How much does a tub to shower conversion cost in Colorado Springs?

A tub to shower conversion in Colorado Springs typically runs $7,000–$16,000 for a custom tile shower. A prefab acrylic or fiberglass unit installed in an existing tub footprint runs $3,500–$9,000. The wide range reflects tile selection, whether the drain needs relocation, frameless vs. framed glass, and the scope of waterproofing. Waterproofing quality is the single biggest factor in whether the shower lasts. Tile and grout are not waterproof on their own, so a continuous membrane behind the tile is what keeps water out of the framing and prevents slow, hidden water damage that stays invisible until it is expensive.

Do I need a permit for a tub to shower conversion in Colorado Springs?

If the drain stays in the same location and no plumbing is moved, most tub-to-shower conversions in Colorado Springs are permit-exempt under the Pikes Peak Regional Building Code. If the drain needs to be relocated, which is common because shower drains are typically centered while tub drains sit at one end, a PPRBD plumbing permit is required. Most concrete slab homes require jackhammering to relocate a drain, which adds $500–$1,500 to the project cost.

Why is waterproofing the most important part of a shower installation?

Tile and grout are water-resistant, not waterproof. On every shower, water eventually works through the grout, so a continuous waterproofing membrane behind the tile is what actually keeps water out of the wall. Without it, water soaks into the backer board (the cement board behind the tile) and framing and causes slow, hidden damage: rot, mold, and failing tile that often is not visible until the repair involves framing and subfloor, not just tile. Colorado adds one factor worth knowing: if the shower is on an exterior wall, a leak has less margin for error. If moisture works its way out to the exterior sheathing, it runs into 100-plus freeze-thaw cycles a year, and freezing water adds physical damage on top of the rot the moisture is already causing. The fix is the same regardless: a sheet-applied membrane such as Schluter Kerdi over every surface in the wet zone, installed before tile.

How long does a tub to shower conversion take in Colorado Springs?

A prefab unit installation takes 1–3 days. A custom tile shower takes 5–10 days when the process is done correctly. Demo takes one day. Waterproofing membrane installation, a water test, and cure time take one to two days. Tile setting takes two to three days. Grouting and its cure take one to two days. Glass and fixture installation closes it out. Rushing any phase compromises the next one, and skipping the water test is how a hidden leak ends up sealed behind the tile.

Tub to Shower Conversion in Colorado Springs: Costs, Process, and Why Waterproofing Is the Step You Never Skip

A tub-to-shower conversion in Colorado Springs runs $7,000–$16,000 for a custom tile shower, or $3,500–$9,000 for a prefab acrylic or fiberglass unit dropped into the existing footprint. I get more calls for this project than almost any other bathroom job, and it’s also one of the most frequently done wrong, not because it’s technically complicated, but because there’s a critical step that looks boring, costs real money, and is easy to skip: waterproofing. Skip it or do it halfway and a $10,000 shower becomes a $10,000 problem within a few years, usually with no visible warning until the damage behind the wall is already done.

What Does a Tub to Shower Conversion Actually Involve?

The typical Colorado Springs bathroom has a 5-foot tub alcove: three walls, a tub, and a shower valve above it. Converting that to a walk-in shower involves:

Demo: tearing out the tub, tub surround, and any tile or drywall in the wet area
Drain check: figuring out whether the existing tub drain location works for a shower, or whether it needs to move
Wall prep: installing cement board or another waterproof backer board (the board that goes behind the tile) on every wall in the wet area
Waterproofing: applying a sheet or liquid membrane, the hidden waterproof layer, over every surface before tile goes on
Tile installation: floor, walls, and any niche or bench
Grouting and sealing
Glass door or enclosure installation
Fixture installation: new shower valve, showerhead, and controls

On a concrete slab home (which most Colorado Springs homes are), drain relocation means jackhammering the slab, re-routing the drain line, and patching the concrete back. Homes with a crawl space or basement have easier access to the pipes underneath, so moving the drain there costs less and takes less time. This distinction matters for both cost and timeline, and it’s one of the first things I check when I walk into a bathroom to write an estimate.

The Two Paths: Prefab vs. Custom Tile

Prefab acrylic or fiberglass unit ($3,500–$9,000 installed): A one-piece or multi-panel shower unit that drops into the existing footprint. It goes in fast, typically one to two days. The waterproofing is built into the unit itself, which eliminates the membrane installation step. The tradeoffs: limited size and style options, seams between panels that need caulking and occasional upkeep, and a finish that looks manufactured rather than custom. For a secondary bathroom, a rental property, or a primary bath on a tight budget, prefab is a completely reasonable choice, and I’ll tell a homeowner that straight up instead of upselling them into tile they don’t need.

Custom tile shower ($7,000–$16,000): A site-built shower with a waterproofing membrane system, tile floor and walls, and frameless or semi-frameless glass (glass panels with little to no visible metal frame). The upper end of that range reflects premium large-format tile (tile bigger than the standard 12-by-12-inch size), a linear drain, frameless glass, and a bench. The lower end is standard porcelain tile and a framed glass door. This is the scope most Colorado Springs homeowners are considering when they research tub-to-shower conversion, and it’s what the rest of this article addresses.

Why Is Waterproofing the Most Important Line Item?

Water damage behind shower tile is one of the most expensive problems in a home, and it is almost always invisible until it is severe. Here is the part most homeowners do not realize: tile and grout are not waterproof. Grout is cement-based and porous, and on every shower, water works through it over time. What actually keeps water out of your wall is the waterproofing layer behind the tile. If that layer is missing, incomplete, or done halfway, water passes the tile, soaks into the backer board and framing, and stays there.

That failure is slow and hidden, which is what makes it dangerous. The backer saturates, the framing starts to rot, mold grows in the wall cavity, and the tile adhesive loses its grip. By the time it shows on the surface as cracked grout, a soft spot in the floor, loose tile, or a musty smell, the damage inside the wall has usually been building for months or years. The repair at that point is rarely just tile. It’s framing, backer, and often the subfloor, the kind of repair that makes the original shortcut on waterproofing look a lot more expensive in hindsight.

This happens the same way in any climate, which is exactly why waterproofing is not the place to save money on a shower. Colorado adds one wrinkle I always flag for homeowners: if your shower is built against an exterior wall, a hidden leak has less room for error. If moisture works its way out to the exterior sheathing or wall surface, it runs into our freeze-thaw cycles, more than 100 a year, where trapped water expands as it freezes and adds physical damage on top of the rot and mold the moisture is already causing. It does not change what you do about it, but it raises the stakes on sealing the exterior side of the shower correctly.

The correct waterproofing system for a tile shower is a sheet-applied membrane applied to every surface in the wet zone before tile goes on. The industry standard we use is Schluter Kerdi. It’s an 8-mil-thick membrane (a mil is one-thousandth of an inch) that bonds to the surface underneath it with thinset, the cement-based adhesive that also holds the tile, and creates one continuous waterproof layer. It also acts as a vapor retarder, meaning it blocks almost all water vapor from passing through as well. Every seam is overlapped and covered with Kerdi-Band, a sealing strip made for the joints. Every place something passes through the membrane, like the drain, the showerhead, and the valve, gets sealed with Kerdi-Fix. The membrane runs from the shower floor up the walls to at least shower head height, including the corners where the floor meets the wall and where walls meet each other.

This is not a step you can do halfway. If the membrane has a gap, even a small one at a corner or around a drain, water finds it, and I’ve seen how much that small gap ends up costing someone a couple years down the road.

After the membrane goes in, we wait 24 hours before running a water test: filling the shower pan and checking every seam and corner for leaks before any tile goes on. That wait lets the thinset holding the membrane reach a full set, so the test actually proves the seal works. Skipping that test to save a day is how a hidden leak ends up sealed behind the tile.

The Drain Question

Tub drains are typically located at one end of the tub, near the foot. Shower drains are typically centered, which is where the floor needs to slope to move water toward the drain. In most tub-to-shower conversions, the drain needs to move to the center.

On a concrete slab (the majority of Colorado Springs homes built after 1980), moving the drain means cutting the slab, re-routing the drain line, and patching the concrete back. This adds $500–$1,500 to the project, depending on how far the drain has to move and how easy the plumbing is to reach. It’s not optional: a centered drain is what lets the tile floor slope evenly toward it, instead of leaving low spots where water pools.

Some conversions work around the drain location using a linear drain (a long, narrow drain that runs along one edge of the shower instead of a round drain in the middle), positioned at the entry edge of the shower rather than centered. This can avoid moving the drain entirely and creates a clean, modern look with large-format tile.

Tile Selection for Colorado

Choosing shower tile in Colorado Springs depends on your water source. City water from Colorado Springs Utilities is soft to moderately hard, about 1.3–2.8 grains per gallon, so mineral buildup usually is not a big concern. Homes on a private well, common in Black Forest, Falcon, Monument, and other rural parts of El Paso County, often have genuinely hard water, and that is where mineral deposits show up fastest on anything with texture or tiny pores.

Porcelain tile is the right call for shower floors and walls in Colorado Springs. It doesn’t have the tiny pores that soak up water, so it resists mineral staining even on hard well water, and the quality available in the $3–$12 per square foot range has improved a lot. Matte-finish porcelain on floors gives grip without the grout-line upkeep that mosaic floors require.

Natural stone is beautiful and high-maintenance, especially on well water. Travertine and marble need sealing every 6 to 12 months and will show mineral etching and deposits faster if your home is on a hard-water well. If you want a stone look without stone upkeep, large-format porcelain in stone-look finishes is the practical Colorado choice no matter your water source.

Grout: Epoxy grout costs more upfront and is a little harder to apply, but it won’t stain, won’t crack, and minerals can’t get into it, an advantage that matters most for well-water homes. For shower floors, where grout is under constant moisture, it’s worth the extra cost.

What Drives Tub-to-Shower Conversion Cost Up or Down in Colorado Springs?

Up: Relocating the drain (especially on slab), frameless glass vs. framed, large-format tile (more labor to set correctly), niche or bench construction, heated floor installation under the shower tile.

Down: Keeping the drain in place, framed or semi-frameless glass, standard 12×24 porcelain, no niche or bench, using the existing valve location.

The difference between a $7,500 conversion and a $15,000 conversion is usually the glass and the tile, not the waterproofing. Don’t cut the membrane budget to upgrade the tile. The membrane is what keeps the tile in place five years from now.

PPRBD Permit Requirements

If the drain stays in place and no plumbing moves, a tub-to-shower conversion is permit-exempt in Colorado Springs. If the drain relocates, a PPRBD plumbing permit is required. We handle the permit process and schedule the required inspection on every project that needs it.

Every conversion gets a written flat-rate estimate, covering demo, waterproofing, tile, glass, fixtures, and any plumbing work, before we start. The number on the estimate is what you pay.