Tub-to-Shower Conversion in Sun City, AZ
Converting an original tub-shower combination into a proper walk-in shower for Sun City homeowners — same footprint, far easier to use.
Quick answer: Infinity Kitchens and Baths converts tubs to walk-in showers throughout Sun City, AZ. The usual job replaces a builder tub-shower combination inside the existing alcove, which keeps plumbing moves small. We reframe the alcove, set a new pan, waterproof, add blocking for grab bars, and tile.
Part of our tub-to-shower conversion work — see every service and city on the West Valley hub.
The conversion Sun City homes were waiting for
Almost every original bathroom in these communities has the same alcove: a five-foot tub with a shower head over it, tiled or surrounded to about six feet, with the plumbing at one end. It is the single most convertible fixture in American housing, and in a community where the median resident is well past the age of climbing into a bath, it is also the single most useful thing to change.
Because the alcove is a fixed opening with the supply and waste already at one end, the conversion stays small. The drain is reset for a shower pan, the walls come back to framing so blocking can go in, the assembly is waterproofed, and it is tiled. Nothing structural moves and no wall comes out.
That is why this is the conversion we recommend first to almost everyone here. It buys the largest change in daily usability per dollar of any accessibility work available in these houses.
The resale question is genuinely different in a 55+ community
The standard warning — never remove your only bathtub, it hurts resale — is written for family housing. It transfers badly to an age-restricted community, where the next buyer is by definition also over fifty-five and is very often looking for exactly the shower you just built.
We are not going to tell you it makes no difference. If your home has one bathroom and one tub, removing it narrows your buyer pool slightly, and you should know that before you commit rather than at listing. But in these communities a well-built walk-in shower reads as a completed upgrade rather than a missing fixture, and a dated tub-shower combination reads as a project the buyer has to take on.
Where a home has two bathrooms we will usually suggest converting the one that gets used daily and leaving the second alone. That keeps both options in the house and costs you nothing in flexibility.
Living in the house while the only bathroom is out
In a two-bathroom home this is a non-issue. In a single-bathroom home — and plenty here are — it is the thing that decides whether the project is tolerable.
We sequence single-bathroom conversions tightly for exactly this reason: demolition, rough-in and inspection compressed into the front of the schedule, with the toilet back in service at the end of most days rather than at the end of the job. Where it cannot be, we say so in advance and in writing, so you can arrange to stay with family for the specific nights involved rather than discovering it mid-week.
What we will not do is start a single-bathroom conversion without the materials on site. Waiting on a back-ordered pan with your only bathroom in pieces is the worst version of this project, and it is entirely avoidable by ordering first and starting second.
Permits for this work in Sun City
This is the detail most contractors get wrong. Sun City is not a city — it is an unincorporated community, so there is no municipal building department. Residential permits are issued by Maricopa County Planning & Development through the county Permit Center, reachable on 602-506-3301. Separately, the Sun City Fire and Medical District issues permits and inspects for fire and life safety within the district.
Accessibility work touches plumbing and often framing, so it is squarely the kind of job that gets reviewed. Moving a drain, recessing a floor for a curbless entry, or widening a doorway all change things an inspector cares about. We pull the permit and meet the inspector ourselves.
Sun City opened on 1 January 1960 as Del Webb's first large-scale active adult community, and property here carries membership in Recreation Centers of Sun City. Check RCSC's current requirements and your own deed restrictions before work begins — anything affecting the exterior is the usual trigger, and an interior kitchen or bathroom remodel normally is not, but confirming costs nothing and assuming can cost weeks. See Recreation Centers of Sun City (RCSC).
Maricopa County Planning & Development publishes the current requirements.
The Sun City homes this work happens in
Sun City's homes were built between 1960 and the late 1970s, which makes the oldest of them well over sixty years old.
That single fact drives everything we do here. Original bathrooms in Sun City were built to 1960s expectations: a tub-shower combination as the only bathing option, a 30-inch vanity at a height that suited a thirty-year-old, doorways cut narrow, and no blocking in the walls for anything to be mounted to later. Kitchens carry the same signature — shallow wall cabinets, deep unlit base cabinets you have to kneel to reach into, and a single ceiling fixture. None of that is a defect. It is simply a house designed for a different stage of life than the one its owner is now in, which is why so much of our Sun City work is accessibility work wearing a remodel's clothes.
Scheduling tub-to-shower conversion work in Sun City
Sun City is a northern run for us, scheduled alongside Sun City West and Surprise. The free consultation comes to you — we measure in your home and quote from those measurements, not from a phone call.
We group work by area so crews are on site in continuous stretches rather than appearing for a morning and disappearing. Materials are ordered and staged before demolition, which keeps the disruptive part of an accessible-bathroom project as short as it can be — and that matters more than usual when the person living with the work is the person who needs the bathroom.
Call 602-885-6998, or read our aging-in-place guide first if you are still deciding what the house needs.
Tub-to-Shower Conversion in Sun City — Common Questions
What does a tub-to-shower conversion involve in a Sun City home?
Removing the tub and its surround, resetting the drain for a shower pan, reframing the alcove and adding blocking for grab bars, waterproofing the whole assembly, then tiling and fitting the door or panel. Because it stays inside the existing alcove, plumbing moves are usually minimal.
Will the shower be bigger than the tub it replaces?
In footprint, no — a standard alcove is a standard alcove. In usable space, yes, noticeably, because you are no longer stepping over a 15-inch wall and the whole area becomes floor you can stand on. If you want genuinely more room, that means taking in adjacent space and is a different scope.
Can you keep the tub in one bathroom and convert another?
That is usually what we recommend in a two-bathroom house. Convert the one that is used daily, leave a tub in the secondary bathroom, and the house keeps both options. We will walk both rooms during the free in-home consultation and tell you which we would convert.
Do a lot of homes in Sun City have this done?
Yes — it is the most common remodel in these communities, because the original bathrooms were built for a stage of life most residents have moved past. That familiarity works in your favour: we know what is behind the walls in this housing stock before we open them, which makes the estimate more reliable than it would be in a mixed neighbourhood.
Can the work be scheduled around a medical recovery?
Often, and it is worth telling us if that is the driver. A conversion done before a hip or knee replacement is far easier than one done during recovery, and the schedule can usually be pulled forward if we know why. If the timing is already tight, say so at the consultation rather than after.
Check this yourself
- Maricopa County Planning & Development — permit requirements for Sun City.
- 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design — the dimensions referenced above (§304.3.1, §404.2.3, §609.4).
- U.S. Access Board — plain-language guidance on those standards.
- Arizona Registrar of Contractors — verify any contractor's licence, ours included (AZ ROC #339999).
Permit authorities and ADA section numbers were confirmed against the sources above in August 2026. The ADA standard governs public accommodations, not private homes.