do we really need to keep the bath?

[No1blueengine]

Currently planning big renovation. Our bathroom is tiny, maybe 6 foot by 6 foot and intruded on by the stairs bulkhead from below.

Currently we have a P shaped bath with overhead shower on a raised platform so that the narrow end sits above the highest point of the bulkhead and buts against the wall. There is a step on the side of the bath for getting in and out which is a water/mould trap.

I would really love to rip the bath out all together and install a lovely shower. It would be so much nicer and better use of the limited space. The kids rarely have baths these days (5,6 and 8) and wouldn't not really miss it if it was gone. We don't have baths at all. In fact, the most regular user of the bath was our old dog who was bathed in it but he has recently passed away.

Anyway, my husband thinks it is impossible to redo the bathroom without having a bath in it.

This renovation is supposed to turn our house into the "forever house" so i am not thinking so much about resale value as how i want to live in the house. But if we did have to sell, would the lack of a bath really be such an issue?

I am from Oz where loads of houses don't have baths and it is normal to have showering facilities only.

A shower over a bath is much less likely to leak into your floor. I had a walk in shower downstairs and a bath upstairs. The shower had been quietly leaking into the house foundations, and when it finally filled up to floor level and we discovered it, we had to rip out the entire bathroom, plus the floors of two other rooms, pump out floodwater and replace floors and timbers even under the stairs. Thankfully our home insurance covered it, but it cost thousands and was a massive upheaval for weeks. I’d keep your bath!

We got rid of our bath when we renovated. No-one in our family likes bathes. Everyone showers. We plan to be here forever. I figured that if we ever move out we can fit a bath if the estate agents say we need to.

@CloudPop Put in a wide shower which is the same size as a bath, then if some wants to replace it at some point it is very straightforward. And you have a lovely huge shower.

Thats a great idea, duly filed away for my own bathroom!

Anecdote for you: on the DIY Top Tips page on FB (strongly recommend it for the sheer entertainment value), there was a woman recently asking whether she should demolish that stair bulkhead to make more room.

Last I saw of it, she just wasn't getting the fact that it was the other side of her stairs, and not some random cuboid space of its own. People were alternating between trying to be kind and complete

People with young children who are buying a family home do very often want a bath, and would be put off if there isn't one.
If you're not planning to sell, it's not an issue.