Is this the only bathroom in your house? Is the current bathtub a tub and shower combo? As an elderly person, I have difficulty stepping over a tub to take a shower, so I prefer only a walk-in shower. I assume there are no small children in the household.

yes it's the main bathroom, there is a powder room. No kids

If you plan to live in this house for a while, then go ahead and remove the tub. I think it’s more important to remodel to suit your needs than to do it for resale.

looks nice

I think every home needs a bathtub, but not necessarily in the main bathroom. There are going to be times when we need to soak some body part (not to mention the other uses of a large, easily cleaned washing tub, like washing pets, children, or awkward sized pots). I prefer to use a walk-in shower, but I still think it's wise, for utility and resale) to have a tub.

^^^Agree with Toronto Veterinarian; that was my thought process.

This question has been asked many times on this thread, and I think it's fair to say that about half the posters will say, "A master bath must have a tub," while the other half will say, "A shower's enough". Everyone seems to agree that every house should have one bathtub somewhere ... not necessarily in the master bath.

Here are two crucial questions only you can answer. First, will your lives be better without a tub? For us the answer was “yes.” We shower far more than we bathed (90:1 for an average 3 showers a day:12 baths a year). Our dream was a larger, open shower with controls near the entry and a bench, and it was worth giving up the tub to enjoy those amenities everyday. We don’t miss it at all.

Second, will there be a hidden cost when you sell? Not necessarily — it depends on your ideal buyer and timing. If your property has unique factors (positive or negative) that already narrow the pool of ideal buyers, excluding those who require tubs is a bigger issue. In my area, for example, large families pay a premium for homes with 4+ bedrooms that won’t be realized if there’s no tub to bathe small children. On the flipside, many young professionals are looking for the kind of showers they see in magazines, and empty nesters see the savings in a curbless shower with grab bars that lets them stay in their home extra years.

Either way the impact diminishes over time, since prospective buyers will plan on redoing a tired bath to their own tastes anyway.

If you're planning to stay in the house for awhile, or if you're getting on in years, do what makes sense for you. I remodeled my only bathroom and took out the tub because climbing in and out of it is risky for me. The next owner can remodel again if they want to, but in the meantime this is my home and I have to live here. There are no rules.

We have one main bathroom and we had the tub removed and a walk in shower replaced it! Have a half bath, just sink and toilet too. Love it! We are in our 70's and plan on staying here for the next 10 to 15 years as our health permits. Our grands can all use a shower now, so no problem there. If someone with a small baby stays with us we have a large kitchen sink. Where we live, on a lake, it is mostly retirees that would purchase our home. So we fixed it up for us!

What kind of tub is in your craftsman house? That too needs to be part of the discussion. Will a shower still follow the feel of the craftsman home?

How long do you intend to stay in the home?

Who would be your buyer if you had to sell? Retirees? People with children? First time home buyers?

Perhaps remodel in such a way that a future owner could re-install a bath tub with minimal effort. That would mean keeping sufficient floor space and plumbing for a tub, and documenting it somehow.

I think for some buyers, the lack of a tub would be a deal-breaker, but for others, they would just deal with it, if they liked the house. I like a tub. If I liked the house, I"d probably deal with it by putting a portable spa outside. Showers are definitely "in" right now. Who knows if that will shift back to tubs being "in" any time soon?

IMO forget the J&J how does that work in your house. I need to see the floor plan but I have to agree a tub is a must if that is the only bathroom and if you only have one entry into the bathroom maybe it can stay and be a nice tub/ shower install. I bathe every night and so for me no tub would be a deal breaker .There are tons of condos designed with no tub and they sell ask a realtor for some advice about who buys the homes in your area.

it has to stay a Jack & Jill can only be accessed through the bedrooms. We've installed pocket doors to optimize the space it works for us

I don't think I would buy a house without a bathtub, and I don't even take one bath a year. I would buy a small apartment with a shower only, but not a house.

What you don't have to do is have a deep bathtub with a high stepover. You could do something like a Kohler Villager with a 14" rim. (Not recommending this tub in particular but it has a low rim and is cast iron so a shower would be quieter than with acrylic).

The pool depth on this is shallow but it would be good for bathing kids and utility purposes, and would suffice for an adult bath.

On two identical homes, I'd take a house with an nice walk-in shower over a bath any day. Not having a tub would not be a deal breaker for me at all when shopping for a house, and would not have been except for those brief years when I had babies or young toddlers at home. Showers are easier to use, and easier to keep clean.

We just removed our only bathtub in favor of a larger nicer showrr. we have one other bathroom with a smaller shower and no tub. no regrets at all. there is still space for a tub if someone wanted to remove a couple of cabinets.

So 2 doors, 2 sinks?
I think if you take a tub out of a craftsman it takes away from the character. However a nice huge shower is lovely depends on who's using the 2 bedrooms
But I'm a realtor so although resale and people with kids/ anyone who needs to epsom soak after a long day might find it inconvenient they can always add or remodel the whole thing to their liking.
If you have room you can add a small version of tub inside shower combo

I would not buy a house without a tub and at this stage of my life I wouldn't buy one without a good size soaking tub in the master bath. I guess you need to decide to do what pleases you right now or what might please some potential buyers down the road.

If you are going to stay for any legnth of time - do what makes you happy. I can live without a tub, And a shallow tub is pretty worthless to me for soaking so that kind of compromise feels like the worst of both worlds. We're talking about a 2 bed / 1.5 bath home - it's not going to appeal to a family with 3 kids. It kinda has empty nester written all ove it. A nice walk in shower / age in place would be fitting, I think.

If you're planning to live in this house at least 5 to 7 years, do what you want. We just renovated this small primary bath with a shower only:

Beauty and the Baths: Primary Bath · More Info

Beauty and the Baths: Primary Bath · More Info

I bathe 95% of the time and my husband bathes 80% of the time. We could live with a tub-only, but never a shower-only. That said, we are not the norm and if you’re staying put, do what pleases you.

It's a craftsman house and people who buy craftsman houses want the character of the craftsman. If the tub and surround is original, that is more likely to sell the house in the future, than putting in a modern shower.

Original craftsman tubs and surrounds are 90-120+ years old now. It’s understandable that we’re seeing craftsman owners ready to upgrade those baths to modern standards, just as they’ve been updating the original kitchens without loss of value.

How long are you staying in the house? What are the neighborhood demographics? My last home was in a neighborhood where the grade school, middle school and high school were rated 9 out of 10 in the state. People with children or planning a family were willing to pay a premium for a home in my neighborhood. People with young children want a bath tub. If I lived in a neighborhood that was mostly seniors or young professionals I would consider removing the tub if I was going to be in the home long enough to make the investment reasonable.

This question seems to come up every few months. You could search all those threads and hear 50/50 on should you or shouldn't you...the real information you need is ff to when you want to sell or how it's been for those who did remove the tub. I think in the end a home needs one tub. YOU may not but in the life of a house they get used.

Might I suggest this…. If you decide to replace the tub with a shower, keep the footprint of the shower the same size as the standard tub that you are replacing. That way, if you ever decide to see your home and potential buyers want a tub, you can point out that the shower space can easily be converted back to a tub. If you undergo an entire remodel of the space, altering the floor plan, this might not be possible. So, my advice is to keep the shower the same dimensions of the but, in the same space/alcove, etc. for future buyers. A compromise?

Lets face it, Bathtubs are a waste of space and water today. Bathubs in master baths have become options in probably most new home builds. We ”older” and by older, I mean gen X and older grew up w tubs and old habits die hard so we like them for the most part. Millennials and younger home buyers are more in tune with environmentally friendly items. If when you sell your home, you are marketing to a younger crowd, they are more likely not to want or need a tub. You definitely wouldnt need a huge one in the master but a tub in a secondary bath would probably be a plus. If everything is the same between two homes I like, Id rather have a nicer shower over a smaller shower w a tub jammed in there.

If it's the only bathroom I'd keep the tub. People with kids usually need a tub.

No! I would almost kill for a tub! There are no kids.

Our past home had 4 bathrooms with two tubs. The baths with tubs were upstairs and downstairs. I rarely bathed my kids in the tubs. When babies, they went in the large kitchen sink. When they could walk, I taught them to like a shower, of course I was with them. They got comfortable with showering.

I do not like tubs and have rarely taken a bath. I really dislike soaking in 'dirty water.' When I did use the tub, I always showered after.

We never did remove the tubs because everyone said you need tubs.

I would be thrilled to buy a house with nice showers without tubs.

Jane

A thought I haven't seen expressed: if you want a tub now, and are planning to age in place, avoid tubs with extra-high surrounds (cool as they are). Because: look up "shower transfer bench" for safe entry/exit from a bath. They span across a regular height tub, but don't look like they'd work on a tall tub.

Tubs are a waste of space?? Only if you have the silly need for separate tub/shower which will always and forever be a waste of space. A deep soaking tub is for sure not what you want as you age. It's a bummer how fast a tub can get too deep.