Shower remodels & tub-to-shower conversions — Knoxville
The tub nobody's used since 2009.
It's the most common call we get: a perfectly good bathroom held hostage by a tub that exists to be stepped over. Five days, and it's a shower.
Walk through any ranch in Fountain City or Bearden and you'll find it: the 5-foot cast iron or fiberglass tub, a sliding glass door that's cloudy no matter how it's scrubbed, and a homeowner who showers standing in a bathtub every single day. If that's your house, a conversion is the highest-value remodel you can do — it changes the room you use most, without touching the walls. Call it a shower remodel or a tub-to-shower conversion; around here it's the same job, and it's the one we do most.
What actually happens, day by day
A conversion is a small job done in a wet zone, which means the order of operations is everything. Ours runs like this:
- Day 1 — out with the tub. Demo, disposal, and a real look at the subfloor and drain you've been trusting for forty years.
- Days 2–3 — plumbing. The valve gets replaced (not reused — more on that below), the drain gets moved if the design calls for it, and the city inspects the rough-in before anything closes.
- Days 3–4 — waterproofing and tile. Membrane on the walls and pan, a flood test on the pan, then tile. The flood test is not optional and never will be.
- Day 5 — glass and finish. Panel or door, trim, fixtures, silicone, cleanup. You shower in it that night — well, after the silicone cures. Day six, then.
The valve rule
Here's a thing worth knowing when you compare bids. The shower valve — the part inside the wall that mixes hot and cold — is the one component you truly don't want failing behind brand-new tile. Ours get replaced on every conversion, full stop, and it's in the quote. KUB's water runs hard enough that a twenty-year-old valve is living on borrowed time, and opening finished tile to chase one later costs more than the valve ever did.
What demo day tells us — and why it matters
The most valuable hour of a conversion is the one right after the tub comes out, because it's the only honest look anyone's had at that wall since the house was built. Three things get checked before a single new board goes up:
- The subfloor at the drain. Decades of splash and a slow drip at the overflow gasket leave soft spots you can't see with the tub in place. If the plywood needs a section replaced, it happens now — it's an hour's work with the floor open and a nightmare after tile.
- The wall cavity. Knoxville's older tubs often sit against exterior walls with little or no insulation behind them. While the cavity's open we insulate it — a warmer shower in January for the cost of a batt or two.
- The vent and drain path. A shower drains faster than a tub filled and released, but it runs far more often. We confirm the existing drain line and vent are sized and sloped for the new duty before the pan goes in, not after the first slow-drain complaint.
None of this appears in the finished photos, which is exactly the point. A conversion that skips the checks looks identical on day one. The difference shows up in year five — and by then it's a demolition job to find it.
Choosing your setup
| Option | Best for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Standard curb, glass panel | Most homes, fastest schedule | The classic. A low tile curb, one fixed panel, easy to keep clean. |
| Curbless (zero-entry) | Aging in place, wheelchairs, one clean plane of floor | Needs the pan recessed into the floor — we confirm joist depth first. |
| Bench + handheld | Anyone planning to stay 10+ years | Built-in tiled bench, blocked and anchored. Add it now; retrofits cost triple. |
| Doorless walk-in | Wider alcoves, primary baths | Needs about 5 feet of depth to keep water in. Glorious when there's room. |
Recent conversions
| House | Scope | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 Fountain City ranch | Tub out, curbed walk-in with bench, handheld + rain head, grab-bar blocking | 5 working days |
| 1971 Powell split-level | Fiberglass combo out, curbless entry, linear drain, full-height tile | 7 working days |
| 1985 Farragut colonial | Garden tub out, doorless walk-in with half wall, double niche | 6 working days |
Five days from now, this could be done.
Straight answers
Conversion questions
Will a walk-in shower fit where my tub is now?
Almost always. The standard tub alcove in a Knoxville ranch is 60 by 30 inches — that's a generous walk-in shower without moving a single wall. The question isn't whether it fits; it's whether the drain needs to move, and we answer that at the walkthrough, not after demo.
How long does a tub-to-shower conversion take?
Most run about five working days: demo day one, plumbing and inspection days two and three, waterproofing and tile days three and four, glass and finish day five. Custom tile or a curbless entry can add a couple of days — if so, it's on the schedule you sign, not a surprise.
Does removing the tub hurt resale value?
The honest answer: keep one tub in the house if you can. If the hall bath has the only tub, we'll tell you that at the walkthrough and talk it through. In practice, most buyers of Knoxville's three-bedroom stock want at least one tub for kids — and a good walk-in shower in the other bath is a selling point, not a liability.
Is a curbless (zero-entry) shower possible in my house?
Usually, but it depends on the joist direction and depth under your floor — curbless means recessing the pan. In most ranches over a crawlspace it works cleanly. Slab foundations take more planning. Either way you'll know before you sign anything.
What about grab bars and aging-in-place?
We block the walls for grab bars on every conversion, whether or not you want bars today. Blocking is cheap while the wall is open and impossible after. If you want bars, a bench and a handheld now, we build them in from the start — solid, anchored, and looking like they belong.
Thinking bigger than the shower? See how a full remodel runs, or get the money question answered first: what bathroom work costs in Knoxville.