If it is, pause before committing. Buyers with young children look for a tub, and agents regularly flag a home with no bathtub at all as a harder sell. If you have a second bathroom with a tub, convert away. If this is your only one and you plan to sell within a few years, the everyday benefit may cost you at resale. There is no code issue here. Ontario Building Code 9.31.4.1 requires a dwelling unit to have a bathtub or a shower, so a home with only showers is fully compliant. This is a market consideration, not a legal one, but it is the most common regret we hear about this project.
The tub, surround, any tub deck, and the tub faucet and controls are removed. A cast iron tub changes this phase: at 300 to 500 pounds, it will not fit through a bathroom door in one piece. It has to be cut into sections first, which adds noise, dust and roughly $300 to $600 to demolition.
The tub drain and overflow come out and the floor opening is repaired. The new shower drain is roughed in where the shower layout requires it. The existing tub and shower valve is replaced or converted to a shower-only setup, since the tub spout and diverter are no longer needed. If the valve is buried behind tile, the wall is opened. The shower head is roughed in at height, typically 78 to 80 inches above the finished shower floor, and it is worth going higher if anyone in the household is tall.
This is the phase quietly removed from suspiciously cheap quotes. The new shower needs a full waterproofing membrane on the floor and all three walls before any tile goes on.
| The existing tile cannot stay. Even if the surround tile looks fine, the membrane has to bond to the substrate, so the old tile must come off. A quote that proposes tiling over the existing surround is not offering you a shower. It is offering you a future insurance claim. |
With the old tile removed, the cement board or moisture-resistant drywall behind it is inspected. Water damage here is common, because tub surrounds often live with failing grout and caulk for years before anyone notices. The substrate must be sound before the membrane goes on, and this is the line item most likely to grow after demolition.
Tile covers the floor, all three alcove walls, and the ceiling if the design calls for it. Floor tile must follow the slope to the new drain.
A frameless or semi-frameless panel or door is installed where the outer edge of the tub used to be. Glass is measured and ordered only after tile is finished, because it is cut to the exact as-built opening. Expect a two to four week lead time, with the bathroom usable but open in the meantime.
When two quotes for the same bathroom differ by thousands of dollars, the drain is usually the reason. A tub drain sits at one end of the tub, roughly six inches from the end wall. A shower drain almost never belongs there. A round centre drain sits near the middle of the alcove, about 30 inches from either end wall in a standard five-foot space and centred front to back. A linear drain typically runs along the end wall or at the entry. Either way, the drain moves, and moving a drain means structural access:
Budget $1,500 to $3,500 for shower drain relocation, depending on depth and access. Relocating a fixture also requires a plumbing permit, and below-slab work needs a rough-in inspection before the slab is closed.
| Watch for guesswork: Any contractor quoting a tub to shower conversion without first confirming where your existing drain is and where the new one needs to go is guessing, and that guess will be revised upward after demolition. |
If this is a condo bathroom, answer one question before anything else. Most GTA condo corporations restrict or prohibit relocating drains, because the drain ties into a stack serving the units below. Many buildings also prohibit cutting the slab, and in towers with post-tensioned slabs, cutting or core drilling is genuinely dangerous and will not be approved. That does not necessarily end the project. It means the shower must be designed around the existing drain location, which usually points to a layout with the drain kept at the end of the alcove. Get the answer from property management in writing before you start choosing tile.
Curbless showers are excellent, but they are not always possible. On a wood-frame floor, the shower floor must be recessed into the joist space so the finished surface sits flush with the bathroom floor. Whether that works depends on joist direction, depth and what else runs through that space. Sometimes it works cleanly. Sometimes it requires framing changes that move the project into a different budget category, and occasionally the answer is no. A low-profile curb is the sensible fallback and delivers most of the accessibility benefit.
Current GTA pricing, before HST.
Tiled walls, centre drain without major relocation, semi-frameless door.
| Item | Cost |
| Demolition | $800 |
| Plumbing modification | $2,000 |
| Waterproofing membrane | $800 |
| Substrate repair | $400 |
| Tile supply and installation, standard format | $3,500 |
| Semi-frameless door | $1,800 |
| Subtotal | $9,300 |
Curbless where feasible, linear drain, frameless glass, large-format tile.
| Item | Cost |
| Demolition | $1,000 |
| Plumbing including drain relocation | $3,500 |
| Waterproofing, curbless configuration | $1,200 |
| Substrate repair and levelling | $600 |
| Tile supply and installation, 24x48 format | $6,000 |
| Frameless glass panel and door | $4,500 |
| Subtotal | $16,800 |
With a 10% contingency and tax, a basic conversion lands near $11,500 all-in, and a quality conversion lands closer to $21,000. Those are the numbers to plan around, not the subtotals.
Expect two to three weeks of active work for a straightforward conversion, longer where drain relocation and inspections are involved. Then comes the glass gap: two to four weeks between tile completion and enclosure installation. Plan for roughly four to six weeks end to end, and arrange use of a second bathroom if you have one.
Two additions cost very little now and a great deal later.
Grab bar blocking. Solid backing in the wall framing at the shower and toilet lets grab bars be mounted properly whenever they are needed. The Ontario Building Code already requires this blocking in new walls in the main bathroom of a dwelling unit, and adding it here is inexpensive insurance either way.
Accessibility features and the tax credit. If someone in the household is 65 or older or eligible for the Disability Tax Credit, a curbless or low-curb shower with grab bar blocking may qualify for the federal Home Accessibility Tax Credit on eligible expenses up to $20,000 per year. The credit rate follows the lowest federal income tax rate, now 14%, for a maximum federal credit of about $2,800. Raise it with your accountant before you sign, not at tax time.
At Maple Leaf Quality Renos, every tub to shower conversion starts with a plumbing assessment: where the existing drain sits, where the new one needs to go, and what relocating it involves in your floor. We confirm all of this before the estimate is finalized, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
Contact us for a free consultation.
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📧 contact@mapleleafqualityrenos.ca