The five-by-eight bathroom, and how a walk-in shower fits in it
Five feet by seven or eight is the hall bathroom in most houses built in Central Ohio between the 1950s and the 1990s, and it is the room people most often assume is too small for a walk-in shower. It is the room that converts most predictably. This page says what changes, what stays, and where the decisions actually are.
Last updated September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base
The room most of Central Ohio has
Five feet by seven or eight feet is the hall bathroom in most houses built here between the 1950s and the 1990s: a tub across the far end filling the full five-foot width, the toilet and a vanity along one long wall, and the door on the other long wall or at the end. It was drawn that way because a standard tub is five feet long and thirty inches wide, and the room was drawn around the tub. That is also why it converts so predictably. The alcove that held the tub is exactly the size a walk-in shower wants, and the drain is already at one end of it. The toilet's own rules, the rough-in and the clearances the code sets around it, are on the toilets page; how many bathrooms these houses had when they were built is on the bathrooms by decade page.
What changes when the tub goes
Less than people expect in the plumbing and more than they expect in the room. The shower goes into the same five-foot alcove, on a pan the same length and a little wider than the tub was, and in most of these rooms the drain stays where it is, which is the single biggest reason a conversion here is a one-to-two-day job rather than a remodel. The valve usually stays in the same wall too, though this is the moment to put it where a person can reach in and turn the water on without standing under it.
The room, meanwhile, changes more than any other room does for the same work. A tub is a large object with a wall in front of it that is about fifteen inches high; a walk-in shower on a low pan, or on no step at all, opens the floor in front of the alcove to the eye. The bathroom does not get any bigger and reads as if it had.
The decisions that matter in a small room
The door, or the curtain
In five feet of width there is no room for a shower door that swings out across the toilet, so the choice in this room is a sliding door across the opening, or a curtain and rod. Two of the six wall systems include their own sliding glass door; on the other four the standard is a curtain and rod, and glass is a priced upgrade. A curtain is the honest answer for a household that needs the opening as wide as possible for a walker or for help getting in. The doors and glass page goes through the trade in full.
Step, low step, or no step
Four of the six packages sit on a one-piece pan with no step at all, and in a small room that is worth more than in a large one, because there is nowhere to stand still and steady yourself before crossing a curb. Whether the entrance can be genuinely level with the bathroom floor is decided by what is under the floor rather than by the size of the room, and the curbless page explains why a slab and an upstairs floor give different answers.
The toilet does not move
In a room this size the toilet sits where the drain for it is, and moving it means opening the floor, which is a different project. Building codes commonly want about fifteen inches from the center of a toilet to the nearest wall or fixture and a clear space of about twenty-one inches in front of it, and the room was drawn to those numbers. Converting the tub does not change them, but a shower door that swings, or a shelf that projects, can quietly break them, which is why the door is chosen with the toilet in mind.
The vanity and the mirror
A conversion is also the moment a small bathroom's vanity gets reconsidered, because the wall it sits on is the wall the work happens beside. A narrower vanity with a deeper drawer often does more for a five-foot room than a wider one with a door, and a mirror that runs the full width of the vanity does more for the room than anything else on this page. Neither is part of a conversion, and both are easy to price alongside one.
Storage, the fan, and the light
Three things are decided while the walls are open and are miserable to add later: where the bottles go, whether the exhaust fan is big enough and ducted outdoors, and whether there is a light in or over the shower. The storage page and the ventilation page take those in turn. A small bathroom with a good fan and a light over the shower reads as a larger, cleaner room than a bigger one without them.
What a small bathroom cannot do
It cannot hold a shower and a tub. If the room needs to keep a tub, because it is the only one in the house or because a young child bathes in it, the tub stays and the conversation is about replacing it rather than converting it; the resale page and the refinish-or-replace page are the two to read. It also cannot take a full wet room without structural work, because a room this small on a wood-framed floor has nowhere to fall to a drain. A curbless shower on a one-piece pan is the accessible answer that fits.
The five-by-eight rule of thumb. Keep the drain, keep the toilet, keep the wall the valve is in, put the shower in the alcove, slide the door or hang a curtain, and spend the decisions on the step, the storage and the fan. That is the conversion that takes one to two days, and it is the one the Estimate Builder prices in about two minutes.
Common questions
Can a five-by-eight bathroom have a walk-in shower?
Yes, and it is the room that converts most predictably, because it was drawn around a five-foot tub and the alcove that held the tub is exactly the size a walk-in shower wants. The shower goes into the same alcove on a pan the same length and a little wider, the drain usually stays where it is, and the toilet and the vanity do not move. That is why a conversion here is a one-to-two-day job rather than a remodel.
Does removing the tub make a small bathroom feel bigger?
It reads bigger without getting bigger. A tub is a large object with a wall in front of it about fifteen inches high, and a walk-in shower on a low pan, or on no step at all, opens the floor in front of the alcove to the eye. Of all the rooms a conversion is done in, the small hall bathroom changes the most for the same work, and a full-width mirror over the vanity and a light over the shower add to the effect more than anything else does.
Should a shower in a small bathroom have a door or a curtain?
A sliding door or a curtain, never a door that swings out, because in five feet of width there is no room for it to swing across the toilet. Two of the six wall systems include their own sliding glass door; on the other four the standard is a curtain and rod and glass is a priced upgrade. A curtain is the honest answer when the opening needs to be as wide as possible for a walker or for someone who helps another person in.
Can the shower in a small bathroom be curbless?
Often, and in a small room a no-step entrance is worth more than in a large one, because there is nowhere to stand and steady yourself before crossing a curb. Four of the six packages sit on a one-piece pan with no step at all. Whether the entrance can be truly level with the bathroom floor depends on what is under the floor rather than on the size of the room: a slab and an upstairs wood-framed floor give different answers, and that is settled at the consultation.
How big is the shower after a tub-to-shower conversion in a small bathroom?
The same length as the tub was, five feet, and a little wider, because a shower pan does not need the tub wall and the standard kit sizes run thirty to thirty-two inches deep. The whole alcove becomes shower. What decides how the room feels is not the pan but the door and the step: a sliding door or a curtain across the opening, and a low step or none at all.
What else gets decided when a small bathroom is converted?
Three things that are easy while the walls are open and miserable afterward: where the bottles go, whether the exhaust fan is big enough and ducted outdoors, and whether there is a light over the shower. The valve position is also settled then, so a person can reach in and turn the water on without standing under it. The vanity and the mirror are not part of a conversion, but they sit on the wall the work happens beside, so it is the natural time to price them alongside.
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