Bath or shower: which makes sense in a small bathroom
The Abimeister team · Updated · 5 min read
Most Tallinn bathrooms were not built with much choice in mind: a panel flat from the 1970s or 1980s typically has a bathroom of three to five square metres, and whatever went in during the last renovation is often still there because nobody wanted to disturb the plumbing. When you do get to choose, the bath-versus-shower question comes down to five practical points: floor space, water and time, what it does to the flat's value, what the switch actually costs, and what we would put in ourselves. Here is how those weigh up.
How much floor space each one actually needs
A standard bath is 1.5 to 1.7 metres long and around 70 centimetres wide, and that footprint is fixed — there is no shrinking it without moving to a sitting bath or a corner tub, both of which are compromises in their own way. A shower enclosure can be as small as 80 by 80 centimetres, and a corner or quadrant tray fits into the one bit of floor a bath cannot use well.
In a typical Soviet-era bathroom of three to four square metres, that difference decides everything else: a washing machine, a sink with some counter space, or simply room to turn around and dry off without elbowing the wall. Swap a bath for a shower in a flat that size and you usually gain about half a square metre of genuinely usable floor.
In a larger bathroom, in a 1930s wooden house in Kalamaja or a newer development in Harju county, this stops being the deciding factor and the other four points matter more.
Water use and everyday convenience
A bath takes noticeably more water to fill than a five-minute shower uses, and it takes longer: filling, sitting, draining, rinsing the tub. For a household in a hurry on weekday mornings, a shower is simply quicker, and Tallinn's district heating charges for hot water make the difference show up on the bill over a year.
A bath earns its keep in different ways: it is the only sensible way to wash a small child without a fight, it is genuinely more comfortable when you are unwell or your back aches, and some people just prefer to soak rather than stand. None of that is measurable in litres, but it is real.
If the household is one or two adults with no small children, the daily convenience argument points firmly at a shower. If there is a child under school age, or is likely to be one, a bath earns its space.
Effect on resale value and how easily the flat rents
For a flat aimed at renting to young professionals or students, a shower enclosure is what most tenants expect and nobody misses a bath they were never going to use. It is also easier to keep looking presentable between tenancies, which matters if you are managing the flat yourself.
For a flat likely to be bought or rented by a family, having at least one bath in the home still counts in its favour — not decisively, but noticeably, particularly if it is the only bathroom. A flat with two bathrooms can reasonably have one of each and cover both cases.
If you are renovating to sell or let rather than to live in yourself, think about who is actually likely to buy or rent the flat before deciding, rather than what you would want personally.
The price difference between installation and plumbing
Fitting a shower enclosure on its own, where the drain and water supply are already roughly in the right place, runs from 150 € for the enclosure and tray. Replacing a bath with a bath, or a shower with a shower, in the same position keeps plumbing work to a minimum.
Removing a bath to put in a shower — or the reverse — usually means moving the drain, sometimes moving the water inlets, and re-tiling the wall behind whichever unit is now further from or closer to the wall. That is plumbing work billed from 45 € an hour, and it can run to several hours depending on how far things need to move and what is under the floor.
If the bathroom is being redone in full — new tiling, new fittings, possibly waterproofing brought up to a proper standard — that is a bathroom renovation, which for a typical Tallinn bathroom starts from 3500 € as a fixed quote once we have seen the space or photos of it.
What we would recommend for a typical Tallinn flat
For a single person or a couple in a standard panel flat, we would put in a shower enclosure without much hesitation: it gives back floor space that a small bathroom badly needs, it uses less water and time day to day, and it is what most buyers or tenants in that segment expect to find.
For a family flat, especially one with only a single bathroom, we would keep or install a bath, accepting the smaller floor space in exchange for a bathroom that works for a child and for anyone who wants to soak rather than rinse.
Where the budget allows and the layout has room, a bathroom with two facilities — a bath in one and a shower enclosure in the other — avoids the trade-off entirely, but that is a renovation-scale decision, not a quick swap.
- Bathroom under four square metres, one or two adults: shower enclosure
- Only bathroom in the flat, household with or planning a young child: bath
- Renovating to rent out to young tenants: shower enclosure
- Renovating to sell to a family buyer: keep at least one bath if there is space
- Two bathrooms available: one of each covers most situations
In a small Tallinn bathroom, a shower enclosure suits singles and couples and most rentals; a bath earns its space where there is a young child or only one bathroom in the flat.