Tub-to-Shower Conversion in Naples: Should You Remove the Bathtub?

By Andreas Christofides — licensed Florida general contractor CGC1537881, 20+ years of experience. Published September 28, 2026

A tub-to-shower conversion is one of the most common bathroom requests we get in Naples, and it is usually framed as a design question. It is really two other questions: does this house still need a bathtub, and what has to happen under the floor to put a proper shower where the tub was? Answer those first and the tile, glass and fixtures are the easy part.

The short answer: if the home has another tub, or the people likely to buy it are unlikely to want one, removing it is usually a sound decision. If it is the only tub in the house, think harder. Either way, the work is not a swap. The drain, the waterproofing and the valve all change, and the conversion needs a plumbing permit.

Should you remove the only bathtub?

This is the doubt worth taking seriously, because it is the one people regret. A walk-in shower is easier to get into, easier to clean and what most adults actually use. A bathtub is what you want when there is a small child to bathe, a large dog to wash, or someone in the house who soaks. Take away the last tub and you have made that decision for every future owner as well.

A rule of thumb you will hear from many real estate agents is to keep at least one tub in the home. We are contractors, not appraisers, so we do not quote resale figures. But the logic is easy to follow and it is local:

Who buys in your neighborhood. Much of Naples sells to seasonal owners and retirees, for whom a second or third tub has little value and an easy-entry shower has real value. A family-oriented neighborhood is a different buyer, and there a home with no tub at all can narrow the pool.
How many bathrooms you have. Converting the primary bath while a guest bath keeps its tub is the most common version of this project, and the easiest to defend. Converting the only bath in a two-bedroom house is the version to think through.
How long you plan to stay. If the conversion is about staying in the home safely for the next fifteen years, resale is a secondary consideration. Our guide to aging-in-place bathroom remodels in Naples covers that case in more detail.

One Southwest Florida detail rarely comes up in design meetings: before a storm, many households fill a bathtub so they have water for flushing if service is interrupted. Containers work too; it is simply worth knowing what you are giving up.

What a tub-to-shower conversion in Naples actually involves

A tub and a shower are built differently below the finished surfaces. Removing the tub and tiling the alcove is not a conversion; it is a leak waiting for a date.

The drain moves and usually changes. A tub drains at one end, through a trap that sits in a pocket in the slab. A shower drain normally sits in the pan, and a shower is typically required to have a larger drain than a tub. In a single-story Naples home built on a slab at grade, that means saw-cutting and trenching the concrete to relocate the trap and resize the line, then patching the slab before the pan goes in. None of it is visible afterwards, which is why it gets skipped in low bids.

The floor has to be waterproofed as a shower pan. The floor under a bathtub never sees standing water; the tub itself is the waterproof layer. A shower floor needs a sloped, fully waterproofed pan, whether a traditional mortar bed with a liner or a bonded membrane system, with the waterproofing carried up the walls and over the curb or threshold. A properly built pan should be flood-tested before tile goes on it.

The valve may need replacing. Code requires showers to have a pressure-balancing or thermostatic valve to protect against scalding. A tub-shower combination may already have one. An older tub filler, or a valve at the wrong height for a standing shower, will not do, and moving it means opening the wall.

The glass must be safety glazing. Glass in a shower enclosure falls under safety-glazing requirements.

The threshold is your choice, and it is decided in the slab. A low curb is simple. A curbless entry means recessing the floor so the shower sits level with the bathroom, which is more concrete work but the better answer for anyone planning to stay long term.

Do you need a permit to convert a tub to a shower?

Yes, in almost every case. Relocating or altering the drain is plumbing work, and plumbing work pulls the project into permitting whether you are in the City of Naples, Marco Island or unincorporated Collier County. The state’s newer small-project permit exemption does not help here, because it excludes plumbing. We explain which authority issues your permit, and why the mailing address does not tell you, in do you need a permit to remodel a kitchen or bathroom in Naples.

A contractor who proposes converting your tub without a permit is proposing to do concealed plumbing and waterproofing work that no inspector will ever see. That is the part of the job you most want inspected.

In a Naples condo, the building decides

In a mid-rise condo the question changes. Your drain lines run through the floor into the unit below, and many Naples buildings sit on post-tensioned concrete slabs that cannot be cut or cored without scanning and, often, an engineer’s sign-off. Most associations require an application, approved plans and proof of the contractor’s license and insurance before plumbing work begins, and some restrict it to certain months.

That does not rule out a conversion. It means the drain location, the threshold and the waterproofing detail have to be worked out against what the building allows before any design is final. We cover the approval side in condo bathroom remodels in Naples: what your building will allow.

How to decide

Count the tubs. If another bathroom keeps one, the resale question mostly answers itself.
Be honest about use. If nobody has used the tub in years, you are cleaning a fixture, not using one.
Ask every contractor the same three questions. How will the drain be relocated and resized? What waterproofing system will the pan use, and will it be flood-tested? Who pulls the plumbing permit? Vague answers to any of them are an answer.
Decide the threshold before demolition. Curb or curbless is a floor-structure decision, not a finishing detail, and it is far cheaper to make before the slab is patched.

Handled properly, the room gets larger, safer and easier to keep clean. Handled as a cosmetic swap, it is an invitation to hidden water damage.

Considering a tub-to-shower conversion in Naples?

GC Pro West is a Florida Certified General Contractor, license CGC1537881, with 20+ years of remodeling work across Naples and Marco Island. See how we approach bathroom remodeling in Naples, or talk to us about whether your tub should stay or go before anything is removed.

Request a free consultation or call 239-307-8020, and we will look at the drain, the floor and the building before we recommend anything.