Walk-In Shower Conversion in Columbia, MD

A conversion is a full rebuild of the wet wall, not a fixture swap. We pull the tub, strip the surround down to the studs, and start over with new backer board and a new pan.

Once the wall is open we look at what the tub was hiding. Rotted studs, soft subfloor, and old galvanized supply lines show up often in homes built before the 1990s. We photograph anything we find and price the repair before we keep going, so nothing lands on your invoice as a surprise.

The plumber moves the drain to the middle or the end of the new footprint and resets the valve at a comfortable standing height. Most conversions also gain a mixing valve, which keeps water temperature steady when a toilet flushes somewhere else in the house.

From there the shower goes up in layers. Sloped mud bed, waterproofing membrane, tile, grout, then glass. Your niche, bench, and grab bar blocking all get framed in before the tile goes on, because adding them later means cutting the wall open again.

Curbless, Low-Curb, and Standard Walk-In Showers

The height of the entry drives the price, the schedule, and the framing work behind it.

Curbless Showers

The shower floor sits flush with the bathroom floor, so there is nothing to step over. We recess the joist bay or build the rest of the floor up, then slope the pan about a quarter inch per foot toward the drain. Waterproofing runs past the opening and onto the bathroom floor, since there is no curb acting as a backstop.

Low-Curb Showers

A two to three inch curb gives you most of the open feel without touching the subfloor. This is the option most Columbia townhomes end up with, because the second floor framing rarely leaves room to drop the pan.

Standard Walk-In Showers With Glass

A four inch curb with a frameless glass panel and door reads clean and costs the least to build. It also handles splash the best in a small hall bath where the shower head faces the opening. We walk the room with you and say which of the three your floor framing will actually support.

The Waterproofing Behind the Tile Is the Whole Job

Tile is not waterproof and grout is not waterproof. The membrane underneath them is the only thing keeping water out of your framing, and it is the part nobody sees once the job is done. We build every shower pan on a sloped mud bed, then bond a sheet or liquid membrane over it and up the walls. Corners, curbs, and pipe penetrations get banded and sealed by hand.

Niches are the spot most shower failures start. A niche cut into an exterior wall in Howard County sits against cold sheathing, so we insulate it, waterproof it as its own box, and slope the shelf so water drains out instead of pooling on the grout line. Columbia gets humid summers and long stretches of damp weather, and a bathroom exhaust fan sized for the room is what pulls that moisture out.