Can I Keep My Existing Shower and Add a Glass Door to the Tub?

Yes, in most bathrooms you can. When an Ella walk-in tub replaces the old tub in the same three-wall alcove, the shower head already on the wall can stay in place, and a folding tempered glass shower screen is added along the tub deck so the shower can be used standing or seated without water reaching the floor. Ella calls this piece a glass shower screen rather than a door, and What Is an Alcove Installation for a Walk-In Tub? describes the opening this plan depends on.

What Stays and What Changes

Our own team gave exactly this answer to a customer replacing a 30 by 60 tub with the Ultimate: the existing shower head on the wall could stay, a 4-fold glass screen could be added for standing showers, and the drain and orientation needed to be aligned properly. Three things follow from that.

• The wall shower head stays where it is, above the new tub.
• The tub spout and handles are normally replaced rather than reused, because Ella tubs use their own deck-mount faucet packages. If reusing a wall-mounted faucet matters to you, the LayDown 30 by 60 has no factory faucet option and requires a customer-supplied faucet, typically wall-mounted.
• The door and the drains are on opposite sides of every Ella walk-in tub. A right-side door tub has its drains on the left, and a left-side door tub has its drains on the right, as you face the tub, so choosing the door side that puts the tub drain over your existing house drain is the simplest way to avoid rerouting plumbing.

Ella is the manufacturer and does not install or send technicians. Your own licensed contractor removes the old tub and sets the new one, and the team at (800) 480-6850 can point you to installers in your area and confirm which screen fits the model you pick. Ella also does not cut a walk-through opening or add a door to an existing tub, as Can Ella Cut a Walk-Through Opening or Add a Door to My Existing Bathtub? explains, so the plan here is a complete new walk-in tub set under your existing shower head.

The Glass Screen, and Why It Is Not a Door

The 4-Fold Tempered Glass Shower Screen sits in a chrome aluminum frame with geared hinges. It folds aside so the tub does not feel closed in, pivots 90 degrees to fold back against the wall, and carries a full length rubber gasket along the bottom that closes on the tub deck and keeps water in the tub. It is listed as an optional accessory on the inward swing door tubs, and the LayDown models offer an optional glass shower screen of their own. Because the gasket brushes the deck rather than latching, it behaves like a splash guard you fold out of the way, not like a hinged shower door.

A few installation points decide whether it works. The 4-fold needs a side wall next to the deck, so the tub must sit in a corner or an alcove. It mounts on the wall side, away from any extension panel. The wall channel must be level, the rubber gasket must be angled inward toward the tub, and it should brush the deck lightly and evenly, because too high leaks and too low damages the gasket. A thin bead of silicone between the channel and the wall finishes the seal. Why Does Water Spray Out of the Tub When I Use the Hand Shower? covers what to check if spray still escapes.

Which Tub Fits the Opening You Have

Most bathrooms were framed around a 60 inch tub. A tub that is 60 inches or longer fills the opening on its own, and the Ultimate is actually 59.5 inches, which is why it needs no extension panel. Most 52 and 55 inch models fill the remaining space with an Ella extension panel that mounts at the end of the tub frame, and the 4-fold screen converts to a 3-fold screen by removing one section, which is how it fits a 52 inch tub in a 60 inch alcove. The first video on this page shows that conversion, panel by panel. Always compare the actual size on the spec sheet, not the nominal name, with the length between your finished walls.

What the differences mean: a full length tub keeps the full 4-fold screen under your existing shower head with no extension panel to work around. A 52 inch tub gives you a shorter or narrower footprint, but the screen then goes on the wall side away from the extension panel in the 32 inch 3-fold configuration. The LayDown is the choice when the tub itself must take a wall-mounted faucet. For an opening longer than 60 inches, give the team the wall to wall measurement so they can confirm how the gap is finished, because models without an extension panel leave that space for the installer to frame. How big is a standard bathtub, and how do you measure yours? has the measuring steps.

If There Is No Shower Head to Keep: The Shower Column

If the old tub had no wall shower, or you would rather have the shower on the tub itself, the Shower Column Kit adds one to any Ella 2 piece or 5 piece fast fill faucet. The second video shows the kit going on: the existing hand shower is removed, the shower column base attachment goes into the vacant receptacle, the water supply line is replaced, and the new one-half inch supply line is attached to the diverter on the faucet. The column's diverter then selects the rain head or the hand shower, one at a time. On a tub with an extension panel the column uses the long 4 to 5 inch pipe connector to reach the wall, so mention the alcove and the panel when you ask about it.

Planning Points Before the Old Tub Comes Out

1. Measure the length between the finished walls, the width from the back wall to the front edge of the alcove, and the height from the floor to the bottom of any window sill.
2. Measure the doorways and hallways the crate must pass through. A crated tub is larger than the tub itself; the Escape, for example, ships in a crate measuring 40 by 76 by 49 inches at 398 pounds.
3. Note which side the existing drain is on and pick the door side that puts the tub drains over it.
4. Ask your installer to add a wall access panel behind the plumbing end so pumps and drain connections can be reached without disturbing tile. The guides do not publish a required size for that panel, so describe your layout to the team. The space around the tub must never be packed with insulation.
5. Have the walls above the deck finished with tile or a surround over an aftermarket tile flange so water runs back into the tub.

Watch: Easy Shower Column Installation for Your Walk-In Tub | Ella’s Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Ella Fast-Fill Faucets: 2-Piece vs 5-Piece, Finishes, and the Waterfall Option
• Can you add a shower to a walk-in tub?
• Do You Sell Folding Glass Shower Screens for a 60 Inch Walk-In Tub?

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