What Should a Tile Shower Conversion Cost in Florida?

Key takeaways
– A tub-to-shower conversion in the existing footprint, tiled and done to code, runs about $7,500–$13,000.
– Half the job is under the floor: the drain has to move and grow, the slab opens, and a real shower pan and waterproofing system go in. If a quote doesn’t mention that work, it isn’t in the quote.
– A tile shower is a waterproofing system with tile on it — not tile with hope behind it.

The Short Answer

Converting a tub to a walk-in tile shower, same footprint, in South Florida: about $7,500 to $13,000, done by a licensed contractor, permitted where required, with real tile and real waterproofing. Frameless glass, benches, body sprays, and moving the shower to a different wall all push above that range — each one is its own scope, priced on its own lines.

Here’s the part nobody tells you up front: the shower you see is maybe half the job. The rest is underneath it, in work you will never look at again — which is exactly why it has to be right.

The Work Under the Floor

A tub and a shower drain differently, and Florida code knows it. Converting one to the other means:

• The old tub comes out — and because of how bathrooms are built, the toilet usually comes out too, just to get the tub through the work.
• The slab gets opened. The tub’s trap sits in the wrong place and at the wrong size for a shower. The concrete is cut, the old trap comes out, and a new one goes in where the shower drain belongs.
• The drain gets upsized. A shower needs a larger drain line than a tub — that’s code, not preference. New pipe, correct fall, tied in properly.
• The opened ground gets treated. Where the slab is opened and new underground pipe goes in, the exposed soil is treated as part of the underground work before anything is covered back up.
• The opening is re-poured and the floor made ready for the shower build.

Any conversion quote that jumps straight from “remove tub” to “install tile” has skipped this entire section. Ask about the trap and the drain size. The answer tells you whether you’re talking to a contractor or a tile setter with a business card.

The Shower Itself

Above the floor, the build is a waterproofing system first and a tile job second:

• A proper shower pan — built and sloped so every drop runs to the drain, not toward your walls.
• Cement board on the walls, not regular drywall.
• A waterproof membrane over the pan and walls — the roll-on or sheet system that keeps water inside the shower and out of your framing. Tile and grout are not waterproof. The membrane is.
• The tile work — floor, walls, niche if you want one, set and grouted.
• The valve and fixtures — new shower valve behind the wall, head, trim, and a drain grate that matches the build.
• The door or glass, if your design calls for it — priced as its own line, because glass is its own trade and its own money.

What Moves Your Number

• The footprint. Staying where the tub was keeps the plumbing work to the conversion itself. Moving the shower across the room is a new plumbing layout — and prices like one.
• Tile. A clean ceramic at a friendly price or large-format porcelain and mosaic floors — the labor climbs with the complexity, the materials line climbs with the tier.
• Glass. A curtain costs little. A frameless glass enclosure is measured, fabricated, and installed by specialists.
• Extras. Benches, niches, a second head, a handheld on a slide bar — each one is small on its own and real money together.
• What we find. Rot at the old tub’s edges, aging pipe that won’t pass, old work that was never to code. We price what we can see and tell you plainly what might be hiding.

A Note on the Cheap Version

There is a faster product — a plastic or acrylic surround kit dropped where the tub was. It costs less, and our own scope for it still includes the underground code work, because the drain doesn’t care what the walls are made of. But understand what you’re buying: a kit is a liner. A tile shower built on a real pan and membrane is a thirty-year fixture. Price them against each other honestly, with the full scope of both written out.

Get Your Conversion’s Actual Number

Record your bathroom. Show us the tub, the walls around it, the fixtures — say what you want the shower to be — and text the video to (561) 462-9293. We send back an itemized estimate with every step written out, including the work under the floor that most quotes hide. Free. See how it works on our Scan Estimate page.

In Palm Beach or Broward, a free in-home measure confirms it and turns it into a written price good for fourteen days. Onel Construction LLC — licensed general contractor, CGC1511492. Our numbers come from twenty-five years of licensed Florida contracting and tens of thousands of estimates written.

Financing is available on everything we do. Payments start at $120 a month on smaller jobs, and most projects land in the low $200s to $300s a month with approved credit. Rates run as low as 4.49% APR for qualified buyers. Ask at the free measure and we’ll lay the options out in writing, next to the estimate.

Insurance savings vary by carrier, policy, and home — figures shown are ‘up to’ amounts, not guarantees. Grant eligibility, amounts, and funding availability are determined by the program and may change. Financing subject to lender approval; rates and payments vary by credit profile. All financing examples assume approved credit through our financing partner.