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I do not have any info for that but
this has been a lifesaver for my wife and I. Steps have become a challenge.
20250702_063429.jpg
They come in a bunch of sizes for inside and outside. Ours is 12 feet long.
Strong and stable.
Purchased from Amazon.
 
Jeepnik said:
Conditions have reached a point with both my wife and myself that we need to install a walk in tub/shower.

So has anyone installed one and what can you tell me about them. All brand recommendations welcome.
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It's a question of resale value. So in a two bath home leave the tub alone and install a zero entry shower for the Old and feeble. Better than a walk in tub that will fail to seal within ten years. More than my opinion.
 
I put one in for my 87 year old Mother last Fall. A good brand that was several years old (door swings in) and removed from a house when the new younger buyer redid the bathroom. My parents live in a 1947 farmhouse with a bathroom the size of a small closet. I put it in the bedroom/den next to the bathroom and plumbed it through the closet floor in that room next to the sewer stack. This lined up well with the rest of the plumbing. It works well for her and it can be removed with virtually no remaining signs that it was ever there. While it was several years old, it looks identical to the new units costing $2,000+. I paid $200 for it.
 
Regarding the ramp, building one now.

The inward swinging door seems like a no brainer but I hadn't thought of that. Also, I could just imagine if an outward swinging door had a catastrophic failure. Don't know how much water they hold but probably at least thirty or forty gallons That would be a heck of a mess.

As to resale value, not a consideration. We intend to leave, her in a box and me in an urn. If it decreased the kids inheritance, oh well.

Keep the advice coming guys.
 
I am considering getting my bathroom done at my condo. My neighbor had hers redone by Jacuzzi, and I was pretty impressed with it, and she's still very happy with it after a couple of years now. It's a shower, not a tub, and they used a sliding glass door (there are other options available). The walk in height, I think, was only 3 inches. It has an integrated seat and all the grab rails we tailored to her height so that she doesn't have to awkwardly reach for support.
 
Good point about the door.... I've been thinking once we finish this major renovation to the master bedroom with a pantry laundry room off the kitchen and restoring the yard and side lot, the bathroom might be the next project on my wife's list. (but probably even after solar panels go on the roof.....
 
We went to a seminar on a "walk-in" tub. There was a mailer, said, come for a free dinner while we talk about our tub. Guy was from Missouri, no pressure, pointed out quality similarities and differences. Made it a point to say they are way cheaper than the competition. We are doing a 3" step shower, so we had to pass on the purchase.
 
Don't know about brands, but a bit of advice: My main residence is 128 years old. I have found that during any decent sized renovations there are added problems to fix. Before any such installation, depending on the age of your house, have a pro inspect the supporting structure for any support or pre-existing problems with dampness. JMHO.
 
I vote for a shower with a seat. But, then I am not female and females seem to have an affinity for bathtubs....
 
We have a walk-in shower. Designed it and had it built into our house when we had the house built 18 years ago. It is an oversized shower (dimensionally). The shower head is on the same wall as the walk-in doorway and directs water towards a ceiling-tall ceramic tile wall directly opposite the walk-in "doorway." There is no door.

The plusses are (1) there is no door, and thus no soap film to clean. There is just a 4" tall threshold for stepping into/out of the shower stall. (2) The entire shower is encased, floor to ceiling, in ceramic tiles (20" squares) which are very easy to keep clean (no soap film). (3) This design also ensures zero water is splattered onto our bathroom floor.

Our design started with the builder's "standard dimension" walk-in shower (that included a shower door). The ceiling height in this shower and the master bathroom is 11'. Then we expanded the shower walls by 1 1/2' in both dimensions (now 4'x 7'). So, three of the shower walls are complete floor-to-ceiling height. The wall opposite the walk-in door has an 8"x30" window about 9 feet above the shower floor - that wall is on the north side of our house, so ambient light is indirect. The fourth (showerhead) wall is constructed similar to the other three but has the doorway.

This design provides us plenty of room for whatever we want. The only thing we might have changed would be to add a bench on the wall opposite the showerhead. But otherwise, it's perfect. Kudos to my bride: she imagined/designed this shower. Our builder liked it so much he offered it as an optional feature for his other floorplans.

This is great for us (both now in our late 70s).

We have a walk-in shower in one of the other bedrooms. But it is a "standard dimension" (3'x4') shower with a glass door/wall. And it requires the usual amount of periodic scrubbing.

We started with a standard builder floorplan on a 1/3-acre corner lot. Then we expanded the exterior walls to give more space in the great room, the master bedroom and its two walk-in closets and the laundry room, and installed hardwood floors everywhere except the ceramic-tiled bathroom floors. We raised the ceilings in all common areas and the master bedroom to 12" while the other bedrooms and study have 10' ceilings. And - my demand - we expanded the attached tandem (3-car) garage walls to increase the square footage to that of a 4-car garage. In this expanded garage I installed a wall of built-in storage closets, two rolling tool chests and a refrigerator. The entire garage is painted/textured drywall, and the garage floors are epoxy coated. We park our cars on 2X3' rugs to prevent tire weight from destroying that epoxy coating.

This is the 5th house we've had built and incorporated all of the design elements/dimensions lacking in our previous builds. This one - a 3,000 sf one story - with 3-bedrooms (each with an ensuite bathroom), a large kitchen with floor-to-ceiling built-in cabinets and a 3'x8' island, an attached 800 sf tandem garage, a 12'x12' study, a 12'x14' formal dining room, a 4th bathroom adjacent to the laundry room and garage door, and two 12'x14' covered patios - is (hopefully) our final house.
 
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Back when we had the Mountain house in N.C. I built an outside bathroom on the rear deck looking out and up the side of the mountain... sink shower and toilet were all exposed to the great out doors.... depended on the time of year as to how much of an adventure it was... in the summer no big deal but as the Fall progressed and the leaves fell off the trees you had to be aware of anyone walking or driving the communities' private road 75 yards up the mountain.... best you could do while washing or sitting was just wave....
 
Well I'll give you a bit of unsolicited experience. You can't push a wheelchair into a walk in tub. But you will have no trouble with a wheelchair into a zero entry shower as long as you have a 32 inch bathroom door and runway to the shower. Just food for thought. If you are prepared for the worst you can only be pleasantly surprised. Not to mention that a zero entry shower with 32 inch runway will add to the value of your home, while a walk in tub may subtract from the value of your home dependent on its age. 🤔 This is experience talking, listen and learn or take your chances. 🤧
 
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My Mother's unit is a tub with a hand shower accessory. It can also be mounted up on a pole that effectively turns it into a shower. Something to be aware of, walk in tubs hold a lot of water weight. If installing one, you need to note where you are placing it and be certain that the floor can support this weight.
 
M118LR said:
Well I'll give you a bit of unsolicited experience. You can't push a wheelchair into a walk in tub. But you will have no trouble with a wheelchair into a zero entry shower as long as you have a 32 inch bathroom door and runway to the shower. Just food for thought. If you are prepared for the worst you can only be pleasantly surprised. Not to mention that a zero entry shower with 32 inch runway will add to the value of your home, while a walk in tub may subtract from the value of your home dependent on its age. 🤔 This is experience talking, listen and learn or take your chances. 🤧
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Can't argue that. My daughter hates her tub. (and it's a project I am not looking forward to at all)
 
GA has made noises pertaining to a 'walk in tub' to which I answered, "NOT JUST NO BUT HELL NO". The space required for a walk in tub would require a complete demo/rebuild of the bathroom plus forfeiting both a linen closet next to the original bathroom and entire clothes closet from one bedroom. A shower with seat is a possible alternative. We have a shower stall in the basement but it's "not big enough" for her 'needs'. I offered to upgrade the shower stall to one of the bigger stalls with a seat but even that wasn't suitable so at this point, she will continue to clamber in/out of the old tub.
Yeah, I know I'm an obstinate old buzzard but I figure if it's good enough for me--it's good enough for SHE. :whistle:
 
When we bought our home 21 years ago, the master bathroom had both a whirlpool tub and a separate shower. The tub was old, cruddy and gigantic and beyond the capability of the 50 gallon hot water heater. We replaced the tub with a new Jacuzzi which I used a few times when it was first installed. Oddly, my wife had never once used this nice tub but some of my grandkids have loved it. The shower is not zero entry, but it takes only lifting your foot a few inches to step in. It works perfectly fine and has a seat inside which has come in really handy after some of my surgeries. We looked into updating this shower but got turned off at the bids, which ranged from $8 to $10K.
 
I put in a walk-in tub, about 9 months ago. Because: I have benign vertigo. As a nurse, I have had many seniors in the hospital with fractured ribs, pneumonia etc from falling while getting in and out of normal tubs/showers. I went with INDEPENDENT HOMES. They tailored what I wanted/needed with my budget in mind. They quoted from 12k up to 60k. I got the basic version. The workman arrived on time at 0800, and were through by 1500. I am thoroughly pleased with it. It has a shower head and hose to wash down my undercarriage or the dog. One day vertigo came upon me and I hit the outside “wall”, and I bounced to the inside wall, I lowered my center of gravity, and lo and behold, I was sitting on the seat. YESSS!!! That is exactly why I bought this unit.
gramps
 
Jeepnik said:
Regarding the ramp, building one now.

The inward swinging door seems like a no brainer but I hadn't thought of that. Also, I could just imagine if an outward swinging door had a catastrophic failure. Don't know how much water they hold but probably at least thirty or forty gallons That would be a heck of a mess.

As to resale value, not a consideration. We intend to leave, her in a box and me in an urn. If it decreased the kids inheritance, oh well.

Keep the advice coming guys.
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My sister got scammed on one. Paid $15 k against my advice. They did absolutely zero finish work. I ended up mating and grouting floor tile where they removed for install, repairing and finishing drywall on walls and ceiling. And had to paint and install new base.
The option someone said about a walk in shower replacement with low or no threshold is better and cheaper. Use a shower chair or bench and it will have better resale value even if it doesn’t matter to you. It will save you money.
IF you go with the tub option make sure you get a 100% finished product IN WRITING and hold final payment till you’re satisfied.
 
Mobuck said:
GA has made noises pertaining to a 'walk in tub' to which I answered, "NOT JUST NO BUT HELL NO". The space required for a walk in tub would require a complete demo/rebuild of the bathroom plus forfeiting both a linen closet next to the original bathroom and entire clothes closet from one bedroom. A shower with seat is a possible alternative. We have a shower stall in the basement but it's "not big enough" for her 'needs'. I offered to upgrade the shower stall to one of the bigger stalls with a seat but even that wasn't suitable so at this point, she will continue to clamber in/out of the old tub.
Yeah, I know I'm an obstinate old buzzard but I figure if it's good enough for me--it's good enough for SHE. :whistle:
Click to expand...
Until she falls and isn't able to every take another shower. Folks die in bathroom falls. I've had at least four so far and fortunately other than bruises no serious injury. I kind of want to keep my wife around a while.
 
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