Bath fitters/new shower

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joaks

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San Diego, CA
We are looking to replace our current tub/shower which has a tile shower. It's hard to clean and is either leaking or will at some point. We want to switch to a shower with minimal leak risk and easy cleaning.
We had a bath fitters rep come today-sounds like just what we need, everything is one piece and smooth surface. The quote was for 8k for everything.
Does anyone have any experience with them? We get a 10% discount if we buy by the end of the day tomorrow but I would like to take more time before spending that much money.
Sorry for sentence structure, on mobile.
 
Sounds expensive for just putting some plastic on top of your old shower. Bathroom fixtures (vanity, toilet, plumbing fixtures, flooring) are cheap and easy to do yourself. Find a contractor to give you a new shower where you don't still have old mildew and bad grout underneath, and do the rest yourself.
 
You could get a very nice tiled new shower, with all the necessary waterproofing, heavy glass door, nice fixtures and more for that. No way would I pay bath fitter that kind of money for a basic shower surround unless I only had 1 bathroom and needed the one day turnaround.
 
Concur with everybody else - a properly constructed tiled shower will not leak and doesn't have to be hard to clean either. Bath Fitter and the like scream cheap hotel or rental house to me.

If you're handy and adventurous you can DIY a new shower. If not call a few remodeling companies and get quotes. Then come back (or better yet go to the John Bridge tiling forum) and learn up.

jeff
 
Price out a high quality plastic shower. For that price you can get the plumbing replaced as well as a toilet and sink with new fixtures.
 
That 10% off if you buy today baloney is an instant turn off for me. I would end the discussion right there. Try sleeping after you agree to that. Buyers remorse will kick in at around 2-3 am.
 
But to answer your question, no I don’t know personally of anyone who has used them. They advertise pretty aggressively in New Jersey. We have a 3 day ‘cooling off’ law in Jersey that allows you to cancel. I would shop around a bit more.
 
Tile looks so nice and gives you unlimited possibilities, but like said, it's got to be done right and I'm not talking just setting and grouting the tile.

Water gets behind tile. It's the nature of the beast. You can "seal" the grout all you like, but water still gets in and under. You have to have proper wall and shower base prep to mitigate this.

If you want to go down that rabbit hole, go to the John Bridge tile forum.

What I'm getting at is, there is something to be said about solid surface shower and tub surrounds and bases. Not as pretty. Not necessarily as durable, but nothing gets wet beneath it.
 
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Maybe labor is just expensive your area. Costs me around 2-3k to redo a bathroom. Basically the tub and the surround goes for about 1k at Home Depot. Then you have some plumbing pieces and it takes my guys 2-3 days to do the job. So that's basically a new tub with a new surround and I also do a new Symmons valve, at first I was too cheap to buy the ones with the built in water stops, but having rebuilt a few of them it's convenient to have, you don't have to shut off water to the whole building or unit, just to the shower valve. I just have handymen do it but before when I had the plumber do the plumbing it still didn't cost much more than 3k. You could get the whole bathroom redone for around 5-8k. You just need to call some contractors and get some quotes. Those bath fitter guys have to charge those rates to pay for all the advertising they do. I've never used them.
 
When I have renovated bathrooms, 9 times out of 10 there has been some things that need addressing once the old tub is out.
Either plumbing damaged floor whatever.

A plastic overlay could be like new icing on a rotten cake!
 
Not sure where they get 8k for.

Those click together shower walls are no more than a couple hundred bucks. And they put a plastic liner over the existing tub and tie it all in together.

In rental houses, and basic houses I've lived in, we just cut the drywall out down to the studs, put in greenboard, and put shower walls over it.

Had to have a plumber solder in a new valve for the new shower but that was it.

$200 shower walls
$100 greenboard
$100 Shower Fixture
$200 tub
$200 plumber to solder in fixture.
$50 showerhead
$50 copper pipe, and drain pipe
$50 repaint bathroom (1 gallon premium paint)

You can cut corners with Lowes coupons or HD, but anyway you look at it, its a $1k job if you do some of the work yourself.

$2k to hire someone.
 
JustinH said:
Not sure where they get 8k for.

Those click together shower walls are no more than a couple hundred bucks. And they put a plastic liner over the existing tub and tie it all in together.

In rental houses, and basic houses I've lived in, we just cut the drywall out down to the studs, put in greenboard, and put shower walls over it.

Had to have a plumber solder in a new valve for the new shower but that was it.

$200 shower walls
$100 greenboard
$100 Shower Fixture
$200 tub
$200 plumber to solder in fixture.
$50 showerhead
$50 copper pipe, and drain pipe
$50 repaint bathroom (1 gallon premium paint)

You can cut corners with Lowes coupons or HD, but anyway you look at it, its a $1k job if you do some of the work yourself.

$2k to hire someone.
Click to expand...

Those are pretty cheap prices. The tub I usually get is steel. Those fiberglass tubs can crack and leak. Ask me how I know. Plus those cheap tub surrounds are made of very thin plastic so it's easy for them to fall apart with just a little pressure. I get the thicker ones which are more like $400+.
 
I am in the middle of doing a hall bathroom as we speak. I went out and bought all of the materials and my contractor is charging me 4k to install.

This is what I am installing and it looks great so far. I chose this model after looking at all of the others, because it does not have any joints that need caulk or on-going maintenance.

My install will include new toilet and vanity and sink and light fixture as well. So far, I feel that I have been treated fairly. All of the materials cost me roughly $1600.00 The floor was tiled about 10 years ago and is still in good shape so I left that as is.
 
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