A tub-to-shower conversion in Naples replaces most or all of your bathtub footprint with a walk-in shower, and you should expect the work to take three to seven days depending on the bath’s size and the age of the plumbing underneath. We price these jobs between $3,500 and $10,000 in this market, and the number you actually pay hangs on what’s behind your walls once the tub apron comes off. If you want a firm number built off your home’s real conditions, call (844) 638-7249 and we’ll send someone to take measurements and put it in writing.
What the job actually looks like, day by day
Day 1: Demolition and drain discovery. We protect the floor path in and out of the bath, then remove the tub, surround, and about 12 to 18 inches of drywall or backer board above the alcove. This exposes the drain, trap, and supply lines. The critical moment comes when we see whether the existing drain is 1½-inch tub pipe or 2-inch shower pipe. A tub drain moves water slower than a shower drain, so code in Collier County needs the larger diameter. If yours is undersized, we core through the slab and replace the trap and riser, which adds a day and a half and roughly $800 to $1,400 to the job. Most 1990s-and-newer Naples homes we open up already have 2-inch pipe, but we plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Day 2: Rough-in and waterproofing. Plumbing rough-in finishes with the mixing valve, showerhead drop-ear, and any handheld or body-spray loops you chose during the pre-construction walk. Copper supply lines get inspected for pinhole corrosion, a real problem in Naples coastal homes built before 2000 where salt-laden air accelerates copper thinning inside the wall cavity. If we find it, a small section gets swapped to PEX before we close. The walls then get cement board with mesh-taped seams and a full liquid-applied waterproof membrane. No shortcuts here: we roll the membrane corner-to-corner and extend it past the shower footprint onto the dry bathroom floor, a detail that prevents the rot pocket every other contractor leaves at the transition.
Day 3 or 4: Tile, niche, and floor pan. Tile work begins with the shower floor. We build the mud bed to slope at a true quarter-inch per foot toward the drain, no pre-fab foam pans that crack under a heavy Naples tile installation. Wall tile follows, and we set your niche at a natural height between stud bays. The niche gets its own slope and membrane wrap so shampoo bottles never sit in standing water. Tile takes two to three days depending on whether you chose large-format porcelain or an intricate mosaic. We grout on the final day and leave the cure time the manufacturer requires before the glass goes up.
Day 5 or 6: Glass enclosure and trim-out. The shower door and fixed panel arrive cut to your opening’s exact dimensions, templated after tile. We install frameless or semi-frameless heavy glass with bracket hinges into blocking we anchored behind the tile during rough-in, so the door carries its weight on structure, not on tile. Trim-out finishes the valve, showerhead, and any secondary fixtures. We test all functions, run the shower for 10 minutes, and check the pan for drainage speed and the glass for seal gaps before calling the job done.
Day 7: Walkthrough and sign-off. We review every grout line, corner joint, and valve function with you standing in the bathroom. If anything needs attention, we handle it before you sign. Your 730-Day Done Right Promise begins the day you accept the work, and it means exactly what it says.
The options you’ll choose between
A tub-to-shower conversion isn’t a one-spec product. You make about six real decisions before we order a single stick of material.
- Acrylic wall system vs. tile. A formed acrylic surround installs in a day and costs less. Tile, especially large-format porcelain or glazed ceramic, takes longer but gives you design control and holds up to Naples humidity without delaminating. If you want the lowest maintenance possible over 15 years, go acrylic. If you want a shower that looks like it belongs in a Port Royal or Grey Oaks home, go tile.
- Floor: mud bed vs. factory pan. A site-built mud bed conforms to any drain offset and never squeaks. A factory foam pan is fine for a basic acrylic surround but not for a tiled floor in Naples, where the water table below the slab means any shift in the pan’s bedding telegraphs through grout within a year. We recommend a mud bed on every tiled conversion.
- Shower door configuration. The most popular choice in Naples is a frameless bypass slider with a fixed panel, often in a matte black or brushed nickel finish that reflects less salt-air spotting than polished chrome. A full swing door works best in an alcove with enough floor clearance, but most tub openings are narrow, so a sliding or bi-fold glass often fits better.
- Niches and benches. One recessed niche is the minimum everyone wants. We can add a second niche, a corner bench, or a full-width bench if your alcove width and your budget allow. Every horizontal surface needs its own slope, so we build them with that in mind from the start.
- Shower valve and head. A pressure-balanced valve with a single-function head is the code baseline and the budget choice. Upgrading to a thermostatic valve with a diverter and adding a handheld wand or rain head changes the rough-in, the tile cutout, and the price, so we lock that choice during your pre-construction design consult.
What a tub-to-shower conversion costs in Naples, FL
Our conversions in Naples run from $3,500 to $10,000. At the low end, you’re looking at a basic acrylic wall system installed over an existing 2-inch drain with no plumbing relocation and a simple sliding glass door. At the high end, we’re doing full tile walls, a site-built mud pan, a frameless enclosure, and swapping the old 1½-inch drain line out through the slab. Here’s how the numbers break across a typical Naples job:
- Demo and disposal: $400-$800
- Plumbing rough-in and drain upgrade (if needed): $600-$1,800
- Waterproofing and backer board: $500-$900
- Wall system (acrylic or tile with labor): $1,200-$4,500
- Shower pan (mud bed and tile): $500-$1,200
- Glass enclosure (semi-frameless to frameless): $700-$2,500
- Permit and inspection: $200-$500
Four variables push the price in either direction. First, the drain: if we find a 1½-inch tub line under the slab, core-drilling and repiping add real labor and materials. Second, the wall material: acrylic installs a full day faster than tile. Third, the door: frameless glass with custom templating costs more than a stock semi-frameless unit. Fourth, location in the house: a second-floor bath in a Pelican Bay condo tower means hauling debris down a service elevator, which adds time. Your written estimate lays out every line so you see exactly where your money goes. No change orders unless you ask for a change.
One thing to budget for: most Naples homes are concrete on grade, so moving the drain location beyond 12 inches from the existing tub drain typically means saw-cutting the slab. We’ll know if that’s necessary during the site visit, and we’ll price it before you sign anything.
Why a Naples tub-to-shower conversion isn’t the same as doing it inland
Naples sits on a high water table with a salt-laced atmosphere that interior build work doesn’t escape, even on a tile job. Every tub-to-shower conversion we open up in neighborhoods like Old Naples, Park Shore, or Aqualane Shores shares one truth: the wall cavity behind a 20-year-old tub surround often holds more trapped humidity than the homeowner expects, and the copper supply lines inside that cavity have been breathing salt air drawn through the building envelope for two decades. We don’t just swap a tub for a shower and tile over it. We inspect every inch of exposed copper for thinning, replace what’s compromised, and seal the cavity with a waterproof assembly rated for the vapor drive that Naples’s climate puts on interior walls nine months of the year.
Permitting is another Naples-specific piece. Collier County Building Services requires a plumbing permit for any drain alteration and a building permit if the shower valve or wet wall gets reconfigured beyond a direct replacement. If your home sits in a gated community like Grey Oaks or Pelican Bay, the HOA architectural review board often wants a scope-of-work summary and a materials list before the county permit is even pulled. We handle that submittal for you, but it adds three to seven business days to the front of the schedule. On houses in the coastal flood zone, the permit office may ask whether any slab penetration triggers an elevation compliance review, even for a small drain cut. We’ve navigated that process enough times to know what the reviewer will flag before we walk into the building department.
We also see this job done as part of a broader interior refresh after storm-season damage. A homeowner in Bonita Springs or East Naples who just finished a roof repair after a hurricane often decides the dated tub surround is the next thing to go. That’s when we’ll bring a Bathroom Remodeling in Naples lens to the conversation and plan the shower conversion as phase one of a larger bath update. Some clients even coordinate it with exterior work, pairing the bath renovation with a new standing-seam Metal Roofing in Naples upgrade or a stone-coated Tile Roofing in Naples replacement, since the roofing crew and the bath crew can work concurrently without tripping over each other.
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Frequently asked - tub-to-shower conversion in Naples
Three to seven days of onsite work from demolition to final walkthrough. An acrylic surround with no drain alteration finishes in three days. A full tile shower with a slab drain cut-out and custom glass pushes toward seven. The county inspection adds a day or two between rough-in and tile, but that’s off your calendar unless the inspector finds something to correct. Before the project starts, plan on a week to ten days for material ordering and glass templating once we have your signed estimate.
Yes. Collier County requires a plumbing permit for drain work and a building permit if you alter the wet wall layout. Even a direct swap where the drain stays put typically triggers a permit because the valve and showerhead change the fixture count. We pull all necessary permits as part of the job, and the permit fee shows on your estimate as a separate line. If your home is in a gated community with its own architectural board, we submit the paperwork to them first. You can reach us anytime at (844) 638-7249 to hear exactly how we’ll handle permitting on your specific property.
Almost always yes. Most tub-to-shower conversions in Naples use the existing three-wall alcove, so you keep the same footprint while gaining a walk-in entry. If you want to enlarge the shower beyond the old tub’s 60-inch width, we’d be moving into Bathroom Remodeling in Naples territory and the scope broadens, but we can absolutely do that.
Every conversion carries our 730-Day Done Right Promise: if anything we installed isn’t right, we make it right at no charge for two full years. The tile, glass, fixtures, and valve also carry their individual manufacturer warranties, and we register those for you at completion. It’s one of the longest workmanship guarantees you’ll find on a residential bath project, and it’s in writing before the first hammer swings.
The 34102 ZIP includes Old Naples, Port Royal, and Aqualane Shores, where older homes were built on slab at grade and have a higher chance of needing drain upgrades to meet current code. Those jobs often land between $7,500 and $10,000 because we’re coring the slab to replace an undersized tub drain and the homes themselves need extra care during interior work. Homes built after 2000 in newer developments around East Naples or the 34110 corridor more frequently have 2-inch pipe already in place and finish closer to the $3,500 to $6,500 end. Call (844) 638-7249 for an exact quote on your home’s plumbing - we’ll get you a number you can budget around.
Get your numbers before you commit
A tub-to-shower conversion in Naples shouldn’t start with a ballpark guess and shouldn’t end with a surprise on the final invoice. We’ll come to your home, open the access panel if there is one, measure the drain, and walk you through exactly what your bathroom needs before we hand you a written, fixed-price estimate. The same person who estimates the job is the crew lead who runs it, and you’ll always reach a live person when you call us at (844) 638-7249 - not a voicemail, not a call center, and not a sales script. We’ve been doing this work across the Naples market since 2014, and our Bathroom Remodeling team treats every tub-to-shower job like it’s the only one on the board. Call today, and we’ll schedule your free estimate around your calendar, not ours.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., serving Naples since 2014.