The bathtub no one in the house has used in three years. The step-over that's getting harder to do. The dated 1990s tub-and-surround combo that's pulling down the whole bathroom.
If any of that sounds familiar, you've probably already started looking at tub to shower conversions. You've probably also gotten one quote that sounded too cheap and another that sounded too high, with no real way to tell what you're comparing.
This guide will walk you through what a tub to shower conversion really costs in the Lansing area, how long it actually takes, the three ways to do it, and a handful of recent projects we've finished around Williamston, East Lansing, Mulliken, and Webberville so you can see what each price tier actually buys.
Mark Dixon is a Designer and Project Estimator at Odd Fellows Contracting in Greater Lansing, MI. He's an NKBA Certified Kitchen and Bath Designer (CKD) and NARI Certified Remodeler (CR) and has been designing kitchens and bathrooms for homeowners across the Greater Lansing area for years.
A walk-in tile shower with bench and grab bars from our Webberville bathroom remodel, one of the recent tub to shower conversions we'll walk through below.
Yes. In nearly every Lansing-area home, a bathtub can be converted to a shower. The scope of work varies based on the plumbing, the layout, and the type of shower you want, but the conversion itself is a common and well-understood project.
There are three ways it's typically done:
The right path depends on your budget, how long you plan to be in the home, and how the existing bathroom is functioning today.
Before and after of a tub to shower conversion we finished in Mulliken, Michigan.
A tub to shower conversion in the Lansing area typically falls between $8,500 and $26,000 for the shower itself, or between $35,000 and $80,000 when the conversion is part of a full bathroom remodel. The price is driven by the wall material, whether the plumbing needs to move, and whether anything else in the bathroom is changing at the same time.
For a deeper breakdown of shower pricing specifically, you can read our full guide to shower replacement costs in Lansing.
| Conversion path | Cost range | What you get | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bath Fitter (tub-to-shower) | $1,200 - $9,500 | Existing tub removed, new prefab shower base and watertight wall panels installed in its place. One-day install. | Lowest budget, fastest install, accepting a different product than a true remodel. |
| Home Depot | $8,000 - $15,000 | Wall surround, expanded walk-in, or curbless options. Local licensed contractors. One-day to multi-day install depending on scope. | Want a national-brand warranty with more product options than a basic liner. |
| Basic acrylic (OFC / Odd Jobs) | $8,500 - $12,500 | Acrylic walls and pan, simple glass enclosure, new plumbing and subfloor. | Want the tub gone without a bigger project. |
| Solid surface (cultured stone) | $13,500 - $17,000 | Cultured stone walls, more design flexibility, easier to maintain than tile. | Middle ground between acrylic and tile. |
| Tile shower | $16,000 - $26,000 | Full tile walls, custom layout, niche, bench, semi-frameless or frameless glass. | Want the conversion to look like part of a real remodel. |
| Full bathroom remodel (with conversion) | $18,000 - $85,000+ | Refresh, mid-range, or luxury tier. Tile or stone shower plus new vanity, flooring, lighting, layout changes, accessibility features. | Conversion is part of a fuller bathroom upgrade. |
These ranges come from the shower replacement work we do at Odd Fellows Contracting. They cover the cost of the new shower itself, not a full bathroom remodel.
Basic acrylic shower replacement: $8,500 to $12,500. Acrylic walls and pan, simple glass enclosure, no major layout change. This is the closest design-build equivalent to what a Bath Fitter or Home Depot partner-installer offers, with the difference that we replace plumbing and subfloor as part of the scope. Acrylic is the most affordable path and works well for homeowners who want the tub gone without a bigger project. Our Mulliken Bathroom Update is a clean example. The homeowner's goal was a complete update with the footprint kept and the tub converted to a walk-in shower, finished as a pull-and-replace with an acrylic surround.
The Mulliken acrylic shower includes a corner seat and grab bars without pushing into the tile pricing tier.
Solid surface (cultured stone) shower replacement: $13,500 to $17,000. Cultured stone walls (Onyx Collection material, which we've used on several recent Lansing-area projects), more design flexibility than acrylic, easier to maintain than tile, longer-lasting than acrylic.
Tile shower replacement: $16,000 to $26,000. Full tile walls, custom layout options, niche, bench, semi-frameless or frameless glass. This is what most homeowners pick when they want the conversion to feel like part of a real remodel. Our Webberville Bathroom Remodel sits at the higher end of this tier: tub removed, replaced with a large walk-in tile shower with a wall niche, bench, and semi-frameless glass door, plus a custom vanity built from an antique furniture piece.
Tile walls, mosaic floor, built-in niche from the Webberville tile shower.
Most tub to shower conversions in our portfolio happen as part of a larger bathroom remodel, not as a standalone shower swap. From our Greater Lansing cost guide, full bathroom remodels break down into three tiers:
Where you land in that range depends on:
The Williamston Bathroom Refresh shower with blue subway tile waterfall design and quartz vanity, in a 5x9 footprint.
Bath Fitter tub-to-shower conversions run about $1,200 to $9,500 according to industry estimates (HomeGuide, Angi), with most installs completed in a single day. Their installer removes the existing tub, then installs a new prefab shower base and watertight wall panels in its place.
Home Depot's published cost range for tub-to-shower conversions is $8,000 to $15,000. They offer three product tiers, a basic wall surround (custom-fabricated composite or acrylic panels, 1-2 days), an expanded walk-in that borrows space from a closet or pony wall (5-10 days), and a curbless shower that requires recessing the floor (5-8 days). The work is done by local licensed contractors.
Both companies offer a real product. The difference is what's included in the scope.
Our acrylic shower replacement at $8,500 to $12,500 sits in similar pricing territory to Home Depot's wall surround, with a few key differences:
Do the math on cost per year of life. A $7,000 prefab system that needs replacing in 10 years comes out to $700 per year. A $20,000 tile shower that holds up for 25 years comes out to $800 per year for a much better product.
A few decisions move the price within these ranges more than anything else:
The East Lansing walk-in tile shower with the showerhead relocated to the opposite side of the original tub layout.
For the shower-only scope, you're looking at the $8,500 to $26,000 range above depending on the material you pick. For a full bathroom remodel that includes the conversion, you're in the $18,000 to $85,000+ range depending on whether you go refresh, mid-range, or luxury.
The demo and rough-in portion is a smaller piece of the total cost than most homeowners expect. The bigger drivers are finish materials, tile, and glass.
A pull-and-replace shower upgrade takes about 5 to 8 days. A fully remodeled custom shower runs 10 to 15 days or more. A full bathroom remodel with a tub to shower conversion built in takes 4 to 8 weeks of construction, plus design time up front.
You may have seen the "one day" tub to shower install ads on TV. That timeline is true for Bath Fitter's prefab system and Home Depot's basic wall surround, both of which use prefabricated panels installed over a new base. Anything more involved, including expanded walk-ins or curbless showers, takes multiple days even with the national brands. We don't do shower swaps without replacing the plumbing and subfloor, so a real Odd Fellows Contracting conversion takes longer than a one-day install. The product also lasts much longer.
| Scope | Construction timeline | Design time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acrylic insert (national brand) | 1 day | In-home quote, then schedule | Liner over existing tub. No plumbing or subfloor work. |
| Pull-and-replace shower upgrade (Odd Jobs) | 5 to 8 days | Material selection consultation | Footprint stays the same. New plumbing and subfloor. |
| Custom shower remodel | 10 to 15 days | 2 to 3 weeks | Tile, custom layout, glass enclosure. |
| Full bathroom remodel (with conversion) | 4 to 8 weeks | 3 to 5 weeks | Vanity, flooring, lighting, painting, full layout flexibility. |
For a full design-build conversion that includes a bathroom remodel, the timeline looks like this:
It's a longer process than an insert install. The result is a bathroom that does what you actually want it to do.
A pull-and-replace shower upgrade and a full design-build remodel both move through the same general phases:
In a full bathroom remodel, this same process happens alongside vanity install, flooring, lighting, painting, and the rest of the bathroom scope.
Our 6-step design-build process front-loads four of those steps into planning. By the time we start demo, the scope, the materials, and the price are all locked in. No surprise change orders.
A 3D rendering from the Mulliken project showing the planned walk-in shower layout before construction started.
If this is your only full bathroom or you might sell within the next 5 to 7 years, keeping at least one tub somewhere in the house is generally a smart call. If you have a tub elsewhere in the home or you aren't planning to sell, converting freely is fine.
Local real estate agents will usually tell you the same thing: families with young children want at least one tub to bathe kids in, and buyers in that life stage will pass on a home that has only showers. If the only tub in the home is the one you're considering converting, think carefully before you remove it.
If you have a primary bath plus a hall bath or guest bath with a tub, converting the primary to a shower-only setup is usually a smart move. You get the shower you actually use every day, and you keep a tub for resale or guests.
The Williamston Bathroom Refresh: tub-to-shower conversion that worked because there's still a tub elsewhere in the home.
A tub to shower conversion is one of the highest-impact aging-in-place upgrades you can make to a Lansing-area home. The step-over of a standard tub is one of the most common fall hazards in the home, especially for older adults. Replacing it with a low-curb or curbless walk-in shower removes that risk and makes the bathroom usable for the long term.
When clients ask us about accessibility-focused conversions, the features that come up most often are:
Accessibility doesn't have to mean a big-budget remodel either. The Mulliken project above kept the same footprint and used an acrylic surround, but the conversion itself removed the step-over of the old tub, which was the homeowner's biggest concern.
Accessibility detail from the Mulliken conversion: grab bar plus molded bench in an acrylic surround.
The right contractor depends on the scope you want. If you want an acrylic insert, hire a company that does insert systems. If you want a full design-build remodel, hire a company that does design-build remodeling. Pick the company that does your scope as their main work, not as a side offering.
| If you want... | Hire a company that does... | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| A fast, lower-cost prefab shower | National-brand prefab shower systems as their main product | Bath Fitter, Home Depot (via local licensed contractors), Re-Bath |
| A real shower replacement, no layout change | Pull-and-replace shower work with plumbing replaced | Odd Jobs (the Odd Fellows Contracting small-project division) |
| A full custom remodel with tile and design choices | Design-build remodeling as their main service | Odd Fellows Contracting design-build |
A few questions worth asking any contractor:
Red flag: anyone giving you a same-day quote for a custom remodel. A real design-build project requires a real conversation about scope, materials, and goals before a number gets put on paper.
Tub to shower conversions are one of the most common bathroom upgrades we complete. Many homeowners choose to replace an unused tub with a larger walk-in shower that improves accessibility, comfort, and day-to-day usability.
We handle the work two ways:
Our 6-step design-build process front-loads four steps into planning. By the time construction starts, the design is locked, the materials are selected, and the price is fixed. You know what you're getting before we put a hammer to a wall.
Mark Dixon, the author of this guide, is an NKBA Certified Kitchen and Bath Designer and a NARI Certified Remodeler. Jerry Dowell, our designer and estimator, brings the same depth.
We've been doing this in Greater Lansing since 1988.
The finished East Lansing bathroom with the tiled walk-in shower and matching vanity.
A tub to shower conversion can be one of the best upgrades you ever make to your Lansing home. Or it can be a $7,000 acrylic insert you regret in five years. The difference comes down to who you hire and what scope you choose.
If you're thinking about a tub to shower conversion in Lansing, Williamston, East Lansing, Okemos, Mulliken, Holt, or anywhere around Greater Lansing, we'd love to walk through it with you.
Still in the research phase? Download our cost guide for full pricing across kitchens, bathrooms, and more.