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The tile project will be more costly, but will add value to the house. The modular plastic/fibreglass systems tend to look cheap. Unless cost is the major factor, I'd go with tile every time.
First, it should not take 4-7 days (3 days top) if you're using a contractor. Tile will be better for resale; however, I think Acrylic/fiberglass is easier to clean!
Side note........ Do you have another tub in the home? Again for resale.....buyers like a bathtub, especially if they have children.
Wow I'm thinking the people we had out here doing estimates were trying to rip us off . They wrote us an estimate for ten thousand for something like that picture shows with the brown tile on top and the small tile floor on bottom of shower. Good to know we told them No ....
And when we redid our bath we used a cultured onyx product. The onyx is a little translucent and the white and black swirls give it depth. Much nicer than cultured marble. It's also prefabricated in sheets, so there are two seams. Much less caulking to pull and replace every couple of years, and pretty much watertight. Being in earthquake country, I prefer a solid piece to tile and the grout, which seems to get little cracks with every earth movement.
I just finished a tub-to-shower renovation. The materials came to just over $1500 (acrylic base, cement board, tile, mortar & grout, glass door, plumbing and fixtures). This was a mid-level quality job with most of the material from HD. You can easily spend a lot more. For example, my tile was $1.50/sf. It's not hard to find tile for 10 times as much.
As a very general rule of thumb, labor is 3-4 times the material cost, so you could be looking at $4500-6000.
The tile project will be more costly, but will add value to the house. The modular plastic/fibreglass systems tend to look cheap. Unless cost is the major factor, I'd go with tile every time.
This is important, unless you really don't care and/or you do not expect to move in the next decade or so.
One thing I would mention that might be pertinent to your situation: we had a new tile shower put in to replace a builder grade fiberglass unit. We adore our new shower. But--in the winter it is much colder, even with extra insulation added to one of the walls. If you are in a cold climate, the tile shower will colder than what you are used to in the winter.
However, I am not sure that a new acrylic shower would be necessarily warmer.
Another thing to note is how hard will it be to tie in the new shower with the other things in the bath. Once you start thinking along that line, it is awfully easy to add in new things to the other parts of the bath.
This is important, unless you really don't care and/or you do not expect to move in the next decade or so.
One thing I would mention that might be pertinent to your situation: we had a new tile shower put in to replace a builder grade fiberglass unit. We adore our new shower. But--in the winter it is much colder, even with extra insulation added to one of the walls. If you are in a cold climate, the tile shower will colder than what you are used to in the winter.
However, I am not sure that a new acrylic shower would be necessarily warmer.
Another thing to note is how hard will it be to tie in the new shower with the other things in the bath. Once you start thinking along that line, it is awfully easy to add in new things to the other parts of the bath.
Ask me how I know this!
Oh yeah...the new shower makes the old vanity look out of place...and we can't match the old tiles, so the floor needs to be redone....and well...the old toilet has to come up anyway....and since the new shower is colder wouldn't a towel warmer be a good idea?
Been there done that...
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