Bathtub Replacement Cost Calculator
Replacing a bathtub costs about $3,180 in Atlanta with an acrylic tub and a surround kit, and $3,477 if the three walls are tiled. It takes about 24 trade hours spread over 2 days, and the tub is the small part of it. A tub goes in before the walls do, so the old one cannot come out until the wall above it is cut open — which is why the surround, the valve and the repainting come with it whether you wanted them or not.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost to replace the bathtub
$3,302
typical · range $2,251 to $4,353 · 24 trade hours of labour · new tub weighs 70 lb
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 59% of this figure comes from modelled material prices — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026osha.gov Aug 2026and 1 more, all listed below
The one input that changes the answer for you.
About seventy pounds, so one person can carry it in and set it. Warm to sit in, quiet, and it flexes underfoot unless it is bedded properly — which is the step most often skipped.
Three moulded panels made for a standard 60-inch alcove. Fastest, cheapest, and it fits only if the alcove is a size somebody manufactures.
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The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
Is this a big job? Yes, and here is why
The tub itself is the small part of the bill. Everything else is the wall it lives in.
- The tub
- 17%
- Everything else
- 83%
24 trade hours is about 1.5 days of work for a two-person crew — but not 1.5 consecutive days. Tile or panels have to cure, wall patching is three coats with drying between them, and the silicone goes on last. The bathroom is out of use for most of a week either way.
A toilet is bolted to a finished floor, so it swaps in an hour. A bathtub is not: it goes in before the walls do, with its flange nailed to the studs and the wall surface built over the top of it. Getting the old one out means cutting that wall open, which is why a like-for-like swap always drags the surround, the valve and the painting with it — and why 83% of this figure is not the tub.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Take out the old tub and open the walls4 h + 3 for cast iron out + 1.5 for an upper floor | 4hour | $176–$189 | sourced |
| Haulage and disposal1 per job | 1job | $120–$340 | estimated±48% |
| Acrylic or fibreglass tub1 where an acrylic tub is chosen | 1tub | $260–$850 | estimated±53% |
| Waste, overflow and trap1 set per tub | 1set | $60–$190 | estimated±52% |
| Plumber: set the tub and connect it5 h + weight allowance + 1.5 for an upper floor | 5hour | $298–$320 | sourced |
| Carpenter: ledger, blocking and levelling2.5 carpenter hours | 2.5hour | $141–$152 | sourced |
| Tub and shower valve, spout and trim1 where the valve is replaced too | 1set | $160–$540 | estimated±54% |
| Plumber: change the valve while the wall is open2 plumber hours where the valve is replaced | 2hour | $119–$128 | sourced |
| Acrylic surround kit1 where a surround kit is fitted | 1surround | $280–$820 | estimated±49% |
| Fit the surround kit4 hours where a kit is fitted | 4hour | $226–$243 | sourced |
| Board, tape, compound and paint for the wall around1 where the surrounding wall is made good | 1job | $45–$140 | estimated±51% |
| Patch and paint the wall around the alcove5 hours where the wall is made good | 5hour | $275–$295 | sourced |
| Silicone and sealant1 per job | 1job | $25–$75 | estimated±50% |
| Seal and final clean1.5 hours per job | 1.5hour | $66–$71 | sourced |
| Total | $2,251–$4,353 | ±32% |
Where these numbers come from
- Labour rates by area
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for plumbers, carpenters, drywall installers, labourers and tile setters, adjusted to your metropolitan area. Retrieved 2026-08-20. Benefit load from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. ⚠️ Tile and stone setters are published for only 141 of the 530 areas in our index, so on the tiled option that hour is often priced from the broader construction group for the same area. It is the largest single approximation in this model.
- What the weight actually changes
- An acrylic tub weighs about 70 pounds and one person carries it. Cast iron is around 380, needs four people or a trolley, and usually leaves in pieces rather than whole. Full of water with somebody in it, an alcove cast iron tub puts roughly a thousand pounds onto about five feet of floor — within what a normal floor carries, but worth a look at the joists before it goes in upstairs rather than after. Those weights are manufacturers’ typical figures for a standard 60-inch alcove tub and are our estimate, not a published dataset.
- Taking the old surround off is regulated work
- Cutting old tile is respirable crystalline silica exposure under OSHA 1926.1153, Respirable crystalline silica, which requires engineering controls and a written exposure control plan — in practice, wet saws and a contained room. And in housing built before 1978, disturbing painted surfaces above the federal threshold brings EPA, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program into play, which requires a certified firm. A tub surround coming off is well over that threshold. Both retrieved 2026-08-22.
- The cheap thing to ask for while the wall is open
- Solid blocking across the wet wall, whether or not a grab bar is going in now. It costs a few dollars and half an hour while the studs are exposed, and it means a bar can later go exactly where it is wanted rather than wherever a stud happens to be. CDC, Older Adult Falls Data reports one in four adults over 65 falling each year, and stepping over a tub wall is one of the places it happens. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- The line most people do not expect
- Patching and repainting the wall around the alcove. Leaving it out takes this job from $3,180 to $2,798, and it is rarely genuinely optional: the wall had to be cut to get the old tub out. It is also why a quote that omits it is not cheaper, only less complete — and it is the single most useful thing to check before comparing two prices for what sounds like the same work.
- Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-23.
What this figure does not include
- Moving the tub, or changing the alcove size
- Everything here assumes the new tub goes where the old one was, in the opening that exists. Making the alcove longer or shorter is framing, and moving the drain means opening the floor — both are separate jobs and neither is priced.
- What is found behind the old surround
- Rotten studs, a soaked subfloor or a slow leak that nobody knew about are the normal surprises here, because a tub surround hides exactly the area most likely to have been leaking. Nobody can price them before the wall is open. Agree an hourly rate for repairs in writing beforehand.
- Floor tiling and the rest of the room
- This prices the tub and its three wet walls. The floor, the vanity, the toilet and the lighting are a bathroom remodel, and there is a separate calculator for that.
- Walk-in tubs and any medically prescribed fitting
- A walk-in tub with a door is a different product with a different installation and a different price, and it is usually chosen for reasons an occupational therapist should assess rather than a calculator. Nothing here covers it.
- Asbestos and lead in older houses
- Sheet flooring and mastic from before the eighties can contain asbestos, and cutting painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing brings the federal lead renovation rule into play above its threshold. Testing comes first and neither is priced here.
Questions people actually ask
How much does it cost to remove and install a new bathtub?
About $3,180 in Atlanta for an acrylic tub with a surround kit, in a range of $2,133 to $4,226. A steel tub brings it to $2,983; tiling the three walls instead of using a kit brings it to $3,477; and a cast iron tub replacing another cast iron tub is $4,391. The tub itself is a small share of every one of those numbers. What you are mostly paying for is the wall: a tub flange is nailed to the studs and the wall surface is built over it, so the old tub cannot come out until the wall above it is cut open, and that drags the surround, the valve and the painting along with it.
Is it a big job to replace a bathtub?
Bigger than it looks and smaller than a remodel. The model puts it at about 24 trade hours, which is roughly 2 working days for a two-person crew — but they are not consecutive days. The tiling or the panels have to cure, the wall patching needs three coats of compound with drying between them, and the silicone goes on last of all. Expect the bathroom to be out of use for the better part of a week for a straightforward swap. It gets genuinely harder in two situations: a cast iron tub coming out, which is broken up in place rather than carried out, and an upstairs bathroom, where everything travels down a staircase — that combination takes it to $3,448.
Do I need a plumber to replace a bathtub?
Yes, and not for the reason most people assume. The tub itself is a shell that sits on the floor; anyone can carry it in. The part that needs a plumber is the waste and overflow assembly, which connects underneath the tub, is completely unreachable once the tub is set and bedded, and is the single most common leak in a bathroom that was done by somebody handy. The tub also has to be dead level along its length and bedded on its base, because a tub set out of level drains into its own corner for the rest of its life and there is no adjusting it afterwards. If the valve is being changed at the same time — which is the sensible moment, since the wall is already open — that is plumbing work by any definition.
How much does Lowe's charge to install a bathtub?
We do not publish other companies' prices and would be guessing if we did, but the shape of a retailer's flat installation price is worth understanding, because it is why those quotes look so much lower than this page. A flat rate covers setting the tub and connecting it in an opening that is ready. It typically does not cover taking the old wall surface off, the new surround, the valve, patching and repainting the wall that was cut open, or anything found behind it — and on this model those items are 83% of the total. The useful question to ask any installer is not the price but which of those six things is inside it.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 23 August 2026, not invented.
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- The full bathtub replacement cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.