Franktown's
Trusted Team for Tub to Shower Conversions

Why Franktown Homeowners Are Rethinking the Tub

From Unused Tub to Everyday Shower Space

Most of the tubs we pull out of Franktown bathrooms fall into two groups. The first is the builder-grade insert that came with the house, usually a shallow acrylic combo with a sliding door that fogs over and rails that never sit flush against the wall. The second is a deeper garden tub from a nineties primary bath, the kind that takes half an hour to fill and gets used maybe twice a year. Neither earns its space.

A shower, by contrast, gets daily use. Reworking that footprint into something you actually step into every morning changes how the whole room feels. You gain elbow room. You lose the awkward step-over. And the visual weight of the room shifts, because a glass enclosure reads lighter than a solid tub deck.

Glass and Hardware

Frameless glass is the default request, but semi-frameless can save several hundred dollars and still look clean. Whichever you pick, ask about the coating. Untreated glass shows every water spot within a week in Franktown, because of the mineral content coming out of most wells. A factory-applied hydrophobic coating buys you months between deep cleans.

Hardware finishes shift with trends, but matte black and brushed nickel have both held up well in the homes we have finished around Castlewood Canyon Road and out toward the Elizabeth line. Polished chrome shows water spotting faster.

Tile and Panel Considerations

Large-format porcelain tile has become the most requested surface in our recent Franktown projects. Fewer grout lines means less to clean and less to reseal. Twelve-by-twenty-four porcelain in a soft matte finish reads modern without dating quickly. For homeowners who want warmth, we often pair porcelain walls with a smaller pebble or hex mosaic on the floor for grip.

Solid-surface panels are the other route, and they suit families who want the fewest maintenance chores. One large sheet, no grout, easy to wipe down. The trade-off is a narrower design vocabulary.

The Case for Making the Switch

Homeowners in Franktown bring up a handful of reasons when they call us out for a quote. A few come up more than others:

• Aging in place. The step-over height on a standard tub is somewhere around fifteen inches. For anyone dealing with knee trouble, hip stiffness, or balance concerns, that ledge turns a routine shower into a small daily risk. A curbless or low-curb shower removes it.
• Space that works harder. Pulling out a sixty-inch tub and rebuilding the alcove as a shower opens up bench space, better storage niches, and a bigger footprint underfoot.
• Water use. Filling a soaker tub can burn through forty to seventy gallons. A shower with a well-chosen head runs closer to two gallons a minute. For families on a well, that math matters.
• Resale positioning. Buyers touring Franktown listings often expect at least one tub in the home. If you have two or three, converting the least-used one signals updates without hurting appeal.
• Cleaning. Sliding tub doors trap grime in the tracks. A single pane of glass wipes down in under a minute.

What a Franktown Conversion Actually Involves

People sometimes picture a conversion as swapping the tub for a shower pan and calling it done. The real work goes deeper than that, especially in older Franktown homes where the framing and plumbing behind the wall may not match current expectations.

Here is roughly what happens when we take on the job:

• Careful demo of the existing tub, surround, and any tile work above it, with plastic sheeting run through the hallway to keep dust out of the rest of the house
• Inspection of the subfloor and framing for water damage, which shows up more often than owners expect around the flange and along the back wall
• Rework of the drain, since a shower drain sits in a different spot than a tub drain and often needs to be relocated a foot or more
• Rebuild of the wall cavity with the right moisture backing, whether that is a cement board with a liquid membrane or a foam panel system
• New valve installation, usually a pressure-balanced or thermostatic mixer that handles well pump fluctuations without scalding
• Waterproofing of the pan and walls before any tile or panel goes up
• Tile, stone, or solid-surface panel installation depending on your choice
• Glass measurement after the walls are set, then a return visit to install the enclosure once the panels come back from the shop

The timeline for most of our Franktown conversions runs between eight and fifteen working days. The glass step is the reason for the range, since custom panels take a week or two to fabricate.

Handling Franktown’s Water Realities

Well water in this part of Douglas County carries a lot of dissolved calcium and magnesium. That mineral load leaves scale on glass, clogs low-flow showerheads within a year, and turns grout hazy if you skip sealing.

A few things worth planning around before the shower goes in:

• Reseal grout on a schedule. Once a year in a Franktown bathroom is not overkill.
• Consider a whole-house softener if you do not have one. It is the single biggest factor in how your new shower looks two years from now.
• Choose a valve with a removable cartridge. When scale builds up, a rebuild kit is a fifteen-minute fix instead of a wall-open repair.
• Pick a showerhead you can soak. Handhelds with silicone nozzles wipe clean under a thumb. Rain heads with tight metal patterns scale up faster.

Will removing a tub hurt my home’s resale value?

Only if it leaves you with zero tubs in the house. Most Franktown homes have at least two bathrooms, and buyers with young kids look for one tub somewhere. Converting a secondary or primary bath while keeping a hall tub usually helps rather than hurts.

Can you do a curbless shower in an existing bathroom?

Sometimes. It depends on how the floor joists run and how much clearance you have under the subfloor for a recessed drain. We check during the first visit and give you a straight answer.

How much does a conversion in Franktown typically cost?

Most projects land between nine thousand and eighteen thousand dollars, depending on tile choice, glass, and how much plumbing has to move. Solid-surface panels with a standard door sit at the lower end. Full custom tile with frameless glass sits at the higher end.

What the Process Feels Like From Your Side

A Tub to Shower Conversion Without the Guesswork

The first visit is a walk-through. We look at the existing bathroom, ask how you use it now, and talk through what you want the space to do. Measurements come next, along with photos of the plumbing wall so we can plan drain moves without guesswork.

You will pick materials from samples we bring out or from a showroom visit if you want to see full slabs. Once selections lock in, we schedule the demo day and give you a written timeline. Dust protection goes up before anything comes out. Water shutoffs are coordinated so the rest of the house stays functional during the work.

Toward the end, glass gets measured after the walls are finished, since even a small variation from plan changes the panel size. That final piece usually installs a week or two after the tile is done.