Walk-in tub installation companies: how to judge one on paper

Seventy searches a month look for the company rather than the tub, and advertisers pay $70.18 for the click at the last pull, against a competition index of 0.09: the most expensive click we have measured on this site and one of the least contested. The people typing it have chosen the product and are choosing who to trust with the house. Most of that judgement can be made on paper, before a visit and before a price, and here is what the paper has to say.

Two kinds of company sell the same tub

Some firms distribute the tub and sell installation with it, sending their own crew or a contracted one. Some are plumbing and remodelling contractors who fit whichever unit the customer has chosen. Neither is wrong, but they fail differently: the first tends to know the product and improvise the bathroom, the second tends to know the bathroom and read the product manual on the day. What you want is a company that can describe both halves of the job in the same document, and the way to find out is to ask for the scope.

The written scope is the first document

A scope says what is removed, what is rebuilt, what is connected, and what is excluded. For this job it should name the removal of the old tub and the wall finish, the drain connection or relocation, the supply connections, the electrical circuit if the unit needs one, the setting and levelling of the tub, the wall closure and the end panel, and the first fill test. It should read like the installation sequence itself. A scope that says supply and install walk-in tub and nothing else has left every one of those stages to be argued about later.

Who does the plumbing and the electrical

This is the question that sorts companies fastest. The drain, the trap, the supply and the circuit are trade work, inspected in many jurisdictions, and the person doing them should be named in the document by trade if not by name: the company’s own plumber and electrician, or a subcontractor, and in either case who supervises. A company that answers with the name of the tub has not answered. Why the plumbing is where the job is won or lost is in the article on what decides the cost.

Two warranties, and the line between them

A walk-in tub carries a manufacturer’s warranty on the shell, the door, the seal and the mechanical parts, and the installation carries the installer’s warranty on the work: the connections, the levelling, the seal adjustment, the wall closure. When the door leaks, the first argument is about which of those two it belongs to, and the paper decides it. Ask for both warranties in writing, ask where the line between them is drawn, and ask whether the manufacturer makes its warranty conditional on who does the installation, because some do. A company that cannot say where the line falls will discover it on the day of the leak, and not in your favour.

The paperwork to ask for

• The itemised quote, with the scope above, a payment schedule tied to stages of work and a validity period long enough to read it alone and show it to someone.
• Where the jurisdiction licenses the trade, the licence number on the quote, so it can be checked with the issuing body.
• A certificate of insurance issued to you, not a sentence saying one exists.
• The permit application, or a written statement of why no permit is required here.
• The two warranties, and the stated method for pricing and approving a change when the old tub comes out and something is found.

Every item on that list is a normal thing to ask for and a normal thing to provide. Ask us for each of them: the list is written to apply to us as much as to anyone.

What the sales visit tells you that the paper cannot

A company can be right on paper and wrong in the house. The visit shows whether the estimator measures the drain and reads the heater label, or measures the alcove and opens the brochure. It shows whether a price appears at the end of the evening with a discount attached to signing before the estimator leaves, which is a deadline wearing a discount’s clothes. The pattern of a high-pressure visit is described in the article on the door, and it has not changed.

References, asked the right way

A reference from last month says the tub looked good on day one. A reference from years ago, asked two questions, says more: has the door or the drain needed attention since, and what happened when it did? How a company behaves at the moment something needs a hand is what you are hiring, and it is the one thing no document and no showroom can show you. Our own answers to everything on this page are on the installers page.