Master Bathroom Remodel – Newtown, Grant, PA
This 110-square-foot master bathroom in Newtown Grant had a corner shower and a soaking tub — a layout that was functional but did not meet the homeowner’s needs. The remodel relocated the toilet to create room for an expanded shower, enlarged the shower to include a built-in bench, replaced the soaking tub with a freestanding tub, converted the single-sink vanity to a double with new plumbing, and added recessed lighting in the shower.
What This Project Included
- Toilet relocation to expand the shower area
- Corner shower enlarged with built-in bench
- Recessed lighting installed in the shower
- Soaking tub replaced with freestanding tub
- Single-sink vanity converted to double vanity with new plumbing
- New mirrors and vanity lighting
The Toilet Move: Enabling the Shower Expansion
In a master bathroom where the shower, toilet, and vanity are all competing for floor space, the toilet’s position often determines what is and is not possible for everything else. In this Newtown Grant bathroom, the existing toilet was positioned adjacent to the corner shower in a way that limited how far the shower could be extended. Moving the toilet — disconnecting it from its supply and drain connections, running new supply and drain to the new location, resetting the toilet in its new position — freed up the floor area needed to expand the shower.
Toilet relocations in bathroom remodels are more common than most homeowners realize. The toilet is one of the more flexible fixtures to move when the rough-in work is already happening as part of a full remodel — new drain lines are being opened up anyway, so adding a toilet relocation to the scope does not require a separate excavation or independent project phase. The incremental cost of moving the toilet during a full remodel is much lower than it would be as a standalone project.
Enlarged Shower with Built-In Bench
With the toilet relocated, the shower footprint was expanded. The enlarged shower now has a built-in bench tiled into the shower floor and walls — a permanent, integrated seat rather than a portable accessory. A built-in shower bench has several functional uses: it provides a stable surface for washing feet without balancing on one leg, it serves as a resting place in a larger shower, and it can function as a platform for shaving or other grooming tasks that benefit from a lower surface. In a master bathroom, the built-in bench is a quality-of-life addition that is significantly easier to install during the initial tile work than to add afterward.
Recessed lighting was installed in the shower ceiling during the remodel. In-shower lighting illuminates the back wall of the enclosure — the area furthest from the bathroom’s main light source — and makes the shower functional in the early morning or evening hours when ambient light in the room may be limited.
Soaking Tub to Freestanding: A Different Tub Presence
The original soaking tub was replaced with a freestanding tub. The functional difference between a soaking tub and a freestanding tub is modest — both are designed for bathing — but the spatial and visual difference is significant. A soaking tub is typically built into a surround or alcove: it reads as a fixture integrated into the room’s architecture. A freestanding tub sits independently, visible from all sides, and functions as a visual centerpiece in the room rather than a built-in feature.
Replacing a built-in soaking tub with a freestanding tub requires relocating the supply and drain connections to match the freestanding tub’s faucet configuration — typically a floor-mount faucet or a wall-mount faucet positioned appropriately for the tub’s new location. This plumbing work is part of what makes a tub replacement more involved than a simple fixture swap.
Single to Double Vanity with New Plumbing
The existing single-sink vanity was replaced with a double vanity. As with the Fort Washington project in this portfolio, converting from a single to a double vanity requires new plumbing: an additional supply line and an additional drain connection. In this Newtown Grant bathroom, the plumbing work for the vanity was done alongside the toilet relocation and the tub supply work — three separate plumbing moves handled as part of one coordinated rough-in phase rather than staged across separate visits.
New mirrors and lighting above the double vanity were installed to complete the vanity zone — proper illumination at the mirror surface, consistent across both sink positions.
What Three Plumbing Moves in One Project Means
This bathroom involved three distinct plumbing relocations: the toilet to a new position, the tub connections to the freestanding tub’s location, and the vanity expanded from one drain to two. Coordinating three plumbing changes in a 110-square-foot bathroom requires planning the rough-in sequence carefully — the order in which new lines are run, where they tie into the existing stack, and how the work is staged relative to the tile installation that follows. Getting any one of the three positions wrong shows up as a problem after the tile is in place. All three were correct here.
Bathroom Remodeling in Newtown Grant
Newtown Grant is a planned community in Newtown Township, Bucks County, with homes primarily built in the 1980s and 1990s. Master bathrooms from that era often have the corner shower and separate soaking tub configuration that this project started with — a layout that was considered a premium feature when the homes were built, and that is now frequently reconfigured to better serve how people actually use the space.
Belmax Remodeling works throughout Newtown Grant and the broader Bucks County area. For more on our bathroom work, see our bathroom remodeling service page. Homeowners in Newtown Grant can also visit our Newtown Grant bathroom remodeling page for more completed local projects.
Considering a Similar Project?
Master bathroom remodels in the 110-square-foot range with toilet relocation, shower expansion with bench, tub replacement, double vanity with new plumbing, and recessed shower lighting typically fall in the $13,000–$16,000 range in Bucks County. This Newtown Grant project came in at $13,600, completed in October 2024. To discuss what your bathroom would involve, request a free estimate.