Tub-to-Shower Conversions in Rowlett, TX

Rowlett is named for Rowlett's Creek, which ran across land owned by Dr. Daniel Rowlett, a Kentuckian who arrived in Texas in 1836. When the town incorporated in 1952 it had about 250 residents and ten businesses. What changed its course was water: Lake Ray Hubbard, completed in 1971, wraps around the city on the east and south, and the Handbook of Texas credits the lake with setting off Rowlett's expansion.

The numbers show how fast it happened. Rowlett counted 7,522 residents in 1980, then 23,260 in 1990 and 44,503 in 2000, close to a sixfold increase in twenty years. It reached 56,199 by 2010 and is about 64,100 today, according to the Census Bureau.

So much of the city went up in that window that the median Rowlett home was built in 1997. Production homes from the 1980s and 90s very often got a one-piece fiberglass or acrylic tub/shower combo in at least one bathroom, because it was quick to install and inexpensive. Those units were never meant to last forever. After twenty-five to forty years, many have a chalky, stained finish, a floor that flexes underfoot, or a crack near the drain that no amount of caulk really fixes.

Rowlett's population is not especially old; around 11.6% of residents are 65 or older, below the national figure. The reason to act is the fixture itself. When a combo unit is wearing out anyway, replacing it with a low-threshold walk-in shower instead of another tub removes the tub wall for good, which is a smart move whether you plan to stay in the house for decades or eventually sell it.

The work stays inside the bathroom you already have. Once the old unit is out, we check the framing and plumbing behind it, then set a slip-resistant base and large-format wall panels sized to the opening. The panels go up without grout lines, so the new shower does not trade one cleaning problem for another.