When it comes to remodeling your bathroom, many different aspects come into play when choosing what works best to fit the needs of yourself and your family. Choosing the perfect shower or tub for your home is no exception. A shower/tub combination has been the norm in bathrooms in the past because of the convenience of having both, but this tends to be an eyesore leaving out the elegance of simplicity. In recent years, we have seen a switch to a freestanding tub and/or a separate shower. The reason for this is to give homeowners the option to customize their bathroom to fit the needs of their families. Let’s discuss the pros and cons of each to help you decide which option works best for you.
SHOWER PROS
Stand up showers offer many positive aspects from foldable benches that can be mounted to hand rails for stability purposes. This option is perfect for families with members who are disabled, handicapped or elderly. Aside from accessibility, water conservation and limited space are major reasons families tend to switch to stand up showers. On average, low-flow shower heads use roughly 20 gallons of water every 10 minutes, while an average sized tub holds roughly 42 gallons of water.
SHOWER CONS
When it comes to resale value on bathroom remodeling, you normally see a positive return on investment. For example, a bathroom renovation costing roughly $16,000 should see a return on investment of about 60%. However, when changing a bathtub into just a single stand-up shower, it will change it from a full bath to a three-quarter bath, potentially turning away prospective buyers in the future. This is one of the many things to consider when making the choice to switch to a stand-up shower alone. Another major impact in making the switch to a single shower would be the difficulty in showering children. There is no convenient way to shower a young children, making this option less convenient for a family raising children or couples wanting to start a family in the near future.
TUB PROS
A bathtub option is perfect for families with children, people who work long hours, workers that do strenuous activities resulting in sore or tired muscles and homeowners with spacious bathrooms. A freestanding bathtub can be placed anywhere, so convenience comes into play. You have more flexibility as far as design goes with several options to choose from, one of which would be a Jacuzzi tub. Aside from relaxation and therapeutic benefits, these types of tubs also come with the ability to choose the types of jets, allowing you to customize your bathing experience. Another option for tubs is a claw foot bathtub. These types of tubs offer elegance, style, various sizing options to accommodate most bathtub needs and appliances such as an optional shower head.
TUB CONS
A downside to a freestanding bathtub would be ensuring you have a water heater that will be able to adequately fill the tub with warm water. Bathtubs use more water than showers, so making sure your water heater can sustain the tub will be your first priority if you want to choose having a tub. Alongside this, water bills may be higher due to the amount of water used to fill a bathtub.
No matter what your wants or needs may be, Strong Tower Renovations has experts to assist you with every step of your bathroom planning and renovation process. Our project managers would love to help with your bathroom renovation. Feel free to email or call us to schedule your free in-home consultation today.