It’s one of the most common renovation questions I hear from homeowners right now. You want a walk-in shower. Your old tub barely gets used. So why does it feel like such a big decision?
Here’s the honest answer: if you have a 1.5 bathroom home, it matters more than you might think.
A 1.5 bathroom house means you have one full bath and one half bath. The half bath is just a toilet and a sink. No tub, no shower. That means the tub in your full bath is the only tub in the entire house.
When you remove it, you’re not just remodeling a bathroom. You’re removing the only bathtub from the home.
That’s where the resale conversation gets important.
Studies consistently show that more than half of homebuyers still want at least one bathtub in a home. That number goes up when you factor in families with young children, a significant portion of buyers in suburban Michigan markets like Ypsilanti, Belleville, and Van Buren Township. For those buyers, a home with no tub is simply not on the list.
Does that mean your value tanks? Not necessarily. But it does mean something real happens to your buyer pool. A narrower pool means fewer offers. Fewer offers means less leverage. And less leverage usually shows up somewhere in the final price or the time it takes to sell.
The good news is you have options that don’t force a trade-off.
The most practical solution for a 1.5 bath home is a tub-shower combo. You get the open, modern shower you want (glass door, custom tile, the whole look), while keeping a functional tub in place. It satisfies your daily routine without eliminating a feature that a large segment of buyers will be looking for.
If you’re committed to a stand-up shower only, the honest guidance is this: do it, but go in knowing that you may need to price accordingly when it’s time to sell. A high-quality, well-designed shower can still be a selling point in the right market. It just won’t appeal to everyone.
The question I always ask homeowners is a simple one: how long are you planning to stay? If the answer is ten or more years, make the space work for you. If you’re thinking five years or less, the smarter play is probably the combo.
The goal here isn’t to talk you out of anything. It’s to make sure you understand exactly what you’re working with before you make the decision, so there are no surprises down the road.
If you’re weighing a bathroom renovation and want to understand how it might affect your home’s position in the market, I’m happy to walk through it with you.
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