The shower systems most common in Columbus homes, and what replaces them
Which shower system is most common in Columbus depends on which Columbus you mean. The houses were built in five distinct waves and each wave put a different tub and shower in the bathroom, and the replacements sold today fall into five categories that are not sold in equal numbers. This page goes through both, and says plainly which claims are observed and which are inferred.
Last updated September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base
Nobody counts installations, so read this the right way
There is no registry of which shower systems get installed in Columbus. The city's permit record, which this site has gone through in detail, records the trade and the building and never the product. So any statement about what is most common here is an inference from two things that can be observed: what is in the houses now, which follows the decade they were built, and what the companies and stores selling replacements actually stock and advertise. This page says which is which. The bathroom page sets out which parts of that decade-by-decade description a publisher supports, and carries the Franklin County Auditor's record of bathrooms by the decade a house was built.
What is in Columbus bathrooms now, by decade
Before the war: cast iron and tile on plaster
Clintonville, German Village, Olde Towne East, Grandview Heights, Bexley and the older streets of Upper Arlington and Westerville are largely houses built before 1940. The typical bathroom is small, often the only full one in the house, with a cast-iron tub in a five-foot alcove, ceramic tile set on a mortar bed to about chest height, and plaster on wood lath behind it. These bathrooms are usually on their original supply and waste lines. They are also where a walk-in shower makes the most difference to the room, because the tub is a large object in a small space.
The 1950s and 1960s: the five-by-seven hall bath
The ranches and capes of Gahanna, Whitehall, Worthington, the Hilltop and the Northland area were built with a hall bathroom of about five feet by seven or eight, a steel or cast-iron tub with a shower over it, and tile on the walls. Many have a second half-bath and no second tub. This is the most predictable conversion there is: the tub comes out, the drain usually stays where it is, and a shower goes into the same alcove.
The 1970s and 1980s: the one-piece fiberglass unit arrives
The split-levels and two-stories of that era, across Westerville, Reynoldsburg, Pickerington, Dublin and the outer ring of Columbus itself, are the first houses where the tub and its walls were often one molded fiberglass unit set in the framing before the drywall went up. They are light, they never leak at a grout line because they have none, and after forty years the finish is usually worn, the color is dated and the caulk has been redone several times. Because the unit was built into the wall, it is cut out in pieces when it goes.
The 1990s and 2000s: the corner tub and the separate shower
Dublin, Powell, New Albany, Lewis Center, Hilliard and Pickerington were largely built in these two decades, and nearly every primary bathroom of the period has a large corner soaking tub beside a separate shower, with a fiberglass or acrylic tub-and-shower unit in the hall bath. The corner tub is the fixture most often reported as unused, and removing it to build a larger shower is the most common request from this housing anywhere in Central Ohio.
Since 2010: bigger showers, thinner materials
Newer subdivisions and the infill houses in the city tend to have a larger walk-in shower in the primary bathroom already, often tiled, and a one-piece or multi-piece acrylic unit in the secondary bathrooms. These are not yet at the age where they are replaced for wear, and when they are worked on it is usually to remove a step or add a seat and bars rather than to change the material.
What replaces them, as categories
When a Columbus bathroom is converted or its shower replaced, the new walls come from one of five categories. Listed from the most common to the least, judged by what is stocked, advertised and installed at volume in this market:
- Acrylic wall systems. Sheets of acrylic, sometimes reinforced on the back, in stocked sizes, glued to the existing wall or over a new backer, with a matching acrylic pan. This is the volume product of the tub-to-shower conversion trade in Columbus: it is what the highest-volume conversion installers in the market sell, what the big-box stores stock for both installers and do-it-yourself buyers, and the material most one-day installations are made of. A variant is the liner, an acrylic shell fitted over the existing tub rather than replacing it, which is a different product with a page of its own.
- Printed composite panels. Slim panels of aluminum composite or PVC with a stone or tile pattern printed on the face at high resolution, groutless, glued up in a few pieces. The fastest-growing category over the last few years because it delivers a stone look at a panel price, and the one most often confused with real stone in a photograph.
- Reinforced fiberglass one-piece and multi-piece showers. The direct descendant of the built-in units of the 1970s, now thicker, with a molded tile pattern and, in the accessible lines, a one-piece pan with no step. This is the category most accessible showers are built from, because the no-step pan and the walls are made to go together.
- Solid surface and stone composite. Half-inch or thicker panels of solid-surface material or minerals in resin, with the color and veining running through the full thickness. The premium panel category, priced above the three before it and below tile in most bathrooms, chosen for looks and for how a scratch behaves.
- Tile. Still the reference material in older Columbus housing and in new construction at the top of the market, and the tier above every panel system for a remodel. It fits any room, it is the only category that can be made to look like a pre-war bathroom, and it is the one whose waterproofing is invisible and therefore has to be asked about. Tile is covered on its own page.
Two of these five, acrylic and printed composite, account for most of the conversions sold in Columbus by volume, as far as what is advertised and stocked can show, because they are what the companies that sell conversions at volume install. That is an observation about what is sold, not a judgment about what is best; the comparison of the six systems on this site is where the trade-offs are laid out.
How this company's six packages map onto those categories
Every conversion priced on this site starts from one of six packages, and they were chosen to cover the categories above rather than to duplicate one of them. The Acrylic package is the first category, sold as a kit with its own sliding door. Trinity is the second, printed aluminum composite panels on a no-step pan, and so is Palisade, printed vinyl tiles glued straight over the wall that is already there, on the same no-step pan and at a lower price. Bestbath is the third, thick reinforced fiberglass with a molded subway-tile look on a one-piece no-step pan. Transolid solid surface and Castico stone composite are the fourth. Above all six sit the tile options and wet rooms.
On the home page the Bestbath package carries the most-popular label. Four of the six, Bestbath, Palisade, Trinity and Transolid, sit on a one-piece pan with no step, which is the feature most often asked for in this market once someone in the house has trouble stepping over a tub wall. The Estimate Builder prices any of the six for your own bathroom, and the Design Studio shows any of them in a photograph of your own room.
What people in Columbus actually ask for
By search interest, the questions asked here are about the project rather than the material: a tub-to-shower conversion, a walk-in shower, a walk-in shower for an older parent, and what those cost. Almost nobody searches for a wall material by name. That matches what happens in the house: the material is chosen late, after the decision to convert has been made and after somebody has seen the samples in their own light. The order most people decide in is whether to convert at all, whether the entrance needs to be step-free, then the material, then the color.
What this page does not say. It does not say what share of Columbus showers are acrylic, composite, fiberglass, solid surface or tile, because nobody measures that and a percentage here would be invented. It does not name any other company or say what any of them installs. And it does not say which package this company sells most, because that figure is not published; the most-popular label on the home page is the one statement on the record.
Common questions
What is the most common shower system in Columbus homes?
Among replacements, acrylic wall systems, followed by printed composite panels. That is an inference rather than a count, because nobody records which products get installed: it rests on what the highest-volume conversion installers in this market sell, what the big-box stores stock, and what most one-day installations are made of. Among existing showers it depends entirely on the decade the house was built, from tile on plaster in the pre-war neighborhoods to one-piece fiberglass units in the 1970s and 1980s housing.
What kind of tub and shower do most Columbus houses have?
It follows the decade. Pre-war houses in Clintonville, German Village, Bexley and the older parts of Upper Arlington and Westerville have a cast-iron tub in a five-foot alcove with tile on plaster. The 1950s and 1960s ranches have a steel or cast-iron tub with a shower over it in a small hall bath. From the 1970s on the tub and walls are usually one molded fiberglass unit. The 1990s and 2000s suburbs have a corner soaking tub beside a separate shower in the primary bathroom, and that corner tub is the fixture most often reported as unused.
Why are acrylic shower systems so common?
Because they are fast, stocked and inexpensive, and none of those is a bad reason. Acrylic sheets come in standard sizes that fit the common five-foot alcove, they go up in a day or two over the existing wall or a new backer, they have no grout to keep, and they cost less than any other category. The trade-off is that the color is solid rather than patterned, the sheet is thinner than solid surface or stone composite, and a stocked size only fits a stock bathroom, which is why an unusual room ends up in composite panels or tile instead.
Is a fiberglass shower the same thing as an acrylic one?
No, though both are plastics and both are sold groutless. A fiberglass unit is molded from resin and glass fiber with a colored gelcoat on the face, and the accessible lines are thick enough to carry a one-piece pan with no step. An acrylic system is a formed sheet of acrylic, usually with a fiberglass backing for stiffness, with the color all the way through the sheet. Fiberglass tends to be the material of built-in and accessible units; acrylic tends to be the material of glue-up wall kits. Both are cleaned the same way and both last well if the pan is properly supported.
Which of your six packages is labeled most popular?
Bestbath, on the home page. It is thick reinforced fiberglass with a molded subway-tile look on a one-piece pan with no step, and it is the third of the six on price, above the Acrylic kit and Palisade. Four of the six packages, Bestbath, Palisade, Trinity and Transolid, share that no-step entrance, which is the feature most often asked for once somebody in the house has trouble stepping over a tub wall. The label is the one statement on the record about popularity; this company does not publish which package it sells most.
Is tile still common in Columbus bathrooms?
Yes, at both ends of the market and rarely in the middle. It is the original material in nearly every pre-war and mid-century bathroom in the city, and it is the reference material in new construction at the top of the market. For a remodel it is the tier above every panel system, chosen for looks and for fitting an unusual room, and it is the one category whose waterproofing is behind the tile rather than being the tile, so it is the one to ask about before signing. A tiled shower can be priced on this site the same way a packaged one can.
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