Walk-in Showers: Costs and Pricing Explained
A walk-in shower is a sought-after bathroom upgrade nowadays, but how much does it cost to have one installed? We explain in our guide below
When it comes to bathroom remodeling and renovations, a walk-in shower is one of the most popular and luxurious additions to your home. Providing a more open space for you to shower in, they’re a stark contrast to cramped fitted units and awkward shower-tub combos. As well as delivering a more open-feeling space and better accessibility, a well-designed walk-in shower can also bring some visual flair, with decorative tiling and chic glass fronts being popular options for making your bathroom pop.
Of course, as with all home improvements, cost is a major factor of consideration when installing a walk-in shower. Whether you have carte blanche to upgrade your bathroom or you’re on a strict budget, no one wants to spend over the odds. Planning ahead and having a solid outline of the costs you’re likely to incur is the simplest and most straightforward way to keep within your budget. So, we offer a helping hand: check out our guide below for a rough idea of the various costs and price ranges for installing a walk-in shower.
What is a walk-in shower?
Before we take a more detailed look at the associated costs, let’s start by defining exactly what constitutes a walk-in shower and how it differs from a standard enclosure shower.
A walk-in shower is a shower space that isn’t enclosed on all four sides, lacking a curtain, door or multiple glass or plastic panels. Instead, a walk-in shower sits openly in your bathroom and is delineated by a tiled area, half-wall or single glass panel that separates the rest of the bathroom. Walk-in showers can also incorporate luxury features such as benches, rainforest shower heads, and material work in marble, wood, or stone.
A standard enclosure shower is typically sealed off from the rest of the bathroom on all four sides and is accessed via a hinged or sliding door.
Walk-in shower: Costs factors and pricing
The average cost of a walk-in shower in the US is around $6,700, but the range of what people pay is pretty broad, starting at $500 on the low end and exceeding $10,000 at the top of the scale. To see where your project might fall in this range, let’s look at some of the factors that can affect the overall cost of your installation.
Materials
Common materials used in fitting walk-in showers are stone, fiberglass, acrylic and glass. Depending on the size of your shower and your materials of choice, your costs can vary greatly.
Cheaper stone tiles can cost between $2 to $15 per square foot; marble can range from $15 to $50 per square foot; and stones such as Corian, quartz and cultured granite may set you back from $40 to $100 per square foot. So, for example, if you needed 120 square feet of tiling for your walk-in shower’s walls and floor and secured marble tiles at $35 per square foot, your materials cost would add up to $4,200 before labor and other costs.
Fiberglass and acrylic inserts can prove simpler to install and cheaper to buy than tiling, with these units typically costing between $500 and $2,000 dollars. If that’s outside of your budget, prefabricated plastic shower molds are perhaps the cheapest way to go, coming in at a very reasonable $300 to $500 price point.
Once you’ve selected the wall and flooring materials for your walk-in shower, the next thing to consider is the type of diving element you want to install. While people with larger bathrooms may have room for fully open showers, most people will need to install a panel of glass or something similar to separate the shower from the rest of the bathroom. The cost of a glass panel can vary greatly depending on its size, thickness and framing. A cheaper screen could cost between $250 to $500, while a custom piece of frameless glass could cost up to $3,000.
Labor
On top of the cost of materials, you can expect to pay between $400 and $2,000 to a contractor for installing your shower. The exact figure you pay will depend on a number of factors: whether you’re using tiling and custom materials or a prefabricated unit; whether you need to pay for the removal and disposal of an old bath or shower unit to make room for your walk-in; and whether you need to make any changes to the your bathroom’s plumbing as part of the installation.
Furthermore, with a project such as a walk-in shower it’s always smart to leave a little wiggle room in your budget for unforeseen additional costs such as building delays, the need for extra waterproofing to the space, changes in design mid-build and adding extra features such as grab bars, benches and slip-proof flooring.
Size
As noted above, one of the key things that will affect the cost of your materials and the cost of labor is the size of your walk-in shower. Smaller walk-in showers will use less materials and will usually require less work.
Alongside overall size, you’ll also need to consider whether your walk-in shower will conform to standard dimensions, or if you’ll be opting for a custom size and shape for your shower area. As with any home improvement project, customization and bespoke fittings will always drive up the price over standard installations. To get a better idea of how walk-in showers are usually sized, check out our full ‘Walk-in Shower Size and Dimensions’ article.
Permits
Most states will require you to obtain a permit for renovations, especially if you’re making changes to your home’s plumbing. Typically, building permits cost $250, but prices can go as high as $500, depending on state requirements and the nature of your renovations.
How to save money on your walk-in shower
As evidenced by the broad spectrum of prices listed above, installing a walk-in shower can be relatively economical or highly expensive, depending on your current bathroom setup and the level of transformation.
For anyone seeking to keep costs down, using a prefabricated shower unit from a budget-friendly brand, instead of more expensive materials such as stone or wood, will significantly lower the cost of your installation. In addition, if you’re confident in your DIY skills, installing the unit yourself could save you thousands in labor costs – although, when it comes to plumbing, most people would be advised to leave it to a professional. And remember, if you’re hiring a contractor, be sure to get multiple quotes and bids from different companies to ensure you get the best price.
