ᐅ Recessed Bathtub: Pros and Cons

Freestanding bathtubs are not standard but are considered a high-end feature. Even in projects I have professionally supervised (prices around €7,000-10,000 per square meter of living space for apartments between 150 and 300 square meters), freestanding tubs are only offered as optional extras. For them to make an impact, the bathroom should be at least 25 square meters (270 square feet). I don’t see this being common for the average homeowner. This is without even considering the cost of the tub and fixtures.

Is the bathtub being installed on the ground floor? If so, there should be no issues. For any rooms above, it is usually more difficult because the space below is typically needed.

Our tub is also placed on the concrete and was then enclosed by the carpenter. On the right and left sides of the tub, you can now comfortably sit at a "normal" seating height. It fits perfectly for us!

nordanney schrieb:
Freestanding bathtubs are not standard but belong to upscale fittings.

Oh really? No kidding. I just wanted to point out that the claim "built-in bathtubs are standard practice" is misleading because it depends on many external factors. For example, in our case: a freestanding bathtub on an open gallery, etc.

Therefore, it is by no means standard practice, and there are plenty of reasons against installing a built-in tub. That’s why they are by no means violating the standard practice.

Mottenhausen schrieb:
Therefore, it is by no means state of the art, and there are plenty of reasons against installing it recessed. Nevertheless, this does not mean it violates the state of the art.

Sorry to disagree with you. Of course, there are some reasons against it. However, based on my professional experience seeing what is built (and these are apartments worth over 100 million € each year), the bathtub placed on the raw floor slab is absolutely the standard.

If you don’t have experience with the subject and assume that others think the same way you do, that is not helpful for the original poster.

Just last week, I inspected four apartments in Düsseldorf during handover (the most expensive one was nearly €3 million), where only one had a freestanding bathtub (in that case, the bathroom was about 70 m² (750 sq ft) in size). All the others were installed in the usual way, even though they were luxurious.

If you have the space and budget to treat yourself to a freestanding bathtub, I am happy for you. However, you then belong to the few homeowners who can and want to afford that.

nordanney schrieb:
If you have the space and budget to treat yourself to a free-standing bathtub, then good for you. However, you belong to the few homeowners who can and want to afford that.

I’d like to respectfully disagree, as you can find both built-in and free-standing bathtubs across price ranges from entry-level to luxury. It’s not as if there aren’t built-in tubs in the five-figure range, or free-standing tubs for 400€ on eBay. So price really has nothing to do with it.

Regarding space… we’re not planning anything that large by far, but with en suite bathrooms and an open gallery/bedroom area, the bathtub suddenly ends up in the center of a 50m² (540 sq ft) space, which wouldn’t be the case with separate rooms of the same total area. So a lot depends on the overall design whether that works or not. But that’s not really the point here; my main concern is that built-in tubs should not be considered standard without knowing the building constraints.