Walk-In Shower Cost Calculator for Sun Valley

The figures published on this site put a basic walk-in shower — panel walls, a standard base, a framed or curtain enclosure — at $5,000 to $9,000; a mid-range one with tiled walls, an upgraded base and semi-frameless glass at $9,000 to $16,000; and a higher-end one with full custom tile, frameless glass, a curbless base and multiple fixtures at $16,000 to $28,000 and up. The site's home page gives an overall range of $6,000 to $18,000. This calculator works from your own footprint and specification rather than an average.

More than most people expect, and almost none of it is the tile. The shower floor has to sit below the bathroom floor, so the subfloor is recessed between the joists — which means framing work, sometimes sistering or blocking, and occasionally an engineer's opinion if a joist has to be notched. On a concrete slab it means cutting and re-pouring, which is a bigger job again. In this calculator a curbless base runs roughly 40% above a tiled base with a curb at the same size, and a linear drain adds more on top. It is worth it if accessibility is the point; it is an expensive aesthetic if it is not.

Yes in almost every case. Washoe County exempts fixture replacement only where there is no rearranging of the water, waste, or vent pipes — and a new shower generally moves or resizes a drain, adds a valve, and often adds ventilation. Replacing an existing stall with an identical one on the same drain is the narrow exception. The county's EZ Permit route covers residential plumbing and electrical up to 400 amps without plan review, which for a licensed contractor is usually same-day. Sun Valley is unincorporated Washoe County, so it is the county rather than the City of Reno or Sparks. Confirm current requirements before starting.

If accessibility is a current or likely future need, yes, and size it to sit on properly rather than to hold a bottle — 15 to 17 inches deep and around 17 to 19 inches high is the range worth aiming at. If the shower is small, a bench eats floor area that the shower needs more, and a good fold-down seat installed later on proper blocking does the same job. The thing to do now either way is the blocking: solid backing behind the tile costs very little while the wall is open and is the entire job once it is closed.

It depends who else will own the house. Day to day, most households with both stop using the tub within a year, and the floor area buys a genuinely better shower. At resale, agents in most markets will tell you buyers with young children look for at least one tub, and a house with none narrows the pool. If there is a tub in another bathroom this is an easy decision. If this would leave the house without one, it is worth deciding deliberately rather than by default — it is among the hardest things to reverse later.

A panel system over a pre-sloped pan can be done in 3 to 5 days. A fully tiled shower is typically 2 to 3 weeks, and most of that is not tiling — it is the base being built, waterproofed, flood-tested and cured before anything is set, then grout and sealing after. A curbless base adds framing days at the start. Frameless glass is measured after the tile is finished and then fabricated, which commonly adds one to three weeks at the end during which the shower is otherwise complete but unusable.