Walk-in and curbless showers in Columbus, Ohio
A walk-in shower is one you step into rather than climb into. A curbless shower goes further — there is no step at all, because the shower floor and the bathroom floor sit at the same level, so a walker or a wheelchair rolls straight in. We build both across Columbus and the Central Ohio suburbs around it, whether the thing coming out is a bathtub or a shower that is already there, and most of that work takes 1–2 days on site. You build your own price online before anyone visits, and the written proposal that follows is a guaranteed price: what can move it afterward is only what nobody can see until the wall is open — damaged joists or studs, a waste stack that has to be moved, asbestos or mold.
Last updated August 2026 · The price for your bathroom comes from our Estimate Builder, which is the tool we quote from.
A walk-in shower in place of a tub starts at $7,499, installed. Each of the six wall systems has its own published starting price, and our Estimate Builder prices the pan you pick — a low step, or no step at all — before you talk to anyone.
Nobody has to sit in your living room for two hours before you find out what this costs. Build the shower you want, send it to us with photos, and within 24 hours you have a written proposal — the next business day for a weekend request. That price is guaranteed as long as the photos show the whole bathroom and nothing that could add work was left out.
What is under and behind the tub or shower is already in your price. All the wall backing comes out and all the plumbing behind the shower is replaced as part of the job, so soft drywall and failed backing in there are material we were replacing anyway — and if the subfloor directly under the tub or shower we remove is damaged, we replace it, however much of it there is, at no additional charge and without a change order. That is a term of the agreement you sign, not a favor on the day. What can move a guaranteed price is the uncommon end: structural damage — floor joists, damaged studs, anything holding the house up; a waste stack or main line that has to be moved; and asbestos, lead or mold that needs licensed abatement. If we find one of those with the wall open, we stop, show you photographs of what is there and what it costs, and you approve it in writing before we do the work. There is no hourly meter and no invoice for anything you did not sign off on.
Through September 30, 2026, a deposit also brings four extras: place it by that date and the grab bar pair, the fold-down shower seat, the Moen Magnetix hand sprayer and the 3-setting diverter valve are included on any package at no extra cost — normally priced options, fitted and installed with the rest of the work.
How a curbless shower floor is actually built
Whether your bathroom can be curbless is decided under the floor rather than in a showroom, and this is the part most people are told to simply trust. It is also where a shower either holds water for thirty years or does not. A shower with no step is held to exactly the same slope requirement as any other — roughly a quarter to a half inch of fall per foot toward the drain. A curb is not what keeps water in a shower; the pitch and the waterproofing are. So when the curb goes away that fall still has to come from somewhere, and the answer is that the subfloor gets recessed and the whole assembly is set down into it. You cannot see any of it afterward, which is exactly why it is worth asking about beforehand. What that floor is made of by the decade the house went up, and what the code and the tile trade ask of it, is on the floors and subfloors page.
It is also why a linear drain along one wall is worth talking about on a no-step build: a single trench lets the whole floor pitch in one direction instead of four planes running to a center point — fewer cuts, and a flatter surface under a walker or a wheelchair. Which arrangement suits your bathroom is a walkthrough question rather than a box to tick online.
Three ways in, from a short step to no step at all
They differ in how much work happens under the floor, not in how good the finished shower is.
- A one-piece molded pan with no step. A beveled front instead of an edge, so you walk or roll straight in, and the pan arrives as a single waterproof piece — the most forgiving of the three to install.
- A hand-built tile floor, laid level. Sloped and waterproofed underneath, flush with the bathroom floor. The most flexible in size and shape, and the most work.
- A low pan with a real but short edge. The honest middle option, and the right one where nobody in the house has a mobility reason to go curbless — the stone composite pan sits just over an inch tall, with slip resistance molded in.
If the reason you are reading this is mobility — yours or a parent's — our accessible and aging-in-place bathroom page covers the rest of the room: grab bars anchored into the framing, the fold-down seat, and what is worth deciding before anything is opened up.
The six wall systems we build
All six are groutless — no grout line to seal, scrub or re-grout, and the panel seams are the only joints in the room.
What each system is
| System | The walls, and whether the door is in the box |
|---|---|
| Acrylic | Glossy acrylic panels made as one kit, with a semi-frameless sliding glass door included rather than an upgrade. |
| Bestbath | Reinforced fiberglass panels that screw straight to the studs, with no backer board behind them. Glass door is an upgrade over the curtain and rod. |
| Palisade glue-up tile | Vinyl wall tiles in a stone-look pattern, glued straight over the existing wall and finished with matching J-channel trim, in eleven colorways. Glass door is an upgrade over the curtain and rod. |
| Trinity stone-look | A stone look printed at high resolution on slim groutless panels and mirrored down the middle, so the veining runs book-matched across the wall. Thirteen colorways; glass door is an upgrade. |
| Transolid solid-surface | Solid-surface panels with the color running all the way through, across three lines and eighteen colorways. Glass door is an upgrade. |
| Castico solid composite stone | Half-inch panels of real stone composite — minerals and resin, no plastic — with the pattern running through the material. Door, recessed niche and matching drain all in the kit. |
Which of them have no step: Bestbath, Palisade, Trinity and Transolid sit on the same one-piece pan with nothing to climb over; the acrylic kit and Castico use a low pan with a short edge. Above all six we hand-build custom tile showers and custom tile wet rooms, where the whole bathroom is one open shower.
What is in the price rather than added to it
Demolition and haul-away, and the old tub or shower leaves in our truck rather than sitting on your curb. Taped rigid floor protection, a zippered dust-barrier wall at the bathroom door, HEPA air scrubbers during demolition and tile work, and at least two full professional cleanings before we hand the room back. A Delta scald-safe valve and a shower head in every package.
On a tub-to-shower conversion, grab bars, a fold-down seat, a hand sprayer on a magnetic dock and a diverter are priced options you can add, each one shown at its own price before anyone visits. None of it has to look clinical — the grab bars come in the same finishes as the rest of the fittings. Through September 30, 2026, a deposit placed by that date includes all four — the grab bars, the seat, the sprayer and the diverter — on any package at no extra cost.
Replacing a shower that is already a shower
Plenty of the walk-in showers we build are not conversions at all: a tired fiberglass surround from the eighties, a leaking pan, a tiled shower whose grout has lost the argument. The packages, the pan choices and the 1–2 days on site are the same, and it is often the easier job, because the drain and the valve are already where a shower wants them. One honest note about the online tool: the Estimate Builder offers two project types, a conversion and a full remodel, so a straight shower replacement is not its own button — build the shower you want, say so in the notes, and we will price the actual job. If a tub is what is coming out, the tub-to-shower conversion page covers that side.
Getting your price without a home visit
Pick your shower in the Design Studio, add one photo of your bathroom, and see it rebuilt with the package you picked; then see the price of that exact shower; then send it to us for a written proposal. Each step works on its own, the Estimate Builder asks for no phone number, and nobody calls unless you ask. A free in-home consultation is available instead, or as well — and on a no-step build it earns its keep.
The guarantee that comes with it
Every bathroom we build carries a lifetime leak-free guarantee: if the pan or the walls we install ever leak, we fix it, for as long as the original buyer owns the home. Workmanship carries five years, and so do finish and adjustment items — caulk, grout shrinkage, paint touch-up, hardware adjustment. The products themselves carry their own makers' coverage. Read what the guarantee covers, in plain English.
Where we work, and when you can reach us
We are based in Westerville and work across Columbus and the suburbs around it, in Franklin, Delaware, Licking and Fairfield counties — Worthington, Dublin, Powell, New Albany, Gahanna, Upper Arlington, Hilliard, Grove City, Lewis Center, Pickerington, Delaware and Newark among them. If your street is not on that list, call and ask.
To reach a person we are here Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 4:30, and Saturday by appointment only. The website itself never closes: you can photograph a bathroom at eleven at night, see that shower in your own room, build a real installed price and send it, without waiting for a callback to find out what anything costs.
Common questions
What is the difference between a walk-in shower and a curbless shower?
A walk-in shower is any shower you step into rather than climb into, which includes one with a low edge at the front. A curbless shower has no step at all: the shower floor and the bathroom floor sit at the same level, so a walker or a wheelchair can roll straight in. Every shower we build is walk-in. Whether yours can be curbless depends on which pan you choose and on what the floor underneath will allow, which is a walkthrough question rather than a box to tick online.
Will a curbless shower flood my bathroom?
No, and the reason is slope rather than the curb. A shower with no step is built to the same fall as any other shower floor, roughly a quarter to a half inch per foot toward the drain, and that fall is made by recessing the subfloor so the whole assembly sits down into it. The curb was never the thing keeping the water in — the pitch and the waterproofing are, and both are still there.
Can you build a curbless shower in a house on a concrete slab?
Sometimes, and it is the first thing we look at, because a slab has no joist bay to recess into. The room for the recess has to come out of the concrete itself, and whether that makes sense in your house depends on what is in the slab and where the drain already runs. Where it does not, a one-piece pan with a beveled front gets you a very low entry with no excavation at all. We will tell you which one your house is before you commit to anything.
How long does a walk-in shower take to install?
Most take 1–2 days on site, and that is the number people actually care about, because it is how long the bathroom is out of use. How soon we start is a separate figure: about 4–6 weeks after you approve your proposal. The proposal itself carries a projected schedule, so you know both numbers before anything is torn out.
Do you install Bestbath showers in Columbus?
Yes. Bestbath is one of the six shower packages we build, and its one-piece pan with a beveled front and no step is also what sits under three of the others. The wall panels screw straight to the studs with no backer board behind them, which is fewer layers than a tiled wall and fewer things to go wrong later. The pan carries Bestbath's own 30-year limited coverage, which is separate from our guarantee on the work.
Can you replace a shower I already have instead of a tub?
Yes, and it is a large share of what we do. The six packages, the pan choices and the 1–2 days on site are the same whether the thing coming out is a bathtub or a tired fiberglass shower, and it is often the easier job because the drain and the valve are already where a shower wants them. The one difference is online: the Estimate Builder offers two project types, a tub-to-shower conversion and a full remodel, so for a straight shower replacement build the shower you want, say so in the notes when you send it, and we will price the actual job.
See your actual price in about two minutes
Pick your shower, choose real products with real model numbers, and watch the number move. No phone number required, and nobody will call unless you ask.