Almost everyone approaches this decision standing in the bathroom they want to change, looking down at a tub they never use, already half decided. That is the wrong vantage point. The question is not whether you use this particular tub. It is whether your household needs at least one tub anywhere in the house, and that question gets answered by walking through the other bathrooms first, not by staring at this one.
If there is a second full bathroom with a tub in it, this decision gets easy. Convert the one you are standing in, enjoy a better shower, and move on. If this is the only tub in the house, slow down. Not because converting is wrong, but because reversing it later means opening the floor a second time, and that is a real project rather than a change of mind.
Small children are the usual answer. Bathing a toddler in a shower stall is a job nobody enjoys, and families in that stage of life often want a tub within reach even if the adults never sit in one. Dogs are the second answer, and a more common one than people admit. Anyone who baths for pain or recovery is the third, and they tend to know exactly what they need.
Then there is the buyer question, which is worth naming without inflating it. A house with no tub anywhere reads differently to some buyers, particularly families. That is not a reason to keep a tub you hate. It is a reason to make sure the house keeps one somewhere if it reasonably can. If the only tub in the house is in a bathroom you are not touching, the decision in front of you is already made.
Here is the part that gets left out of most conversations about this. A tub and a shower do not drain in the same place, and they never have. A tub drains at one end, at a specific height, plumbed for that fixture and nothing else. A shower drains wherever the layout puts it, which usually means the floor gets opened and a new line gets run at proper fall to reach the existing waste line.
That work happens between joists, and joists are not always where you want them. Sometimes the run is easy. Sometimes it means the drain location gets nudged to work with the structure rather than against it. This is also the reason a quote for a conversion should come from someone who looked at the floor and the ceiling below it, not just at the tub. What is under there decides how much of this project is plumbing.
This is the second structural question, and it almost always arrives disguised as a style preference. A standard curb is the conventional approach and the simplest thing to build well. A low threshold reduces the step over and takes a bit more care to detail. A curbless entry, where the shower floor runs continuous with the bathroom floor, is the one that quietly turns a bathroom remodel into framing work.
For a curbless shower, the floor has to go down or the rest of the room has to come up, because you still need slope to the drain. Recessing between joists depends on joist depth and direction and what runs below. Building the surrounding floor up affects door clearances and the transition at the hallway. Neither is exotic, but both are decided at framing, and neither can be added at the tile stage. Ask about it early or do not ask about it at all.
Sometimes the tub stays and the project is better for it. If this is the only tub in the house and the household includes small kids or someone who baths regularly, keeping it is the practical call. If you like the tub and only hate the surround, the walls can come off, the waterproofing can be rebuilt properly, and the tile above a sound tub can be redone without touching the drain at all.
That version of the project is meaningfully smaller than a conversion, and it solves the most common complaint, which is that the old surround leaks or looks tired. You will still step over a tub wall every morning. If that is your actual objection, then a conversion is the answer and it is worth doing properly. Just be clear with yourself about which problem you are solving before anybody starts demolition.
Usually the one that serves kids or guests, and usually not the primary bathroom if the adults there prefer a shower. Keeping a tub in the secondary bath means the house still has one, and the bathroom you use every day gets built the way you actually want it.
Sometimes the drain can be reused or shifted only slightly, which keeps the floor work modest. It depends on the shower layout, the pan or base you choose, and where the existing waste line runs. It is one of the first things a contractor should check, because it changes the shape of the job.
It can be, but it competes hard for floor space, and a tub too small to relax in tends to become the thing nobody uses. In a tight room, be honest about whether the tub earns its footprint or whether one good shower and a tub elsewhere in the house serves you better.
A few details about the room and the house is all we need to start. Or call 801-644-9000.