Relacing a shower with a half bath

seth

We have a shower and a garden tub in our master bath room. But we have only 2 baths in our home (one up and one down) and all the visitors will have to go up or use the master bath ( which my wife don't like). I can get rid of the shower and create a 6'X 3' small visitor half bath room. In such case we have to use the garden tub as regular bath tub. My question is 1) Does Replacing the shower with a small visitor bath room add value to the house and help sell the house fast? (House with 2 1/2 bath sells easier than the one with 2 baths?)
2) Can we use the garden tub as regular bath tub? Thanks for your suggestions

acerunner

personal preference, but if I were to buy a house, I would want one with a hallway bathroom for guests. Keep in mind though that if you are getting rid of the dedicated shower, you should add a shower over the tub. A garden tub isn't well suited for a shower/tub combo, but it could work. Is that a window over the tub? No good for shower, easily rots out. Depending on how big of a job you're looking for, personaly, I would get rid of the garden tub, replace with an alcove tub and shower head. And also either seal up the window, or shrink it up so that its up high above the shower head.

seth

Thanks for the response. It is a mirror and not a window. I might sell the house, want to keep the costs down, so looking if I could do without replacing the garden tub. Replacement involve removing marble trim etc which would add to the cost. I can add a shower above the tub easily

Ron6519

If you have 2 bathrooms in the house, one up and one down, why do visitors need to use the upstairs bathroom?

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seth

Because the one down is the master bath and we don't want the visitors to be using the master bath room

Wiscbldr

If I understand this right, your main floor bathroom is actually the master bathroom, right?

Do you have 1st floor laundry? If so, do you have space in your laundry room to put in a stool and sink and a door?

If you have the 5 pc master bath (dual vanity, tub, shower, stool), those setups will help sell your home more then what you are proposing. Otherwise, I guess you could remove the garden tub, put in a regular tub/shower combo, and create a seperate visitor bath a you described.

But Id look at other options before making the master bath smaller or less functional. And if youre thinking of selling anyway, I wouldnt do anything, but would consult with a realtor instead.

seth

Thanks for the response. No laundry room. It is in the basement. Master Bath has a single vanity, stool, a garden tub and shower.

gregzoll

If it was me, I would ditch the garden tub, put in a smaller size, and make it a shower/bath combo. Look around at those homes that have done remodeling in your neighborhood and see what they are doing to their bath's, before deciding. Right now with home costs going down everyday, it would not matter if you had a garden hose & spray nozzle on a faucet. But what does matter, is that people are looking at not putting any work into the home they want to buy, and want the seller to put all the effort into it.

Figure out what would work better for everyone, how many times do you have guests, what is the queue like when waiting for someone to finish, and hot water recovery. Also, look at the water pressure, in that if all the baths are being used at the same time, do you loose pressure, which also causes hot water temp to fluctuate. Those would be some of the factors I would be considering in a bath remodel, along with what works for you, not the next guy.

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Blondesense

In your original post you asked "Can we use the garden tub as regular bath tub?" If you mean as a bath/shower combo, you want to do some research here. A garden tub surround is built to withstand an occasional splash. A shower (or shower/tub combo) has to withstand a whole lot of daily, driving, soaking water. They are built quite differently starting with the choice of tub itself. You want to make sure those walls can handle it, otherwise you are looking at major problems down the road.

Bud Cline

That's a garden tub?