Shower remodel cost calculator.
Your shower measured, your bids on one scope, the glass and the showerhead checked.
Before any price, three lines of a shower bid can be held against a federal text. The glass of a shower door or enclosure is a Category II product under the CPSC safety glazing standard, 16 CFR 1201. A WaterSense showerhead uses no more than 2.0 gallons a minute. Section 608 of the 2010 ADA Standards sets the shower sizes a transfer seat or a wheelchair needs, a reference rather than a rule for a private home. Measure your shower, type the bids you hold, and each comes back on the scope they all state.
0302 / Comparison
- Floor and tiled walls
- 85.7 sq ft
- Bids priced
- None priced yet
- Lines every bid states
- Lowest on the shared scope
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- Lowest per square foot of floor
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- Spread between bids
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- Bid you lean toward
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60 × 32 in inside: the footprint of the standard roll-in compartment (2010 ADA Standards, section 608). A design reference only: those standards do not govern a private home.
0203 / Shower to scale
No bid carries a figure yet. Calculiva prints no shower price: type the total of each bid you hold, and the lines it itemizes.
The bids, on the work they all name
| Bid | Total | Tear-out and haul-away | Shower pan or base | Waterproofing | Wall tile or surround | Valve, trim and showerhead | Glass door or panel | Relocated drain or supply | Permit | Not broken out | Shared scope | Per sq ft of floor | Against the lowest | Glass | Showerhead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type the total of at least one bid. | |||||||||||||||
The shared scope is the total minus any line that not every bid states. If one contractor itemizes tear-out and another is silent, the tear-out leaves the first figure and the silence is flagged on the second, so neither looks cheaper by a line the other may simply have folded in.
Three checks that come before the price
Shower glass: Category II under 16 CFR 1201
The Consumer Product Safety Commission's standard for architectural glazing lists “(3) Bathtub doors and enclosures. (4) Shower doors and enclosures.” among the products it covers, and section 1201.2(a)(4) places shower doors and enclosures in Category II, the class it shares with bathtub enclosures and patio sliding doors. The definition is broad: an assembly “installed to form all or part of the wall and or door of a shower stall”, so a fixed panel counts as well as the door. Section 1201.4 has the glazing tested to ANSI Z97.1-2015, and section 1201.5 holds makers and private labelers to section 14 of the Consumer Product Safety Act. One exclusion is written in: section 1201.40 says the standard does not apply to a window over a bathtub or inside a shower stall when it sits in the exterior wall of the building. That says nothing of what your local code asks of such a window.
On a bid, the useful sentence is the category, not a thickness. Choose what each bid states and a glass line priced without the category is flagged.
Shower size: ADA section 608 as a yardstick
| Compartment | Section | Size | Your shower | Entry | Curb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transfer type | 608.2.1 | 36 × 36 in exactly | differs | 36 in or wider · narrower | ½ in or lower · not entered |
| Standard roll-in | 608.2.2 | 30 × 60 in or more | meets | 60 in or wider · narrower | ½ in or lower · not entered |
| Alternate roll-in | 608.2.3 | 36 × 60 in or more | differs | 36 in or wider · narrower | ½ in or lower · not entered |
These sizes bind public accommodations and commercial facilities. The Justice Department rule printed with them is explicit about homes: “When a commercial facility is located in a private residence, the portion of the residence used exclusively as a residence is not covered by this subpart.” Read them as the dimensions an accessible shower is designed to, useful when someone in the house uses a wheelchair or a transfer seat, not as a test a contractor must pass. The transfer type is a fixed 36 by 36 inches; the two roll-in types are minimums. Section 608.7 caps a roll-in threshold at ½ inch, and section 608.6 asks for a hand-held spray unit on a hose at least 59 inches long that delivers water at 120 °F or less.
Showerhead flow: the WaterSense line
The EPA's WaterSense page, last updated in March 2026, says standard showerheads use 2.5 gallons per minute and that labeled ones “use no more than 2.0 gpm”, with an estimate that the average family could save 2,700 gallons a year by switching, and more than 330 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. The label is voluntary. Type the flow printed on each bid's showerhead and any figure over 2.0 is flagged; a bid that names no model gets the question instead.
A 60 by 32 inch alcove, measured
The worked shower is a tub alcove turned into a shower: 60 inches along the back wall, 32 inches deep, tiled to 84 inches, with a 28 inch door. Width times depth over 144 gives 13.33 square feet of floor. The three walls, back plus two sides, are 124 inches long; times the tiled height and over 144 they make 72.33 square feet, so floor and walls together hold 85.7. The open front is left out, as it would be with glass or a curtain.
Those are the denominators. On this shower every $1,000 between two bids is $75.00 per square foot of floor, or $11.67 per square foot of floor and wall. The page shows the first; the second is the reason a tile-to-the-ceiling bid and a waist-high one should not be compared on floor area alone.
Against section 608, the alcove's 32 by 60 inch footprint is at least the standard roll-in size, but its 28 inch door is far short of the 60 inch entry that type has on its open face. It is 4 inches too shallow for the alternate roll-in, and it is not the transfer size. Leave the door off, type an entry of 60 and a curb of 0, and the roll-in line reads as met.
Walk-in shower or tub-to-shower conversion
Both searches describe the same bids with a different starting point. Choose “Tub replaced by a shower” and the calculator expects two lines on every bid: the tear-out, since the tub has to leave, and the drain or supply work, which a contractor either prices or declares unneeded. A bid silent on either is flagged even when no other bid names them, so the question gets asked. If the walk-in you want has a low curb or none, the curb field checks it: type the height each bid specifies and the ADA column reads it against ½ inch.
No public survey isolates walk-in or conversion jobs, and the federal household survey files them with bathroom remodeling. A tub-to-shower bid can therefore only be judged against other bids for the same alcove, which is what the shared scope is for.
Lines and totals, read the same way on every bid
A line is part of the total, not an extra. When a bid's lines add to less than its total, the remainder appears as not broken out; when they add to more, the total is kept and the gap is flagged, since one of the two figures is wrong. A line written as 0 counts as stated, which keeps it in the shared scope: “permit included” is an answer, a blank is not. The tile itself is a separate count, by surface and by piece, on the tile planner built for shower walls, niches and benches; this page counts no tile or material.
What owners reported spending on a bathroom
Price a bid and pick it as the one you lean toward to see where it sits among what US owners reported spending on a bathroom remodel (AHS 2023).
In the 2023 American Housing Survey, the 2,296 bathroom remodeling projects sampled in owner-occupied homes had a median of $5,000, with a quarter under $2,000 and a quarter over $10,500. 42.9 percent were done by the owners, and the survey records what the household remembered spending over the two years before the interview, for the whole room. The job type is the whole room, so a shower bid above the median is not by itself a sign of overpricing; the quartiles only say how its total compares with what other households spent on their bathroom.
Where the numbers come from
The glazing sections were read on 2026-10-13 in the eCFR text of 16 CFR part 1201, the ADA section 608 dimensions on the Access Board's page of the 2010 Standards, and the flow line on the EPA WaterSense showerhead page, the same day. The survey quartiles were computed from the Census public use file of the 2023 American Housing Survey, weighted, for owner-occupied homes. On 13 October 2026 the pages ranking first for this search were read one by one; Home Depot's guide, ranked first, was not read, as its terms bar automated access. Of the six that were, none names the glazing category, a section 608 dimension or the WaterSense line: their figures are a contractor's company averages, a Sacramento contractor's estimating data, ranges relayed from lead platforms, or forum anecdotes. Rounding and units are set out in how Calculiva calculates.
Shower remodel questions, answered from your own bids
How much does it cost to remove a bathtub and make a walk-in shower?
No federal survey isolates that job. The 2023 American Housing Survey files it with bathroom remodeling, where owners reported a median of $5,000 for the whole room. For your own conversion, choose “Tub replaced by a shower”, measure the alcove and type each bid: one that names no tear-out and no drain or supply work is flagged, so you can ask whether its total covers them.
What does a walk-in shower remodel cost?
Calculiva prints no figure for it. No public survey measures walk-in showers on their own, and the ranges ranking for this search come from contractors’ own jobs or lead platforms. What can be measured is your bids on one scope. If the plan has no curb, type a curb of 0 and the ADA column sets it against the ½ inch threshold of section 608.7.
Can you remodel a bathroom for $5,000?
$5,000 is the median owners reported for a bathroom remodeling project in the 2023 survey, so about half of the 2,296 projects sampled came in under it. 42.9 percent were done by the owners, whose figures count materials only. A shower-only job is not separated, so the median says nothing about which half a shower bid belongs in.
Is $10,000 enough for a bathroom remodel?
In the same survey a quarter of the bathroom projects cost more than $10,500, the 75th percentile, so $10,000 sits just under it. That is a scale for a household budget, not a price for your room: pick the bid you lean toward and the calculator places it among the quartiles, with the caveat printed beside it.
What is the shower remodel cost per square foot?
Yours, once the bids are typed. The calculator divides each bid on the shared scope by the floor of the shower and shows the floor and wall areas beside it; the worked alcove has 13.3 square feet of floor and 72.3 of tiled wall. No public source publishes an installed price per square foot for showers, so none is printed here to compare against.
How does a shower remodel cost calculator work?
This one starts from the bids, not from an average. You measure the inside of the shower, type each bid’s total and whatever lines it itemizes, and the calculator takes out of every bid the lines the others do not state, so the totals cover the same named work. It then reads each bid’s glass and showerhead against the federal lines and your measurements against ADA section 608.
Is a DIY shower remodel cheaper?
Cheaper in cash, by an amount no survey isolates for showers. Among the bathroom projects of the 2023 survey, 42.9 percent were done by the owners and their reported costs cover materials only, which pulls the quartiles down. The glass rule does not change with the installer: a shower door or enclosure is a Category II product under 16 CFR 1201 whoever hangs it.
Are one-day shower remodels worth it?
Worth is a comparison, and the lines show what is being compared. Enter a one-day bid next to a tiled bid: if it states a surround and a base where the other states waterproofing and wall tile, the job is not the same and the flags name the difference. Check the glass category and showerhead flow on both, since a fast install changes neither rule.
What shower size suits an older person or a wheelchair user?
The 2010 ADA Standards give the reference, though they do not govern a private home: a transfer shower is 36 by 36 inches with a 36 inch entry, a standard roll-in at least 30 by 60 with a 60 inch entry, a roll-in threshold at most ½ inch, and a hand-held spray unit on a hose at least 59 inches long. Type your shower and the table compares it.
How much does it cost to install a new glass shower door?
Calculiva publishes no door price; the ranges ranking for this search come from the glass shops that sell them. Type the glass line of each bid. What the page adds is the question to ask: under 16 CFR 1201 the glazing of shower doors and enclosures is a Category II product, and a bid that prices glass without naming its category is flagged.
Which is more expensive, framed or frameless shower doors?
No public survey compares them, so this page does not rank them. The federal rule draws no line between the two: the glazing in any shower door or enclosure, framed or frameless, is a Category II product under 16 CFR 1201.2(a)(4). Price both on separate bids with the glass as its own line, and the shared-scope column shows what the rest of each job costs.
What this comparison leaves to you
- No shower, labor, glass or fixture price is published here. Every dollar in the comparison is one you typed.
- Areas are inside dimensions as typed: three walls to one tiled height, no niche, bench, ceiling or window return.
- The same shared-scope figure can buy different work: tile grade, glass thickness, valve brand and warranty are not compared.
- The glass check reads what the bid says. It does not test glass, and it does not apply local code to a window in the shower.
- ADA section 608 is shown as a design reference. It is not a code check for a private home, and grab bars, seats and controls are not computed.
- Survey figures are self-reported, cover whole bathroom projects, include do-it-yourself jobs that count materials only, describe work from 2021 to 2023 and are top-coded on the public file.
For the rest of the room, the bathroom scope and carton worksheet measures the low tiled band, openings and wet-wall union before removing finishes already covered by a shower package.