Why resale value still matters
Even if you're renovating purely for your own enjoyment, it's worth knowing that many buyers, particularly families with young children, still expect at least one bath somewhere in the house. If your property only has one bathroom, replacing the bath entirely with a shower can narrow your buyer pool when you come to sell.
If you have a second bathroom or en-suite elsewhere in the house, this concern largely disappears, and you're free to prioritise a shower purely on how you use the space day to day.
How your household actually uses the room
Be honest about your real routine rather than an aspirational one. If nobody in the house has had a proper bath in the last six months, that's a strong signal a larger shower would serve you better. Conversely, if you have young children who still need bathing, or you value a long soak as part of your routine, losing the bath entirely can be a genuine loss of quality of life.
Couples and adult households often shift entirely to showers once children have grown, which is when many small bathrooms get re-planned around a single generous shower instead.
The shower bath compromise
A shower bath, a bath with a wider end for standing, is the classic middle ground in a small room. It keeps full bathing capability while giving a genuinely usable shower area, and it needs no more floor space than a standard bath. The trade-off is that the shower area is still narrower than a dedicated enclosure, and shower bath screens need careful sealing to stop water escaping at the sides.
We fit shower baths regularly in bathrooms under 4m² where the household wants both functions without extending the room or removing storage.
1500mm and 1700mm baths: the realistic difference
A 1700mm bath is the standard full-size option and gives proper legroom for most adults, but in a small room it can dominate the space and leave little room either side for a vanity unit or storage. A 1500mm bath saves around 200mm in length, which sounds small but is often the difference between fitting a basin unit comfortably or not.
The compromise is legroom: a 1500mm bath suits shorter adults and children well but can feel cramped for taller users. If floor space is genuinely tight, measure the full room layout with furniture in place before committing, rather than judging the bath in isolation.
What you gain by removing the bath
Taking the bath out entirely and fitting a shower enclosure or wet-room style shower usually gains you 300-500mm of usable floor width, depending on the room shape, which is often enough to fit a larger vanity, better storage, or simply make the room feel less cramped. It also tends to suit smaller households and can make a bathroom easier to clean and maintain.
The main downside beyond resale value is that some buyers and family members genuinely want a bath, so this decision is worth discussing with everyone who'll use the room, not just whoever is planning the renovation.
Getting the decision right before you commit
Because this decision affects pipework, waste positions and often the whole layout, it's far cheaper to settle on it before work starts than to change your mind partway through. During our free design and quote home visit, we'll measure the room, talk through how you actually use it, and lay out a couple of options so you can see the real trade-offs before signing anything.