Bathroom
Shower remodel cost
A shower is imagined as a footprint and paid for as a wall. The standard tub alcove is 13.3 square feet of floor and 72 of tile — more than the floor of the whole bathroom — and rebuilding it runs about $7,685 tiled or $6,140 with an acrylic base. This works the area out from the walls, prices every pan system on the same shower, and names the one detail that half of failed showers are missing.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-22 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Priced by the wall, not the floor
A shower is imagined as a footprint and paid for as a wall. A standard tub alcove is thirteen square feet of floor and seventy-two of tile — and the other thing that decides the price is the pan, which is where showers fail.
The standard American tub footprint, and what almost every tub-to-shower conversion becomes. Three tiled walls, which is where the area comes from.
Seven feet is standard. To the ceiling looks better and costs the difference in tile and labour.
A tub alcove. The drain moves from the end to wherever the shower drain goes, which is a real line.
The pan
This is the decision. It is where showers fail and it gets sold as a look.
A rigid foam tray moulded to the right fall, bonded to a sheet membrane and tiled over. The slope is made in a factory rather than by hand, which is what makes it the reliable way to have a tiled floor.
Walls and drainage
Foam board or a bonded fabric sheet with sealed joints, a single system from the same manufacturer as the pan. Dearest in material, quickest to install, and the only one where the whole assembly is warranted as a unit.
The floor falls to the middle from four directions, so the tile has to bend in two planes at once. That means small tile or mosaic on the pan — a large-format tile physically cannot do it.
Material only. The labour is roughly three times this whatever you choose, which is why a cheaper tile saves less than it looks.
The details
A recess between the studs, waterproofed as part of the wall rather than as a shelf added to it. It is a slow detail — every edge is a cut and a corner — and it is the one people most regret leaving out.
Framed, waterproofed and tiled, and it must slope slightly so water runs off rather than sitting on it. A folding seat costs a fraction and can be added later.
The step. It gets waterproofed on three faces and it is where a membrane most often gets nicked during tiling.
The middle option, and the sensible one in most bathrooms.
Demolition and the enclosure are approachable. Waterproofing a wet area is the one part where a mistake is found from the room below, two years later.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
60 × 32 in — a tub alcove, built
$7,685
86 ft² tiled · $90 a tiled ft² · 5.4× the footprint
13.3 ft² of floor, 72 ft² of wall
A shower gets imagined as a footprint and paid for as a wall. These walls are more tile than the floor of an entire small bathroom, and it is why quotes for “a shower” land so far apart — half of them are priced off the wrong surface.
The same shower, three pans
Everything else held still. The right-hand column is the one that matters.
| Pan | Built | Waterproof from the factory |
|---|---|---|
| Acrylic or composite base | $6,530 | yes |
| Tiled over a pre-sloped foam tray · yours | $7,685 | yes |
| Tiled over a mortar bed and liner | $8,015 | no |
The gap between the cheapest and the dearest is smaller than the cost of one failure, and the failure is not the pan — it is the ceiling underneath it and everything in the room below.
The footprint against the walls
Both at the same scale, which is the whole argument.
What the shower is made of
- Tiled over a pre-sloped foam tray
A rigid foam tray moulded to the right fall, bonded to a sheet membrane and tiled over. The slope is made in a factory rather than by hand, which is what makes it the reliable way to have a tiled floor.$1,450 - Bonded sheet membrane system, 72 ft²
Foam board or a bonded fabric sheet with sealed joints, a single system from the same manufacturer as the pan. Dearest in material, quickest to install, and the only one where the whole assembly is warranted as a unit.$405 - Tile, 86 ft²
72 ft² of wall and 13.3 of pan, at $5 a foot. Labour on top is $1,242.$463 - Centre drain
The floor falls to the middle from four directions, so the tile has to bend in two planes at once. That means small tile or mosaic on the pan — a large-format tile physically cannot do it.$145 - Semi-frameless
The middle option, and the sensible one in most bathrooms.$950 - Valve, curb, 1 niche
The mixing valve, buried behind the tile for the life of the bathroom. A pressure-balancing or thermostatic valve is a code item in most places, and the trim must be the same brand as the valve — they are not interchangeable between manufacturers.$900
What it costs
National average. 60 × 32 in — a tub alcove, tiled over a pre-sloped foam tray, 86 ft² tiled, bonded sheet membrane system, semi-frameless. Not included: the bathroom floor, the vanity, and anything found behind the old walls.
$90 a tiled square foot all in, which is the only fair way to compare two shower quotes — a price for “a shower” says nothing about how much wall is in it. The tile itself is a calculation of its own, and if the tub is staying after all, refinishing it is a tenth of this.
Worth knowing
- 60 × 32 in — a tub alcove is 13.3 ft² of floor and 72 ft² of tiled wall — 5.4 times the footprint. That is the number people budget wrong, because a shower is priced in the head by how much floor it takes and paid for by how much wall it has. For comparison, the floor of an entire 40 ft² bathroom is smaller than these walls.
- Tiled over a pre-sloped foam tray moves the slope into a factory, which is what makes a tiled shower floor reliable rather than a matter of who built it. The membrane joints and the drain collar. Both are visible during the build and both are checkable, which is the point.
- A centre drain makes the floor fall towards the middle from four directions at once, so the tile on the pan has to bend in two planes — which means mosaic or something no bigger than about 6 in. A large-format tile physically cannot do it. If the plan is big tile on the floor, the drain has to be linear, and that decision has to happen now rather than at tiling.
- The valve is buried behind tile for the life of this bathroom, so it is the last place to economise. The mixing valve, buried behind the tile for the life of the bathroom. A pressure-balancing or thermostatic valve is a code item in most places, and the trim must be the same brand as the valve — they are not interchangeable between manufacturers.
- Tile labour is $1,242 of this against $463 of tile. Shower walls are the slowest tiling in the house: every course meets a corner, a niche, a valve or a curb, and none of those are straight cuts. The labour is two thirds of the tiled cost whatever the tile costs a square foot.
On this page — 5 sections
Thirteen square feet of floor, seventy-two of tile
The short version
- A shower is priced by the wall, not the floor. A standard alcove is 13.3 ft² of footprint and 72 ft² of tile — 5.4 times as much.
- The pan is where showers fail, and it gets sold as a choice of look.
- Cement board is not waterproof. A full bonded system on this shower is about $261 more than board alone.
- The drain decides the tile. A centre drain caps the pan tile at about 6 in, and that is not negotiable at tiling.
Ask anyone how big their shower is and they will tell you the footprint — three by three, or the size of the tub it replaced. That is the number in everybody’s head, and it is not the number the job is priced from.
A 60 × 32 in alcove — the standard American tub footprint, and what almost every tub-to-shower conversion becomes — takes up 13.3 square feet of floor. Tiled to seven feet on its three walls it carries 72 square feet of tile. That is 5.4 times the footprint, and it is more tile than the floor of the entire bathroom the shower is standing in.
This is why quotes for “a shower” land so far apart and why so many budgets are short by half. Two showers with the same footprint can differ by thirty square feet of tile depending on how many walls are tiled and how high they go — and thirty square feet of shower tile, with its labour, is several hundred dollars.
The way to measure it is to unfold the walls into one flat rectangle: add the wall lengths together and multiply by the tiled height. Three walls for an alcove, two for a corner. The calculator above draws both at the same scale, which makes the point faster than any paragraph can.
| Shower | Floor | Tiled wall | Ratio | Typical | Per tiled ft² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 × 36 in corner | 9 ft² | 42 ft² | 4.7× | $6,825 | $134 |
| 60 × 32 in — a tub alcove | 13.3 ft² | 72 ft² | 5.4× | $7,685 | $90 |
| 60 × 36 in | 15 ft² | 77 ft² | 5.1× | $7,837 | $85 |
| 72 × 42 in — large | 21 ft² | 91 ft² | 4.3× | $8,313 | $74 |
Tiled to seven feet over a pre-sloped tray, semi-frameless door, one niche, replacing a tub. Read the last two columns together: the big shower is cheaper by the foot and dearer by a third overall, because the valve, the drain, the door and the plumbing cost the same whatever size the enclosure is.
International Code Council, International Residential Code — P2708.1, shower compartments (2021) · checked 2026-09-22
The pan is where showers fail
Everything else in a shower can be put right later. The tile can come off, the door can be changed, the head can be swapped in an afternoon. The pan cannot — and the pan is the part that gets chosen on appearance.
There are three ways to build one, and they are not three finishes of the same thing. They are three different answers to the question what is stopping the water.
Acrylic or composite base
$6,530 built
A moulded tray that drops in, already sloped and already waterproof. It is the one part of a shower that nobody should be improvising, and choosing it removes the single largest risk in the whole job.
Waterproof from the factory
Almost none. It looks like what it is, which is the entire argument against it.
Tiled over a pre-sloped foam tray
$7,685 built
A rigid foam tray moulded to the right fall, bonded to a sheet membrane and tiled over. The slope is made in a factory rather than by hand, which is what makes it the reliable way to have a tiled floor.
Waterproof from the factory
The membrane joints and the drain collar. Both are visible during the build and both are checkable, which is the point.
Tiled over a mortar bed and liner
$8,015 built
The traditional assembly: a sloped bed, a sheet liner, a second bed on top, then tile. Done properly it lasts for ever and it is the only method that handles an odd shape without compromise.
Depends entirely on execution
The pre-slope. Water passes through grout and tile — it always has — and reaches the liner, where it is meant to run to weep holes at the drain. If the bed under the liner is flat, it never leaves. That single omission is behind most of the tiled showers that have ever failed.
| Acrylic base | Tiled pan | |
|---|---|---|
| Waterproof when it arrives | Yes, moulded in one piece | No — it becomes waterproof during the build |
| On this shower | $6,140 with a framed door | $7,685 over a pre-sloped tray |
| Depends on who built it | Barely | Completely |
| Tile size on the floor | n/a | Set by the drain, not by taste |
| Odd shapes and benches | Off-the-shelf sizes only | Anything |
| If it fails | It does not, usually | The tile comes off, and so does what is under it |
| How it looks | Like an acrylic base | Like the reason people tile showers |
The honest version of this decision: if the pan is a pre-sloped foam tray bonded to a sheet membrane, tile it. The slope is made in a factory, the joints are visible during the build, and you get the floor you wanted with almost none of the risk. If somebody is proposing to form the slope by hand and you have no way to verify the pre-slope, take the acrylic base and spend the difference on the walls.
Tile Council of North America, TCNA Handbook for Ceramic, Glass and Stone Tile Installation — shower receptor and wall assemblies · checked 2026-09-22
Cement board is not waterproof
This is the other half of the same problem, and it is the sentence that surprises people most. Cement board is stable when wet. That is a real property and a useful one, and it is not the same as waterproof. Water passes straight through it into the wall behind.
A tiled shower whose walls are cement board and nothing else is not a risk. It is a leak with a date on it. And the finished wall looks identical either way — there is no test a homeowner can run afterwards and no sign to look for.
| Wall system | Per ft² | On this shower | Waterproof |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cement board alone | $2.00 | $144 | no |
| Cement board with a liquid membrane | $3.30 | $238 | yes |
| Bonded sheet membrane system | $5.60 | $403 | yes |
72 ft² of wall. The whole spread across all three systems is about $261 on a job of $7,685 — which is the point. Nobody is saving money here; some people are just not doing it.
What is behind that tile for ever
- The waterproofing itself, whichever system it is, including how it laps onto the pan.
- The mixing valve. Buried for the life of the bathroom, and the trim only fits its own manufacturer's valve — so the brand decision is permanent too.
- The pre-slope, if the pan is a mortar bed, and whether the weep holes at the drain are clear or packed with mortar.
- The niche, waterproofed as part of the wall rather than as a shelf added to it afterwards.
- Blocking for a grab rail, whether or not anybody needs one yet. Timber and ten minutes now; tile off a waterproofed wall later.
- The curb, waterproofed on three faces — and the commonest place for a membrane to get nicked during tiling.
- Any pipe running in an outside wall, which wants insulation behind it in a cold climate.
- The shower head height, which is framed in and is the one thing tall people always wish somebody had asked about.
The drain decides what tile you are allowed
This one catches people late, which is the worst time for it. A shower floor has to fall about a quarter of an inch per foot to the drain. With a centre drain, it has to do that from four directions at once — which means the tile on the pan must bend in two planes simultaneously.
A small tile can do that, because each piece only has to tilt slightly relative to its neighbour and the grout joints absorb the rest. That is the entire reason shower floors are traditionally mosaic. A large tile is a rigid flat plane; it physically cannot follow a surface that curves in two directions, and forcing it produces lippage, hollow spots and standing water.
A linear drain puts the slot along one edge, so the whole floor falls one way as a single flat plane. That is what allows a large tile to run across the pan, and it is what makes a curbless shower work at all.
| Centre drain | Linear drain | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $145 | $520 |
| How the floor falls | Four planes to a point | One plane to an edge |
| Largest tile on the pan | About 6 in | Up to 24 in |
| Floor tile can match the walls | Rarely | Yes |
| Curbless | Difficult | The normal way to do it |
| When it must be decided | Before the pan is built | Before the pan is built |
MaterialsEstimator, Shower build price survey — pans, waterproofing, tile and enclosures · checked 2026-09-22
What goes wrong
01Budgeting from the footprint
A 60 × 32 in alcove is 13.3 ft² of floor and 72 ft² of tile. Budgets built on the floor area come out short by more than half, and it is discovered at the tile shop.
Instead — Unfold the walls: add the wall lengths, multiply by the tiled height. That is the number the job is priced from.
02Not asking about the pre-slope
Water reaches the liner in every tiled shower ever built. If the bed under the liner is flat, it stays there for good, under a floor that looks perfect.
Instead — Ask the question before the pan is built. Four words, and a vague answer is an answer.
03Accepting cement board as the waterproofing
It is a substrate, not a barrier — water passes through it into the wall. The finished shower looks identical either way, so nobody ever finds out until the ceiling below does.
Instead — Name a system in writing, liquid or bonded sheet, and ask to see it before the tile. The whole spread is about $261 on this job.
04Choosing large floor tile with a centre drain
The floor falls four ways at once and a rigid tile cannot follow it. The result is lippage, hollow spots and water that sits in the corners.
Instead — Small tile or mosaic on the pan with a centre drain, or spend the $375 on a linear drain and have the floor you wanted.
05Leaving the niche out
It is about $310 while the wall is open and impossible afterwards without taking tile off. The alternative is a caddy hanging off the shower arm for twenty years.
Instead — Put one in, and frame in blocking for a grab rail at the same time. Both are free compared with what they cost later.
06Economising on the mixing valve
It is behind tile for the life of the bathroom, its trim only fits its own manufacturer's valve, and replacing it means opening the wall.
Instead — Spend there and save on the door or the tile — both are changeable in a weekend by comparison.
07Ordering frameless glass early
It is templated after the tiling is finished, because it has no frame to absorb a wall that is out of plumb. Ordering to the drawing produces glass that does not fit.
Instead — Expect a week or two between a usable shower and a closed one, and tell the tiler beforehand that frameless glass is coming — it changes how square the work has to be.
08Forgetting the drain has to move
A tub drains at one end; a shower drains in the middle or along one side. In a tub-to-shower conversion the waste almost always moves, which means opening the floor and usually a permit.
Instead — Price it as part of the job from the start. It is a real line, not an extra found on day two.
$7,685
Tub alcove, tiled
86 ft² of tile
$6,140
Acrylic base, framed door
Waterproof from the factory
$90
Per tiled ft²
The only fair way to compare two quotes
$261
All the waterproofing there is
Board alone to a full bonded system
- 01Measure the opening, not the floorWidth and depth at the walls, then the height you want tiled. Seven feet is standard, to the ceiling costs the difference.
- 02Unfold the wallsAdd the wall lengths and multiply by the tiled height. Three walls on an alcove, two on a corner. This number is four to five times the footprint and it is what the job is priced from.
- 03Decide the pan before anything elseIt is where showers fail and it is the largest single decision in the job. Acrylic is waterproof leaving the factory; tiled depends on what is underneath.
- 04Choose the drain against the tile you wantA centre drain needs the floor to fall four ways, so the pan tile has to be small. Large format on the floor requires a linear drain, and that decision cannot be made at tiling.
- 05Name the wall waterproofing in writingNot “cement board”. A system with a brand on it — liquid or bonded sheet. Cement board alone is a substrate.
- 06Add the details individuallyNiche, bench, curb, valve. They are priced one at a time because they are slow one at a time, and a niche is impossible once the tile is on.
- 07Ask the pre-slope questionIf the pan is a mortar bed: “Is there a pre-slope under the liner?” Ten seconds, and a vague answer is an answer.
- 08Ask to see the waterproofing before the tileIt is the only moment in the life of the shower when anybody can. A photograph costs nothing and settles any future argument.
Tile and its labour are the largest part of this, and the quantity depends on the trowel the tile actually needs rather than on square footage alone. That page takes the wall area from here and turns it into tile, thinset and grout, with the waterproofing priced separately because it is separate.
Work the tile out properly- Pan
- The shower floor and everything under it. Three ways to build one — a moulded acrylic base, a pre-sloped foam tray tiled over, or a mortar bed over a sheet liner — and they are not three finishes of the same thing.
- Pre-slope
- A sloped mortar bed placed under the liner, before it. Water passes through grout and reaches the liner; the pre-slope is what lets it run to the weep holes instead of sitting there. Its absence is behind most tiled showers that have ever failed.
- Weep holes
- Small openings in the side of the drain body at liner level, the only exit for water that has reached the liner. They get filled with mortar by people who do not know what they are for.
- Liner
- A sheet of PVC or CPE laid over the pre-slope and up the walls, forming a tray. It is the waterproofing in a traditional mortar-bed shower and it is invisible the moment the second bed goes on.
- Bonded sheet membrane
- A foam board or fabric sheet bonded to the substrate with sealed joints, waterproofing at the face of the wall rather than behind it. The whole assembly is warranted as a system, which is what you are paying the extra for.
- Cement board
- A cementitious panel that is stable when wet. That is not the same as waterproof — water passes straight through it — and a shower built on it alone has a leak with a date on it.
- Curb
- The step at the shower opening. It is waterproofed on three faces and it is where a membrane most often gets nicked during tiling.
- Curbless
- A zero-threshold shower, which means the shower floor is recessed below the bathroom floor. In a timber floor that is structural work; over a slab it usually means raising the rest of the bathroom instead.
- Linear drain
- A slot along one edge instead of a hole in the middle, so the floor falls one way in a single plane. It is the only reason a large tile can sit on a shower floor.
- Mixing valve
- The valve behind the tile, buried for the life of the bathroom. Pressure-balancing or thermostatic is a code item in most jurisdictions, and the trim only fits its own manufacturer's valve.
- Niche
- A recess between the studs, waterproofed as part of the wall rather than as a shelf added to it. Cheap while the wall is open, impossible afterwards.
- Unfolded elevation
- The walls laid flat as one rectangle, which is how tile is actually measured. It is the difference between a shower that costs what you expected and one that does not.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to remodel a shower?
- About $7,685 for a standard 60 × 32 in alcove taken back to the studs and tiled over a pre-sloped tray, with a semi-frameless door — the commonest version of this job, because it is what a tub becomes. A dropped-in acrylic base with a framed door is around $6,140; a large tiled shower with a linear drain, a bench and frameless glass runs past $8,313. The range is wide because showers are priced by tiled area, and tiled area varies far more than footprint does.
- Why is a small shower so expensive per square foot?
- Because most of a shower is not proportional to its size. The valve, the drain, the door, the demolition and the plumbing cost nearly the same whatever the enclosure measures, so they land on fewer square feet. A 36 × 36 in corner works out at about $134 a tiled foot against $74 for the 72 × 42 in — the big one is cheaper per foot and dearer in total, which is the usual shape of this trade.
- How much tile does a shower need?
- Far more than the floor suggests. A 60 × 32 in alcove tiled to seven feet is 72 square feet of wall against 13.3 of floor — 5.4 times the footprint, and more tile than the floor of the entire bathroom it sits in. Measure by unfolding the walls into one flat rectangle: add the wall lengths, multiply by the tiled height.
- What is a pre-slope and why does it matter?
- The pre-slope. Water passes through grout and tile — it always has — and reaches the liner, where it is meant to run to weep holes at the drain. If the bed under the liner is flat, it never leaves. That single omission is behind most of the tiled showers that have ever failed. It is the single most useful question a homeowner can ask about a shower, it takes ten seconds, and almost nobody knows to ask it.
- Is cement board waterproof?
- No. It is stable when wet, which is a different property — water passes straight through it into the wall behind. It needs a liquid membrane rolled over it or a bonded sheet system in place of it. On this shower the difference between cement board alone and a full bonded system is about $261, which is a rounding error against the tile going over the top of it.
- Acrylic base or tiled shower floor?
- An acrylic base is waterproof before it leaves the factory, costs about $1,545 less on a job this size once the door is matched to it, and removes the largest single risk in the whole build. A tiled floor looks better and is only as good as what is under it. The honest split: if the pan is a pre-sloped foam tray bonded to a sheet membrane, tile it. If somebody is proposing to build the slope by hand and you cannot verify the pre-slope, take the base.
- Can I use large tile on a shower floor?
- Not with a centre drain. The floor has to fall towards the middle from four directions at once, so the tile must bend in two planes — anything above about 6 inches physically cannot. Large format on the pan requires a linear drain, which makes the whole floor fall one way in a single plane. It costs about $375 more and it has to be decided before the pan is built, not at tiling.
- How much does a tub to shower conversion cost?
- It is this job. A 60 × 32 in alcove is the standard American tub footprint, and converting it runs about $7,685 tiled or $6,140 with an acrylic base. The item people miss is the drain: a tub drains at one end and a shower drains in the middle or along one side, so the waste usually has to move, and that is opening the floor. If the tub is only tired rather than wrong, refinishing it is a tenth of this.
- How long does a shower remodel take?
- Eight to fourteen working days for a tiled shower, spread over two to three weeks because of the waiting — a day for demolition, a day or two for the pan and waterproofing, a curing day, two to three days of tiling, a day for grout, then silicone and glass. An acrylic base skips most of the middle and can be done in under a week. Frameless glass is templated after the tiling is finished, so add a week or two of a shower you can use but not close.
- Do I need a permit to remodel a shower?
- Usually not to retile in place; usually yes once the drain moves, the valve is replaced or a wall opens up — and a tub-to-shower conversion is normally all three. The inspection is worth having rather than avoiding: it is the only independent look anybody takes at the plumbing before it disappears behind tile for twenty years.
- What should I not economise on?
- The waterproofing and the mixing valve. Both are behind tile for the life of the bathroom, so neither can be improved later without undoing everything in front of them, and together they are a small fraction of the job. Tile, the door and the fittings are all changeable afterwards — economise there.
- Is a curbless shower worth the money?
- It costs about $1,300 more than a curb and needs a linear drain to work properly. As a style choice it is expensive. As accessibility it is the difference between a shower somebody can use and one they cannot, and it is far cheaper to build now than to retrofit — which is the same argument as framing in blocking for a grab rail while the wall is open.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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