In the end, it all comes down to personal choice. If your home is to be occupied by a young family, we recommend having at least one bath in the home. Being able to bath young children – or even wash the family dog! – are essential requirements for young families.
Having a bath may not affect the value of your house, although if space is available, it is a preferred feature to have and therefore, it could make selling harder. Baths are desired for a number of reasons, but particularly for families with young children.
A tub should not be mandatory but lack of a tub could be a functional obsolescence in some markets, say 55+ age communities. Like any other amenity, if you want a tub, buy the property that has a tub. If you can't find one in your market, be the first on your block to install a tub.
By not having a bath you are ruling out families with young children as buyers, couples who are planning children, or disabled people who may prefer baths to showers, etc.
Yes, a bathroom can still be considered a bathroom even if it does not have a bathtub. A bathroom typically includes a toilet and a sink, and may also have a shower. The key characteristic is that it is a space designated for personal hygiene activities.
If you live in a newly built area or the location attracts mostly younger buyers, the current market may favor showers over bathtubs. However, keep in mind the area may not always attract youthful homebuyers, and having a shower instead of a bathtub could bring down your property's value.
“We've seen a lot of folks wanting to make changes (to tubs and showers) for a lot of different reasons.” More than a quarter of homeowners (26%) are removing tubs during bathroom renovations, according to a 2023 Houzz bathroom trends study.
“Bathing cleans your skin, helping you avoid irritation, inflammation and sores caused by dead skin cell accumulation,” Dr. Zack explains. “It can also help you clear away the bacterial and fungal load from contact in your environment. As that accumulates, it increases your risk of infection.”
Of course, this percentage can fluctuate between 5-20% depending on the area you live in and the market, but generally, full baths are always in demand and with proper investment, you can look at a $40-50,000 increase to your home's value at least.
Many younger homeowners are opting for shower-only bathrooms, valuing the time and space savings over the option to soak in a tub. Additionally, the trend toward smaller, more urban homes with limited bathroom space means that showers often win out.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health.
“There absolutely has to be at least one bathtub in any condo or home. When you sell, you're also selling a lifestyle and having no tub will hinder a sale to most buyers,” she says. Research backs up the anecdotal evidence.
If you have young children, bathtubs can be indispensable. And a standard tub — versus a deeper soaking tub — will be more useful for washing the little ones. If you do decide to keep one bathtub for yourself or future buyers, you may want to look beyond your primary bathroom and consider a guest or hall bathroom.
Although not as popular among adults, bathtubs are still the most effective way to bathe young kids and pets. For young families, a bathtub is practically a necessity. Most children younger than 8 have a difficult time using a shower. In addition, baths are much more efficient when cleaning up multiple kids at once.
In larger properties with multiple bathrooms, the absence of a tub in just one of the rooms might not be as detrimental. But if you just have the one bathroom, which is the norm for many homes, removing the only bathtub could significantly diminish the home's appeal to certain buyers.
While there is no ideal frequency, experts suggest that showering several times per week is plenty for most people (unless you are grimy, sweaty, or have other reasons to shower more often). Short showers (lasting three or four minutes) with a focus on the armpits and groin may suffice.
Generally, she says "you should be showering, bathing or cleansing yourself every two to three days." Though, if you're working out or engaging in an activity where you are sweating a lot, you may have to shower more often. The biggest problem that may stem from not showering enough? The stink.
When you don't cleanse your skin daily, you risk clogging your pores with dirt, sweat, and oils. This can lead to various skin problems, including acne, pimples, and even skin infections. Proper daily washing helps remove these impurities, keeping your skin healthy and clear.
Ideally, you should have at least one bath (in the main bathroom) and change to a bathroom with shower in an ensuite. Even if you don't use the bath often, it is well worth keeping one to maximise the return potential on your house value when it comes to selling your home.
The short answer is, it depends. Understanding the potential buyer of your home is key. If your neighborhood attracts many young families, removing the tub could indeed lower your home's resale value. However, there are situations where this might not be a significant concern.
Without a bath, you'll be limiting your market when you come to sell your property. Regardless of the value of your home, if your property is ideal for families but it doesn't have a bath, it will almost certainly take longer to sell. And the longer your property is on the market, the less it will often sell for.
Increasingly, homeowners are getting rid of their tubs for lavish, high-end showers. Small spaces and homes owned by millennials and kid-free adults are particularly more apt to agree with the bathtub becoming obsolete. They simply ditch the tub.
Real estate professionals typically suggest that homeowners have at least one bathtub in the home for the highest resale value: a recent study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) found that over 50 percent of home buyers prefer a master bath with a bathtub and a shower as opposed to just a shower stall.
A bathtub curve visually represents the failure rate of one or more assets by plotting their failure occurrences over time. The name bathtub comes from the curve resembling a bathtub's longitudinal section.