The single most requested bathroom change we get across Hamilton, Princeton, and West Windsor: take out the tub, put in a walk-in shower. Sometimes it's about accessibility. Usually it's simpler than that. Nobody in the house has taken a bath since 2019 and the tub is a sixty-gallon shelf for shampoo bottles.
Here's what walk-in shower installation in NJ actually costs and where the money goes.
| Project | Typical cost (Central NJ) | Timeline |
|---|
| Tub-to-shower conversion | $12,000 to $25,000 | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Custom walk-in shower (new build or expansion) | $18,000 to $35,000+ | 3 to 5 weeks |
| Curbless / zero-entry shower | Add $2,500 to $6,000 | Adds structural floor work |
The part you can't see is the part that matters
A walk-in shower is a waterproofing project with tile on top. The pan, the membrane, the slope, and the drain detail decide whether this shower is still perfect in fifteen years or leaking into your floor joists in five. This is our strongest opinion in the whole bathroom category: hire for the waterproofing, not the tile pattern. Tile setters who rush the membrane are the reason shower repair is an industry.
We use full waterproof membrane systems on every shower we build, and we flood-test pans before a single tile goes on. Ask any contractor you're interviewing what their waterproofing system is. If the answer is a brand name and a method, good. If the answer is "we've never had a problem," keep interviewing.
Glass, niches, and the details that separate showers
Frameless glass costs more than framed and it's worth every dollar, both in how the room reads and how it cleans. A tiled niche (or two) beats every add-on shelf ever made. A bench matters if the shower is big enough that it doesn't crowd the space. Linear drains let the floor tile run in large format, which is most of why high-end showers look high-end.
Curbless entries
Zero-entry showers are the fastest-growing request we see, both for aging-in-place planning and because they simply look better. The catch: the floor has to be recessed or built up to create the slope, which is structural work, not tile work. In a first-floor bath over a basement it's very doable. In a slab home it means grinding or building a platform. Budget the $2,500 to $6,000 premium and decide early, because it can't be retrofitted after the pan is set.
The walk-in shower usually anchors a bigger project. See our master bathroom remodel guide for the full-room picture, or the bathroom cost breakdown for every tier. Real examples: our spa-inspired master bath centers on exactly this kind of shower.
Request an estimate and tell us what you're picturing. Conversions are one of the quickest projects on our schedule.
