Do I remove the bath and fit a shower? House value.

[TheReef]

Two adults and two DDs, 12 & 8. We live in a 3 bed semi.

We've only got a small bathroom and no where to put another shower room or even an additional toilet. Neither me, my dh or our eldest dd use the bath. I can't remember the last time one of us did (we do shower ) My youngest does, maybe once a week, but is just as happy showering. We have a shower over the bath.

The bathroom is very small and the bath takes up the whole of one the two longer walls. It would give us more room and look a lot nicer if we took out the bath and put a big double shower in.

Would it devalue the house to remove the bath and fit the shower? As I said we've no plans to move for the next 10 yrs.

You've answered your own question: if you don't intend to move for 10 years what does the potential effect on the value matter? Just bear in mind that putting a bath back in could ensure you get maximum value when you come to sell.

Wil be fine, you can just replace a bath in later as the plumbing is the same. In fact it's easier for a bath due to the levels on the drainage.

If you don’t intend to move do it to suit your own living arrangements.
If you had said you were going to sell, I’d have said absolutely don’t do it as it’ll put buyers off (they’ll either assume there isn’t room for one, or will think of the cost/mess to put one in themselves)

My dm’s house only has a walk in shower. No bath, 3 bed semi.
It was fitted as df and dm couldn’t get in the bath anymore due to old age. DB lives there, he prefers showers, house not selling anytime soon.
Do what suits your family for now. Worry about it maybe 10 years down the line, if you want to sell.

We are getting rid of our bath next year. We've never had a bath in it! Getting a huge shower in its place. Ours is a small house not suitable for families however so I don't believe it will make a difference to resale. (Not to mention I don't want to move ever again, I will die here)

Agree. If you’re staying for 10 years plus, make the house work for you. I’d still make it as easy as possible to put a bath back in, so it’s easy enough to do, if and when you do come to sell.

Even if you did a brand new bathroom with a bath now, in 10+ years it would be a bit tired and anyone looking at the house would probably be thinking about replacing it. So given you’re staying long term, do what works for you and go with the big shower.

It would put me right off if a house didn't have a bath - I'd expect enough of a reduction in the price to not only replace the bathroom, but to compensate me for the hassle of doing so.

However

You've said you've no intention of moving for 10 years or more, so do whatever suits you and your family. (though it doesn't sound as if it would suit your dd2)

I did it. Love it. Best thing I ever did. Dont care if it devalues my house as I don’t intend moving any time soon and I can always put a bath back in if needs be.

I don’t even know if it would devalue the house as much these days as in the past, (as there are water meters in England nowadays although that won’t affect me in Scotland), and also as many more people have showers now. And babies can just continue to get bathed in the baby bath until they are big enough to get showered, old people like showers as easier to gain access, so is the lack of bath considered as large a problem as it used to be?

Any estate agents in MN today who can advise?

I can’t imagine it would have much effect. We were keen to avoid the hassle of removing a bath when looking for a house. There’s probably as many people who hate baths as want one in a house.

It depends on your house and the market area as to whether it will affect the saleability of the house. My new house is in a catchment for a very good primary school so although I don't particularly use a bath, the EA said that if we were re-doing the bathroom anyway, replacing the bath (taken out by previous owner and replaced with bidet ) would be a wise move as families with young children tend to want a bath. We will be going for a shower over the bath

Thank you all for your comments, if we do this now, by the time we come to move it'll be 10 yrs old and we can easily put a bath back in as we're not planning on moving any of the plumbing. But that's only if absolutely needed.

We did that a few months ago. We have a shower in our en suite and then a family bathroom which just had a bath and no shower. None of us used the bath. In the 9 years that we've lived here it'd been used less that 10 times, I hadn't used it for four years.

Both of our sons were starting 9ish to 5ish jobs in September (they'd both worked different hours previously) and both would be wanting to use the shower before work and it would mean four of us wanting to use the en suite at around the same time.

We don't have plans to move so it made sense to have the bath removed and a lovely walk in shower fitted in it's place.

If you're not planning on moving anytime soon then it's not an issue. We were put off a house because it didn't have a bath, but we have young kids so a bath is essential to our day-to-day life.

We’ve recently accepted an offer on our house that had had the bath removed by the previous owners. I had always intended to replace the bath but never got around to it. I’m sure the fact that the previous owners had replaced the bath with a really gorgeous shower room helped, but the lack of bath didn’t seem to have any effect on the price or on how long the house took to sell, and we were under offer very quickly.