showers.
My last blog: Shower Handrails