Our Deerfield crew pulls the idle tub, keeps the alcove, and hands back a shower anywhere in Lake County within days.
Written quote at no cost, one callback, no chasing afterwards.
Are you tired of stepping over high porcelain walls every single morning just to get clean? Well, upgrading that cramped bathing enclosure brings instant peace and luxurious convenience to your daily routine.
This big home improvement project completely changes how you experience your primary washing space. Therefore, tackling this room upgrade gives you a fresh start without moving houses.
Many homeowners in our lovely Lake County region face this exact bathroom dilemma. Consequently, figuring out the best path forward saves you lots of future headaches and wasted money.
Traditional soaking structures take up too much precious floor area in smaller houses. Thus, removing them opens up the room and creates a much airier atmosphere.
Climbing over slippery edges poses a serious safety hazard for older adults or anyone with sore joints. By contrast, a zero-threshold entry lets you walk right in without straining your knees.
In our wonderful municipality with ZIP codes 60015, many houses were built decades ago. Thus, original bathrooms often feature outdated pastel tiles and heavy iron basins.
Local properties boast a solid median household income hovering around $144,229 according to recent data. Because of this strong financial climate, investing in your living space makes great economic sense.
With a stable population of roughly 18,930 residents, neighborhood contractors stay pretty busy all year round. Yet finding a dependable local team remains entirely possible if you know where to look.
Designing your brand new open wash zone requires careful measurement of the available square footage. Furthermore, checking behind those old tiles reveals hidden plumbing surprises before actual work begins.
Picking out the right wall surrounds dictates how much time you will spend scrubbing later. Smooth acrylic panels eliminate grout lines entirely, which saves you hours of exhausting weekend chores.
Sturdy solid-surface materials resist chipping and staining far better than cheap fiberglass alternatives ever could. This means your new setup maintains its gorgeous look for many years ahead.
Glass partition walls need a protective coating to prevent annoying water spots from building up. Consequently, choosing treated glass keeps your enclosure sparkling clean with minimal daily effort.
Every home renovation comes with a price tag that depends on your specific layout choices. Fortunately, getting a clear breakdown of costs prevents any nasty financial shocks down the road.
Smart upgrades actually increase your overall real estate value if you ever decide to sell. Buyers love walking into a fresh bathing area that requires zero immediate repair work.
Workers arrive early to lay down heavy protective drop cloths across your pristine hallway floors. Then they systematically tear out the heavy iron basin and rotten wallboard.
Plumbers inspect the existing drain pipes to ensure everything meets current building codes and flows properly. This step prevents messy leaks from damaging your subfloor underneath the new base.
Carpenters build a solid wooden frame to support your new seating ledge or storage niches. Next comes the crucial waterproofing membrane that stops moisture from seeping into wall cavities.
Skipping this vapor barrier leads to mold growth and structural rot within just a few seasons. Therefore, trusting experienced hands ensures this vital stage gets done right the first time.
The low-profile pan drops securely into place and gets leveled with precision instruments. After that, workers slide the heavy glass panels into sturdy metal tracks along the edge.
Silicone sealant goes around every joint to keep water completely contained inside the washing zone. Once cured, you finally get to test out your gorgeous new showering station.
Choosing the right configuration depends on your household habits and available bathroom space. Below is a quick breakdown to help you visualize different styles.
| Design Style | Main Feature | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Alcove | Single glass sliding door | Medium sized rooms |
| Corner Unit | Curved dual glass panels | Compact powder rooms |
| Custom Open Walk-In | Zero threshold barrier-free | Maximum accessibility |
Reviewing these options helps you communicate your vision clearly to any visiting contractor. After that, making a final choice becomes much less stressful for everyone involved.
Daily squeegeeing removes excess moisture and keeps soap scum from baking onto the glass surfaces. Doing this simple habit takes less than sixty seconds after every single wash.
Mild dish soap works wonders for routine cleaning without ruining expensive acrylic or tile finishes. Avoid harsh abrasive powders because they scratch protective coatings and dull the shine permanently.
Tempting as it is to tackle plumbing projects alone, mistakes usually trigger costly water damage. Hiring trained professionals guarantees your insurance remains valid if something unexpected happens.
Incorrect drain slopes cause standing puddles to form instead of flowing down the pipe smoothly. Professional installers use laser levels to guarantee proper drainage angles throughout the base.
Transforming your daily routine starts with a simple conversation about your design preferences and budget goals. Local professionals are always ready to visit your house and discuss various layout possibilities.
You deserve a relaxing washing experience that feels safe and looks utterly fantastic every single day. Reach out today to request your free estimate and get this exciting project rolling.
Count the baths your household actually ran last year. In most homes we visit, the honest number is somewhere between zero and three, and yet every single morning somebody swings a leg over fifteen inches of porcelain rim to stand up and shower inside a fixture built for lying down. The tub charges rent daily and works a few evenings a year.
Nothing dramatic follows from that. Nobody is in danger because a bathtub exists, and if long soaks are part of your week, keep the tub and enjoy it with our blessing. The case for the conversion is plainer: when the tub has become a shower tray with high sides, you are paying, in caution and in cleaning, for a feature you retired years ago.
The swap itself is smaller than most people picture. The supply lines, the drain and the alcove walls are already exactly where a shower wants them, which is why this is a job measured in days. We are not building a new bathroom; we are letting the one you have stop pretending it still gives baths.
The same alcove, photographed the way the week actually unfolds. Weather never delays this one; it all happens indoors.
Floors along the hallway get covered, the water goes off for a few hours, and the bathtub is cut free and carried out, tile flange and all. With the alcove stripped, the plumber moves the drain to where the new pan wants it and sets the new valve at shower height. By supper the room is bare, clean and ready.
The base arrives first: an acrylic pan set dead level on a mortar bed, or a sloped, waterproofed floor when the plan says curbless. Then the walls close in, either grout-free panels bonded in a single afternoon or backer board ready for tile. Everything from here on is watertight before it is pretty.
The glass panel or door is drilled, hung and plumbed straight, the trim goes on, and the silicone lines are drawn last. Silicone wants a day to cure, so the first shower usually happens the following morning, which is exactly how we schedule the walkthrough.
Both are real showers in the same alcove. The difference is the entry, and what has to happen under it.
| What you weigh | Low curb | Curbless |
|---|---|---|
| What stands at the entry | A tidy threshold about 3 to 4 inches tall | Nothing. The bathroom floor rolls straight into the shower |
| Cost, installed | The friendlier bracket, most jobs land here | Roughly a third to a half more, the floor is rebuilt |
| What the crew rebuilds | The alcove only; the bathroom floor stays shut | Part of the bathroom floor, sloped and waterproofed |
| Water containment | The curb and glass do the holding | The slope and a linear drain do the holding |
| Suits best | Straight swaps on a budget and upstairs bathrooms | Wheels, walkers, and anyone planning to stay put for decades |
Undecided is a fine answer on the form. The site visit settles it with a tape measure, not a sales pitch.
Removal
Cut free, hauled out and off to recycling, with floors and doorways shielded on the way. The loudest hour of the conversion, and it wraps before most jobs have begun.
Plumbing
Tub drains sit at one end; showers drain where the pan says. We move what needs moving and swap the old valve for a pressure-balanced one.
The base
A level acrylic pan for most swaps, a mortar-built sloped floor for curbless plans. Either way it is tested with water before anything covers it.
The walls
Grout-free panels go up in an afternoon and wipe clean forever. Tile takes longer, costs more, and looks like whatever you can imagine.
The glass
A fixed panel keeps things open and easy to clean; a hinged door closes the warmth in. Both are tempered, both are set dead straight.
The finish
Shelving, the hand shower, clean caulk lines and a walkthrough. We leave the cure time in writing so the first shower is not a gamble.
| The job | Usual range | Inside the number |
|---|---|---|
| Standard tub-to-shower conversion | $3,100 - $5,600 | Tub out, low curb pan, wall panels, new valve, glass panel. |
| Curbless conversion | $4,900 - $8,800 | The floor is rebuilt flush and sloped to a linear drain. |
| Glass: fixed panel or hinged door | $450 - $1,400 | A single panel sits at the low end, a framed door at the top. |
| Walls: PVC panels or tile | $1,100 - $3,900 | Panels finish in a day; tile adds days and takes any look you want. |
| Tear-out only | $450 - $950 | The tub gone and the alcove left clean for another trade. |
| Small job minimum | around $2,400 | Even the simplest swap books a licensed plumber and a full crew. |
Wall condition, drain position and the glass you choose move every line. The visit pins the figure down, and the figure then holds.
A bathtub drains at one end through its own trap; most showers want the drain nearer the middle, or along one edge when the plan is curbless. Sometimes the existing trap is close enough to reuse and sometimes it has to travel a foot or two, which means opening a strip of floor. We can usually tell which from the basement or the crawl space during the visit, and the paperwork you sign already names which one you are getting.
Houses older than the seventies like to add a surprise: galvanized supply lines rusted nearly shut, a cast iron trap that crumbles at a touch, or framing that got damp decades ago and kept it quiet. None of it is rare and none of it is ruinous, but it is your call, not ours. When something like that turns up, work pauses, you get photographs and a price for the fix, and nothing is billed until you have said yes to it. A conversion should never be the job where the invoice writes itself.
QIs losing the only bathtub a resale mistake?
AAgents around Deerfield repeat one rule: a family house shows better with a tub somewhere in it. If this is your only tub and small children are in your plans, we put that on the table during the visit and you decide with open eyes. If another bathroom keeps its tub, or the buyers you expect are shower people, the argument evaporates.
QHow long do we go without washing?
AThe toilet and sink stay usable every evening, and the water is only off for stretches on day one. The shower itself is ready once the silicone cures, so figure on missing roughly three days of showers at home. Plenty of clients time the job before a weekend away.
QDoes all the old tile come off the walls?
AOn the alcove walls, yes, because the new waterproofing needs to start from the studs, not from forty-year-old grout. Tile outside the alcove stays put, and we cut a clean line where the two meet.
QCan the new shower use the tub drain?
AThe pipe itself is nearly always reusable; the position is the question. A low curb pan can often sit its drain within reach of the old trap. Curbless floors want a relocated or linear drain, and that difference is priced before demo, never discovered after.
QDo we need a permit for the swap?
AA like-for-like fixture swap usually rides on a simple plumbing permit, and moving the drain can add an inspection. We file whatever your jurisdiction wants and fold the cost into the written price.
QWhat if there is rot behind the tub?
AIt happens, mostly around the old tile flange. You get photographs the hour we find it, a firm price for the repair, and the choice to proceed or pause. The framing fix is usually a morning, not a remodel.
The map carries the geography; the link lists underneath spell out every town our crews can reach from this one.
For the bigger map: county seat pages start at Lake County; the statewide picture lives on Illinois; the wider region is the Midwest; background reading sits on Wikipedia.
One three-day job stands between this bathroom and its best fixture.
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