Bathtub replacement cost dataset

Tub material, weight and what it costs

National figures, 60-inch alcove, surround kit, valve replaced, wall made good. Weights are typical manufacturers’ figures for a standard alcove tub and are our estimate.

Weight is the only property here that changes material cost, labour hours and risk at the same time. Cast iron is 5 times the weight of acrylic, needs four people rather than one, and full of water with somebody in it puts roughly a thousand pounds onto about five feet of floor. That is within what a normal floor carries — it is simply worth checking before it goes in upstairs, not after.

The three wet walls

On the default 60-inch alcove that is 51.7 square feet of wall.

The circumstances, and what each one adds

Patching and repainting the wall around+$378

The line people do not expect and rarely avoid. The wall had to be cut open to get the old tub out, because the tub flange is nailed to the studs and the wall surface was built over it. A quote that omits this is not cheaper, only less complete.

Replacing the valve while the wall is open+$474

Two plumber hours now, against opening the wall again later — which is most of the price of this entire job. It also gets you a pressure-balancing valve, which is what stops the water going scalding when a toilet is flushed elsewhere in the house.

The old tub is cast iron+$137

Three more labourer hours. It is broken up in place under a blanket rather than carried out whole, which is loud, quick and not something to schedule with the family at home.

The bathroom is upstairs+$161

Carrying in, carrying out and protecting the route down. Small on an acrylic tub, and the reason a cast iron one upstairs is worth thinking about twice.

Line items

The reasoning behind each figure

Written out so a bathroom fitter can point at the exact assumption that is wrong.

Take out the old tub and open the walls

• Four labourer hours as standard, plus three where the tub coming out is cast iron, plus one and a half where it has to go down a staircase.
• The hours are mostly wall, not tub. 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 back — which is why a like-for-like swap always drags the surround with it.
• ⚠️ Cutting old tile is silica work under OSHA 1926.1153 and is done wet. A cast iron tub is usually broken up in place with a sledge under a blanket, which is loud, quick and the reason it is not a job to do with the family at home.

Haulage and disposalestimated, ±48%

• The old tub, the old surround and the wall board behind it, out as construction waste. A cast iron tub broken up is several hundred pounds of it, and some yards pay a little for the scrap rather than charging to take it.

Acrylic or fibreglass tubestimated, ±53%

• A standard alcove tub with the drain at one end and a moulded apron. The band covers a plain builder-grade unit through a reinforced one with a proper skirt.
• The cheap end flexes underfoot. Most of that is not the tub, it is whether the installer bedded it in mortar as the manufacturer asks — which costs about twenty dollars of material and half an hour.

Enamelled steel tubestimated, ±45%

• The cheapest tub on the market and the one to think twice about. It is loud when it fills, it loses heat quickly, and a chip in the enamel exposes steel that then rusts from the chip outwards.
• It is genuinely the right answer for a rental or a rarely-used second bathroom, and genuinely the wrong one for a tub somebody will sit in.

Enamelled cast iron tubestimated, ±56%

• Three to five hundred pounds of iron under a fired enamel surface. It holds heat far longer than anything else here and the finish does not dull, which is why hundred-year-old ones are still in service.
• ⚠️ Full of water and with somebody in it, an alcove cast iron tub puts roughly 900 to 1,100 pounds onto a strip of floor about five feet long. That is within what a normal floor carries, but it is worth a look at the joists before it goes in upstairs, and it is not something to discover afterwards.

Waste, overflow and trapestimated, ±52%

• The drain assembly always gets replaced with the tub — it is sized and positioned to the tub it came with, and the old one will not line up.
• The trap under the floor usually does not need to move, because tub drains sit at the same end of a standard alcove. That is the reason a like-for-like swap stays cheap.

Plumber: set the tub and connect it

• Five hours for an acrylic tub, five and a half for steel, eight for cast iron, plus an hour and a half where it has to go upstairs.
• Answering the question people actually ask: yes, this needs a plumber. Not for the tub — for the waste and overflow connection, which is under the tub, unreachable once it is set, and 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. A tub set out of level drains into its own corner for the rest of its life, and there is no adjustment afterwards.

Carpenter: ledger, blocking and levelling

• Two and a half hours: a ledger board along the back wall for the tub flange to sit on, blocking for the surround, and packing the alcove square. Alcoves are rarely square and the new tub is.
• This is also the moment to put solid blocking in for a grab bar, whether or not one is going in now. It costs almost nothing while the wall is open and it is expensive and ugly to add afterwards.

Tub and shower valve, spout and trimestimated, ±54%

• A pressure-balancing valve with the spout, the diverter and the visible trim.
• Modern tub and shower valves are pressure-balancing, which is what stops the water running scalding when a toilet is flushed elsewhere in the house. An old two-handle valve does not do that.

Plumber: change the valve while the wall is open

• Two plumber hours, and the whole argument for this line is when rather than what: the valve is behind the wall, the wall is open now, and it will not be open again for twenty years.
• Replacing it later costs opening the wall again, which is most of the price of this entire job.

Acrylic surround kitestimated, ±49%

• Three moulded panels with the adhesive and the sealant.
• It only fits a standard alcove. If the opening is not a size somebody manufactures, this option does not exist and the choice is really between tile and panels.

Fit the surround kit

• Four hours, one visit, and it is watertight the same day. That is the entire case for a kit over tile: there is no curing, no second trip and no third.

Backer board, membrane and tileestimated, ±56%

• Cement or foam backer over the studs, a waterproof membrane over that, then tile. Priced per square foot of the three wet walls.
• The membrane is the part that matters and the part nobody sees. Tile is not waterproof and grout is not waterproof; the layer behind them is, and a tub surround tiled straight onto ordinary board will fail whatever the tile cost.

Set the surround tile

• About twelve minutes a square foot including the backer, the membrane, the setting and the grouting, spread over three visits because each layer has to cure before the next.
• ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data adjusted to your area, but tile and stone setters are published for only 141 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those, this hour is priced from the broader construction group for the same area — a real approximation, and the largest single source of error in a tiled option.

Solid-surface wall panelsestimated, ±40%

• Large sheets cut to the alcove with sealed joints. Dearer per square foot than most tile and much cheaper installed.
• No grout, which over ten years is the difference most people actually notice.

Fit the solid-surface panels

• About five minutes a square foot: measuring, cutting the openings for the valve and the spout, and sealing the joints. One day rather than three.

Board, tape, compound and paint for the wall aroundestimated, ±51%

• Board and finishing materials for the wall that was cut open to get the old tub out, plus the paint to take it back to the corners.
• New paint over old does not blend, so the honest answer is repainting corner to corner rather than patching a rectangle.

Patch and paint the wall around the alcove

• Five hours spread over two or three visits, because joint compound has to dry between coats.
• This is the line that most surprises people in a like-for-like tub swap, and in most cases it is unavoidable rather than optional: the wall had to be cut to get the old tub out.

Silicone and sealantestimated, ±50%

• Neutral-cure silicone for the tub-to-wall joint and every internal corner.
• That joint moves every time the tub fills, which is why it is siliconed and never grouted, and why it is the joint that needs redoing every few years however well it was done.

Seal and final clean

• An hour and a half to seal every joint and leave the room clean.

Not included in this dataset

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.