What You Will Pay to Redo a Shower
A shower remodel costs $3,000 to $25,000 installed. An acrylic surround refit sits at the bottom. A custom tiled shower with frameless glass and body sprays sits at the top.
Most homeowners land in the middle, around $6,000 to $12,000, for a tiled shower in the same footprint with a new pan and a framed glass door. That is the job our shower remodeling crews build most often.
Here is what sits inside those numbers, and the five things that move a quote from one tier to the next.
What Does a Shower Remodel Cost by Build Type?
Three build methods cover almost every shower quote you will receive.
Acrylic surround refit: $3,000 to $6,000
The old walls come off, the framing gets checked, and molded acrylic panels go on. No grout lines and no waterproofing membrane. One to two days of work and the least that can go wrong later.
Standard tiled shower: $6,000 to $12,000
Cement board, a waterproofing membrane, a new pan, tile on the walls and floor, a niche and a framed glass door. Four to seven working days, and labor is the largest single cost.
Custom shower: $12,000 to $25,000
Frameless glass, a built-in bench, a linear drain, large format tile, body sprays or a curbless entry. Every one of those adds both material and skilled hours.
What is not included in a base price
Permits, moving the drain, subfloor repair, a new exhaust fan and electrical work are separate. Any estimate that does not name them is not really a fixed price.
Where Does the Money Actually Go?
On a mid-range tiled shower with no layout change, the budget splits in a predictable way.
Labor takes the largest share
Demolition, waterproofing and tile setting are slow, skilled work. Roughly forty five cents of every dollar goes here, and it is the line you should never shop on price alone.
Tile and waterproofing materials
Tile, thinset, grout, the pan and the membrane together make up close to a quarter of the budget. Large format tile costs more to buy and more to set.
Glass
A framed door is a few hundred dollars. Frameless tempered glass is measured after the tile is set, then fabricated and installed on a return visit, which is why it carries both cost and lead time. Fixtures are usually the smallest slice. Standard shower heads use 2.5 gallons per minute, and models with the EPA WaterSense label use no more than 2.0, saving an average family about 2,700 gallons a year. If you want two heads on one valve, tell your contractor before the rough-in, not after.
The Cheap Quote That Costs the Most
Global Remodeling Pros began in 2017 and has completed more than 5,000 residential and commercial projects across Baltimore and the wider DMV. The most expensive shower we ever work on is the one somebody else built two years earlier.
The failure is almost always the same. Tile went straight onto green board with no waterproofing membrane behind it. Water passed through the grout, soaked the wall, and the framing rotted while the tile still looked perfect.
Ask any bidder to name the waterproofing system they use and how they treat the corners and the curb. A contractor who cannot answer that in one sentence is quoting a shower that will leak.
Value matters too. A mid-range full bathroom remodel carries a national average job cost of $26,138 and recovers about eighty percent at resale according to the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report, and the shower is the single biggest piece of that number. Building it twice destroys the return.
The second thing worth checking is the pan. A shower pan has to slope evenly to the drain on all sides, and a flat spot holds water that eventually finds a seam. Crews that flood test the pan overnight before tile goes on catch that problem while it is still free to fix.
The third is the valve. A pressure balanced or thermostatic valve is what keeps the water from scalding somebody when a toilet flushes elsewhere in the house. It is a small line on the estimate and the only chance you get to install it without opening the wall again.
Every shower Global Remodeling Pros builds carries our lifetime labor guarantee, and we are licensed and insured under MHIC 164107.
How to Get the Most Shower for Your Budget
Spend on what is behind the tile and save on what is in front of it. Waterproofing, a properly sloped pan and a quality valve are permanent. Tile pattern and trim finish are not.
Keep the shower where it is. Moving the drain adds real money for zero visible improvement. If you are weighing a layout change anyway, our guide to the cost to move plumbing in a bathroom remodel puts a number on it first.
Wall material is the biggest swing you control. Our comparison of acrylic and tile shower walls lays out cost, install time and lifespan side by side, and one of those choices cuts the quote roughly in half.
Finally, get every bid on the same build tier. Global Remodeling Pros quotes acrylic and tile options together so you can compare them honestly, and you can see finished work on our shower installation page.
Shower Remodel Cost Questions
Is it cheaper to replace a shower or just retile it?
Retiling alone is cheaper only if the pan and the waterproofing behind the old tile are sound, which is uncommon in a shower more than fifteen years old. Once tile comes off, most crews find the membrane is missing or failed, and rebuilding from the studs becomes the honest option.
How much does a small shower remodel cost?
A standard thirty six by thirty six inch stall usually runs $4,000 to $8,000 with tile, or $3,000 to $6,000 with an acrylic surround. Small showers save on material but not much on labor, since setup, waterproofing and glass all take the same effort.
Does a new shower increase home value?
Yes, especially in a primary bathroom where buyers expect a walk-in shower. It is one of the first things people look at during a showing. Global Remodeling Pros builds showers across Baltimore, Pasadena, Arnold, Gambrills and Columbia, and we will price yours in writing. Call 443-623-5126.
Related reading: shower remodel cost breakdown and full shower remodel cost guide.
See also: how long a shower remodel takes.
Price Your Shower With No Guesswork
Global Remodeling Pros builds tiled and acrylic showers across Baltimore, Pasadena, Arnold, Gambrills and Columbia. Family owned, licensed and insured, with proposals back within twenty four hours.
