Walk-in showers replacing baths in many remodels

The whole bathtub-versus-shower debate has been going on since at least 1834, when President Andrew Jackson remodeled the White House.

Jackson opted for the whole shebang, installing "warm, cold and shower baths" from spring water piped into the presidential mansion, according to several historical sources. (The tale that Millard Fillmore installed the first White House bathtub in 1850 was a hoax concocted by H.L Mencken, a journalist, editor and sometimes prankster.)

Today most houses, like Jackson’s, have tubs and showers. But some homeowners are opting for showers alone in new bathrooms or to replace a tub or tub-shower combination in existing bathrooms.

Ali Farunia, 33, and his wife, Malak Abdel-Hadi, 30, got rid of their only bathtub while rehabilitating a two-story house in the Southern Orchards neighborhood near German Village that they bought last May. They moved in last month after the work was done.

“I, myself am not a bather,” said Farunia, who works in finance for JPMorgan Chase. “I think that baths are pointless: You’ve got to take a shower before and after your bath” to really get clean.

But he had to talk Abdel-Hadi, a bather, into giving up the bathtub that had been in the upstairs bathroom, he said.

They also added a smaller shower to what had been a half-bath downstairs. Both are satisfied with the results.

The new shower is easier to clean, safer and saved the couple some money, Abdel-Hadi said.

And the upstairs shower is beautiful, Farunia said.

“It is a sexier look, for sure, very appealing to the eye.

“We have beautiful black marble walls, a nice stool and two showerheads, one in front and one above; one is a nice little waterfall showerhead,” he said.

The cost to completely remodel the upstairs bathroom was about $17,000, Farunia said.

The footprint for the new shower is a bit bigger than for a tub, but the cost for the shower was actually less than a tub, because of the configuration of the existing plumbing and placement of the new fixtures, he said.

“I love the new shower,” Farunia said.

Elaborate showers — and no tub — are popular requests for bathroom remodeling jobs, said Monica Lewis, a master certified remodeler at J.S. Brown & Co. in Columbus.

“They think, ‘I can have a so-so shower and so-so tub, or a really spectacular shower,’” Lewis said.

“People are also replacing ‘80s and ‘90s garden tubs they never use,” she said. “They take up a lot of real estate, and so many clients tell me the only reason they crawl in that tub now is to dust it.”

The average price to install a walk-in shower is $6,000, about twice the cost of a tub installation, according to HomeAdvisor.com. But a walk-in shower can be built for a wide range of prices depending on size, features and any additional plumbing and construction it might require, Lewis said.

“The individual components can add up,” Lewis cautioned. “Deluxe showerheads, a floor warmer, other options — before you know it, it can be a $25,000 job. You have to set priorities. You can always swap out a showerhead for a better one later.”

AnnieLaurie Scanlon Muharrem, an interior designer at the Cleary Co. in Columbus, agreed that removing tubs and replacing them with showers is a growing trend.

In today’s hectic world, long baths are giving way to quick showers, Muharrem said. And showers are more water efficient than baths, she noted.

According to the nonprofit GRACE Communications Foundation’s “Water Footprint Calculator,” a 10-minute shower with a low-flow showerhead consumes about 25 gallons of water, while an average bath consumes 35 to 50 gallons.

Aging homeowners are among those opting to replace tubs with low- or no-curb walk-in showers that are easily accessible and, in some cases, can accommodate a wheelchair, Muharrem said.

According to a recent survey by Houzz.com, about one-third of homeowners age 55 and older are opting to remove the bathtub during bath remodeling projects. More than half indicated that their bathroom renovations are being done with aging in mind.

Carolyn Hart, 83, recently moved into a one-story house from the two-story farmhouse she had lived in for more than 50 years.

When Hart moved, her children and grandchildren persuaded her to replace a tub-shower combination in her new place with a walk-in shower.

She’s happy they did,

she said.

“I love it. It’s so much easier to get in.”

She also loves the seat in the shower and the safety bars, which were custom fitted for her height, she said.

Hart’s son Greg Hart, a long-time Columbus-area realtor, oversaw the renovation. He bought a sturdy shower kit, designed to fit in the same space as the standard tub it replaced, from a big-box home-improvement store for about $1,400, he said.

He spent another $400 on additional items, including grab-bars and a seat, and had installers put in extra studs behind the shower walls to firmly anchor the bars.

“We did it all for about $3,000,” he said. “It was very reasonable.”

And knowing his mother doesn’t have to get in and out of a tub gives him extra peace of mind, he said.

“I would recommend it highly,” Carolyn Hart said.

But despite the growing popularity of showers, most young children still bathe in a tub. That’s something that homeowners who might want children or want to sell someday should keep in mind before replacing every tub in the house, Muharrem said.

And who knows? Maybe one of those kids will grow up to sit in a tub — or take a shower — in the White House.

sstephens@dispatch.com

@SteveStephens