5/31/2008

Our Glowing Review of Bath Fitter

Uncle AndrewUncle Andrew
Filed under: @ 7:03 pm

This is a bit overdue, but we wanted a good long time to test out this product before I wrote an online review about it.

Back when we were starting to really flesh out the whole “wipe out our built-up equity in the name of home improvement” thing (a lie, by the way: we spent about 60 grand on home improvement, while our house has increased in value about a hundred and fifty g’s since we bought it. Yay, insane Puget Sound real estate market!), one of the things that neither of us had any question would go onto the chopping block was the guest bathroom. Our house’s former owners, while stalwart and detail-oriented in their maintenance, boasted an esthetic that was, to put it kindly, wildly divergent from our own. Many attempts at a description have been tendered by friends and family: “Looks like the place is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Holly Hobby”; “The walls look like they are all decorated with the contact paper from Grandma’s underwear drawer”; “All that’s missing is the saw blades painted with winter farm landscapes”, undsoweiter.

The bathroom was, in some ways, the piece de resistance: Pepto-Bismol pink walls alternating with maroon floral wallpaper, maroon-and-white linoleum, yellow trim and sink cabinet, and the uh-huh-HUGLIEST dual cut-glass-globes-with-attendant-dangling-crystal-pendants light fixture you have ever seen. Oh, and a single saloon-style batwing door separating the toilet are from the rest of the bathroom. Rustic yet excruciating, homey but tacky and oh so cheesy, a true assault on the senses for anyone with functioning retinas.

So beyond the necessity of hooking our house to the municipal sewer system, nuking the guest bathroom and starting from scratch was our top priority.

As long as we were going to gut that room, we decided that we would like to replace the serviceable but long-in-the-tooth bathtub with a shower enclosure of some kind. Neither Margaret nor I are particularly keen on taking baths (if we want a long soak, well, that’s what we got the hot tub for), and a shower stall seemed to be a better use of the relatively small space with which we had to work. We had a basic idea of what we were looking for. We wanted something made of an easy-to-clean synthetic product; fiberglass, acrylic, perhaps cultured marble or granite, no repeat no tile (hear my shout: grout is out) with sliding glass doors. Early on in the process we decided that we would really prefer to hire a specialized outfit to install a system rather than having a contractor install a kit or an ensemble of his own design; at that point our contractor was still something of an unknown quality, and we both felt more comfortable having a single entity with a broad presence and an established reputation at whose feet we could lay blame should something go wrong.

There are a few such outfits in the Puget Sound region. We found ours through the most unlikely of happenstance; for perhaps the first time in my life, I actually looked through one of those annoying multipage newspaper-sized collections of ads that arrive via the mail twice or thrice weekly. An outfit called Bath Fitter was advertising in this particular one. We decided to go check out their showroom.

We both liked the look of Bath Fitter’s products from the get-go: solid acrylic walls and pans with textured floors, substantial-looking soap shelves and grab bars, attractive doors and hardware. The look was like that of the bathroom in a three-star hotel that didn’t want to spring for marble. So far so good. We arranged to have a sales person come out and give us an estimate.

We also checked out another local company that specialized in—ugh—Formica surrounds, but it didn’t take us long to rule them out. “Trailer Park Chic” is about the best way I can think of to describe the majority of their wares. And while they did offer a cultured granite product as well, I think it’s safe to say that the initial stigma of the kitchen-countertop-as-shower-wall esthetic, combined with the bumbling, harried nature of the guy who came out to give us an estimate, put us right off our feed.

Later that week a bright, easygoing woman named Kristin from Bath Fitter came out to do us an estimate. The whole approach of Bath Fitter was very professional and left us with a good impression. Bath Fitter is a franchise outfit, and they have their schtick down to an art: polo shirts with their logo on ’em, specialized cases for their high-tech measuring equipment, and a very impressive-looking print campaign. It’s an extension of the slick presentation you experience when you enter the showroom, and it leaves one feeling that you are in the hands of “professionals”. The price Kristin worked up for us was a bit steep, but not out of our range. We gave her a check for half of the total in order to qualify for a 200 dollar discount and agreed to further solidify the installation in the following week.

It was only at that point that I really had the time to do some research online about Bath Fitter. What I found was not very reassuring. While the company generally had a decent rating with the Better Business Bureau in every state where they operated, to type “reviews ‘Bath Fitter'” into a search engine was to risk poaching one’s eyes in a sea of flame. Nearly every review I uncovered in various consumer advocacy and public bitchfest sites seemed to warn the prospective buyer away from this company. Their products leaked; they misled people regarding cost or quality; their installers damaged walls and flooring and left garbage everywhere; they took much longer to install than they claimed. And particular to the East Coast, there were many, many complaints about management failing to make good on repairs to property such as water-damaged ceilings and broken bathroom fixtures.

Needless to say, we kinda panicked. We’re not spring-loaded to believe everything we read on the Net, and we’re both fully aware that someone who has had a bad experience with a company is many times more likely to let the world know about it than someone who has had a good experience. But still, the general opinion on this particular company seemed overwhelmingly negative. I called Kristin and told her we were having second thoughts based on what we had seen on the Web. She was extremely sympathetic, told us she had heard that sort of thing before, and offered to drop our check off at our house on her way to work that Monday. I said that would be great and thanked her for her understanding. I have to say, Kristin’s complete lack of hesitation in returning our check, coupled with her sympathetic demeanor, was not lost on us. It was a big indicator that this company might not be the predatory monster that the reviews we read on the Web would have one believe.

When Kristin appeared on our doorstep that Monday with our check she offered us another potential source of input, suggesting that she bring the company’s binder full of customer satisfaction surveys to our house on her way back from work so we could look it over. That book was quite an eye-opener: over fifteen hundred surveys reaching back over about six years, the significant majority of which were positively gooey with praise. We sampled at random for over an hour—perhaps two hundred in all—and found less than a handful that rated Bath Fitter less than a 7 out of 10 on a wide variety of aspects of customer satisfaction, from value and appearance to the courtesy and competency of the installers. Even those people who gave low marks for certain areas of the experience (the timeliness of the install, say, or minor damage experienced during same) still rated themselves at least “satisfied” with the whole affair. I think we may have found a single “unsatisfied” in all of the surveys we pored over. We decided to re-take the plunge. We called Kristin back, got her a new check and scheduled our intall.

I won’t bore you with the details of the installation, save to say that it took place over two days, day one being the plumbing and day two being the actual shower. On day two a quiet, cheerful, efficient man named Arjo walked into our bathroom at around nine o’clock that morning and by the time he left at three that afternoon we had a complete shower (we had to wait 24 hours to allow all the industrial strength, chromosome-unwinding adhesives used to bind the acrylic bits to each other to cure, but that was no biggie: the rest of the bathroom was still Contractor Ground Zero and totally unusable anyway). He concluded this seemingly miraculous warping of both space and time by sitting down with me to give me an intense lecture on the care and feeding of our new shower.

Now, some month-plus later, I can say without hesitation that this shower is one of the real show(er)pieces of our remodeling adventure.

Our new shower from Bath Fitters

It is roomy, with plenty of room to stretch out; infinitely better than the old tub, whose gently upsloping side walls consumed much of the useable space side to side. The two four-level corner shelves hold pretty much everything we use in the shower. The floor is textured in a way that is pleasantly nubbly on the feets, and keeps your feet securely on the ground. It is gently sloped both length- and widthwise, encouraging water and suds to sluice into the huge drain that never seems to clog. The doors slide easily on the track, and everything feels solid and looks beautiful, pretty much exactly as it appeared in the showroom.

Our new shower from Bath Fitters

The total cost for this shower was just over 4800 dollars. That’s a lot of money, but buying similar high-quality shower walls, pan, trim and shelves from another company like, for instance, Swanstone would have easily cost us twenty five hundred. The glass doors and hardware would have run another eight hundred to a thousand, the plumbing would have been another hundred, and the labor to have the contractor to put it in would likely have cost us another nine to twelve hundred. That’s 4300–4800 bucks right there, without the integration we got by working with a single company all the way through. On top of that, our experience with every representative of our local Bath Fitter franchise was top-notch. They were to a person friendly, knowledgeable and interested in making us feel like valued customers.

I’m hoping that this post will help in its own small way to stem the tide of unfavorable reviews found online. Should anyone out there in the Infosphere come across this post while trawling for information to help them decide whether to choose Bath Fitter, here’s a few tips from our experience: ask the sales rep to see their customer satisfaction surveys. Ask them to provide some contact information for customers willing to talk about their experience with bath Fitter. And don’t necessarily believe everything you read online. Just this. 😉

41 Responses to “Our Glowing Review of Bath Fitter”

  1. Tony Lenzer Says:

    Looks Groovy–can’t wait to try it! Questions: (1) non-skid or slippery floor? (2) one grab bar or two?

  2. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Dad! The floor is textured, and there’s a single grab bar on the long wall of the shower. The shower’s only about 32 inches deep, though, so it’s a not a long trip to the grab bar.

  3. Tony Lenzer Says:

    Thanks, Bubele….I’m so relieved! Sound like the Company understands the principles of Universal Design

  4. Val Says:

    Hey man, I have a cross-cut sawblade with four season’s worth of woodsy scenes painted by my mother-in-law hanging over the archway entrance to my living room. I do, however, live in Enumclaw where such things are de rigueur. MiL is a decent artist, so as such things go, it ain’t bad. And believe me it was far better than the 2’x5′ black velvet “deer family in a forest glade” that Alan must have bought at a swap meet sometime before I married him. That painting somehow got “lost” when we moved. Imagine that.

    When we built our house, we had to move the upstairs hall bath’s tub/shower enclosure into the house before we finished all the framing because it would be too big to maneuver into place otherwise. I don’t know what we’ll do if we ever have to replace it.

  5. Uncle Andrew Says:

    When we built our house, we had to move the upstairs hall bath

  6. Jason Says:

    🙂
    I work for Bath Fitter in the Lakewood area and I love hearing about how our customers enjoy their Bath Fitter install! I encourage all my customer to submit there own experience with Bath Fitter so we always know how we are doing!!! Thanks for your input!!!

  7. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Jason,

    Your comment got held in moderation because it contained a hyperlink, in case you were wondering. I’ve approved it.

    I was telling the manager of the Kent branch of Bath Fitter that this problem of so few positive online reviews ought to clear itself up in about ten years’ time. I noticed that the vast majority of the customer satisfaction surveys we read in Kent’s book were submitted by people in their sixties and above, many of whom are not Velcroed to the Internet as are folks of my generation and younger. As time passes and more Net-centric people avail themselves of your product, I think you will see the reviews found online run much more to the positive.

  8. rebar1 Says:

    Bathfitter is a rip- – -stay away from at all costs!!!

  9. Uncle Andrew Says:

    You’re welcome to your opinion, of course—though it would be nice if you would elaborate on your reasons—but I think there is likely to be a lot of variation from store to store, as is often the case with franchise outfits. We’re loving our shower, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend our local Bath Fitter to anyone in the market for a new shower.

  10. Franz Says:

    Uncle Andy,
    Well, I think I might sleep better tonight, thanks to your site. I signed a Bath Fitter contract today to reline a large shower stall, 25 years old, and grout/mildew nightmare – a thousand pieces of ceramic wall tile, you get the picture. Yes, I did read all those nasty reviews, but ack. that it’s prob. a minority speaking. You have helped to allay my fears.

    Are you still thrilled with the installation? I have lived thru other private contractor bathroom jobs in other houses, and they weren’t exactly fun or pretty.

    I think I will call the gal and use your second thought ploy – I would like to see some local commendations.

    Oh, correct typo on ‘through’ and ‘thorough’, somewhere in your text. Just thought I’d mention it. Former text scrubber here.

    Thanks again for the detailed report.

    Friend bought a condo – everything was pea green, yellow, with daisies. Every @$#% room. Thou hast not been alone.

  11. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Franz! I’m really glad I could help to provide an alternate opinion to the cornucopia of bad Bath Fitter reviews out there. That was the reason I wrote the post to begin with, and judging from my referrer logs, there are a lot of people who have passed through my lonely outpost here whilst trawling for comments about this company.

    Of course, I can’t speak for any Bath Fitter outfit other than the one that did ours, but we are still absolutely delighted with our shower. The thing looks as good and as solid as the day it was put in: no leaks, nothing is warping or peeling up, the acrylic has not scratched or discolored, everything looks and works well. The only thing they could have done better would have been to make it self-cleaning. 😉

    Definitely ask to see their customer satisfaction surveys. If I understand correctly from my local office, it’s policy for them to send out these surveys and keep them available for customers to review. If your local franchise says they don’t keep theirs, or their collection is not up to date, I might consider that a bad sign.

    Lastly, if at all possible, pay for the job on a credit card. That gives you tremendous leverage as a consumer. If a company does you wrong you can arrange with your credit card provider to reverse all or part of the charges. This may be old news to you and many others, but I’m often amazed at how few credit card users understand the power that comes with that 1-to-5-percent merchant surcharge.

    And thanks for the proofreading: I’ll go cull that wayward “thorough”. :mrgreen:

  12. Andrew Z Says:

    I am thinking of working for Bath Fitter in central Pennsylvania and was looking online to see what customers think of the product. I agree, there is a handful of negative out there, but many of the negative posts are the SAME post, just on different sites. Weird–makes me think someone is sabotaging them somehow…

    Andrew–from on Andrew to another-thank you!

    Also, loved your writing style!

  13. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Andrew Z, thanks for stopping by! 😀

    I’m glad that this post still seems to have some traction out there in teh Intarwebs; I still get hits on it every day from folks searching for “Bath Fitter Reviews”. I certainly got a good vibe from everyone who worked for our local Bath Fitter in Kent, WA, from the guy who plumbed in the drain and valve right up through the store manager. I’m sure there will be some variation from store to store, but everyone we came in contact with seemed friendly, dedicated and more or less happy with their job, if that’s any help.

    And just for anyone who might be wondering: we still love our shower and have had no problems with it whatsoever.

  14. Uncle Andrew Says:

    One caveat just occurred to me that I think I ought to share: when Bath Fitter says, “One Day Bath Remodeling”, the one day in question is not the day you place the order. It will take some time to schedule your remodeling, perhaps as long as a few weeks. With a moment’s reasoned reflection, this makes perfect sense: Bath Fitter can not afford to keep a half-dozen licensed plumbers and trained installers sitting on ice waiting for a rush of orders. To offer true “same day” service they would either have to charge a lot more to make up for those times when their staff was idle, or they would have to select their plumbers and installers from a hastily-assembled pool of contractors, which would probably affect the quality of the installs. Like I said, this is a perfectly reasonable condition of the service they offer, but customers who don’t think it through—or just have a severe case of rectal insectiasis—might feel like they’re getting the runaround.

  15. another Andrew Says:

    I guess we are a year-and-a-half out since you installed now. What is your experience after 18 months? Just curious. I visited the remodel show at the convention center downtown (Seattle) and we asked them to come out and give us an estimate on one of our bathrooms. It is still functioning well?

    Thanks,

    Another Andrew

  16. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey there other Andrew! We’re still very happy with our shower. Nothing has started to leak, bow, delaminate, chip, discolor or anything else. All the hardware works the same as it did the day they installed it, including the plumbing fixtures. The only thing that has changed in the slightest is a small piece of the hardware that holds the bottom of the sliding doors in place, a c-shaped bit of metal about an inch wide, inside the track itself, which has rusted and is now the color of….well, rust. You can only see it if you stand directly in front of the doors and look down at the center of the opening where the two doors overlap each other slightly; you’d have to be very, very picky to get upset over such a minor “blemish”.

    I imagine that someone skilled at home repair could create something this nice for a good deal less. But for us, this was and continues to be well worth the money. 🙂

  17. MaryAlice Says:

    Hello Andrew:

    Much thanks for your website. I signed a contract with Bathfitters and then read all the negative reviews on line. I was terrified. Then I came across your website. You calmed my fears and my nerves. I also checked the Better Business Bureau and only 1 complaint was ever lodged against them and Bathfitters addressed it. As it turns out my husband and I are delighted with our new bathtub, shower etc. It looks beautiful, the shower is perfect, it is like taking a shower in a really nice hotel. My husband and I are two of the pickiest people on earth. We are also quick to give credit where credit is due. It was all done in one day and we feel it is well worth the price.

  18. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey MaryAlice! Glad I could offer a small hedge against all the negative opinions out there. I fully believe in consumers making their feelings known….they just have to take the responsibility to report the good experiences as well as the bad. Good to know that my post–and your comment–can help to balance things out. 🙂

  19. Carrie Says:

    Thanks for posting! I also just signed with Bathfitters in Kent then got all nervous when I searched and saw the negative reviews. I also was given the customer surveys to review from the binder and a list of all the local customers. I called a handful of them and they were also satisfied with the product but I was still nervous. But thanks for the reminder about the credit card, at least if it turned out bad I can get the charges reversed. I still can’t wait for my product to come in and get installed. ETA: late may. And I also hate caulking so I didn’t want to go the tile route again! =)

  20. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Carrie, glad you made it here! Seems like this has been a pretty good month for reticent Bath Fitter contractees washing up on the shores of Uncle Andrew dot Net. 🙂

  21. Monda Says:

    Hello uncle Andrew!
    How much is a bath fitter? Can you tell me some prices please?
    Thank you! 🙂

  22. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Howdy Monda! Like I said in the post, ours cost about 4800 dollars. That was for a full shower stall (not a tub/shower combo, and not one of the new-tub-over-your-old-tub setups that Bath Fitter often advertises) that measures about three feet wide, five feet deep and seven feet tall, with a textured floor, two corner shelves and a single grab bar. We’re still very happy with our purchase. You should have a Bath Fitter rep come out and give you an estimate on your setup, whatever that may be.

  23. sdunning4 Says:

    I appreciate your review. We have an apt. scheduled for this evening and just today I decided to scan for reviews and well you know how that went. I too feel better and better prepared (asking for discount and to see local customer satisfaction surveys) for this apt. Thank you Uncle Andrew

  24. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey there sdunning! Sorry it took so long for me to reply. Just as a follow up; we still love our shower. The only thing that has happened with it since my last comment here is that it has developed a tiny spot of mildew in the caulk at the junction of the long wall and the floor pan, but any shower will do that eventually in a humid climate. We’ve just been too busy/lazy to get out the instructions for that came with the shower and figure out which anti-mildew products are safe to use on the acrylic. Other than that, everything looks as nice as when it was installed.

    Another quick tip: definitely procure and use a shower squeegee! A little effort at the end of every shower will save you much annoyance later. We’ve never had to clean the walls of our shower because we give them a quick “squeege” after every use.

  25. sdunning4 Says:

    Thanks for the squeegee tip. We have gone ahead and ordered our new bathtub/shower combo and are waiting for them to make it and install it.

  26. bathroom remodel knoxville Says:

    really glowing and fantastic…

  27. Priscilla Dick Says:

    😀 😀 I just wanted to leave a short note stating how polite and professional the sales rep. from Knoxville is. He was in and out in about and hour (I had two bathroom quotes). He did not use a hard sales pitch and explained everything throughly. Your product seems to be top quality but your people are your true selling point.

  28. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Good to know, Priscilla, thanks for stopping by!

  29. kellie Says:

    Hello, we just had a quote today. Salesmen was very nice and not pushy. We love the low maintenance no chalk and lifetime warranty. We are trying decide if we want to finance and get the tub and walls installed. We are actually planning on a new deeper tub, wall, shelf, tiles not smooth and curved shower rod cost around 6200. 4500 just to fit over our tuball smooth. We will probably end up putting download a small down payment then financing.

  30. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Kellie,

    We had the whole thing done; pan, surround, doors, everything. I should emphasize that this was not one of the fit-over-the-existing-tub jobs but a complete replacement. It was expensive, but it has really stood up over time. To this day the whole unit looks pretty much new. The only thing that has changed over time is something I mentioned in a previous comment: a small piece of metal in the bottom rail in which the doors slide has rusted, putting a nearly-unnoticeable rust-colored spot inside the bottom door track. Big whoop. 🙂

  31. Michael Rainey Says:

    I looked at Angie’s list for the Spartanburg, South Carolina area and found four good reviews for Bath Fitter. There were no bad reviews. I then waded through a blizzard of bad reviews on other sites before coming here. I feel better now.

    We’re going to have a Bath Fitter rep out in two days to quote on removing an old bathtub and replacing it with a shower.
    I’m not crazy about paying $5000+ for a shower, but if that’s the going rate, so be it. I’m certainly not going to take on the job myself.

    If we go with Bath Fitter, I’ll report back about the results. If we don’t, I’ll let you know the reason(s).

  32. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Michael,

    Yes, by all means, let us know how everything goes. The price you mentioned is right about in line with what we paid, though our quote did not include the actual removal of the old tub, so you might be coming in a hair under our cost after factoring the tub removal in. Good luck!

  33. Michael Rainey Says:

    Jeff from Bath Fitter is taking measurements as I write this. The complete job for a shower like yours, including hauling away the old tub, is quoted at $5750.

    Jeff is a fast-talking, friendly guy. He’s not high-pressure and is happy to spend a little time telling stories and listening to ours. He does a good job of presenting the company and the product. He competently answered all our questions.

    Jeff brought a thick list of local references, though none were more recent than 2009. We were surprised to see that the bathtub in our house had been installed by Bath Fitter in 2004, presumably over the original cast iron tub. The acrylic tub is still in fine shape, but there’s some impossible-to-remove mildew at the wall seam and we really do want a shower.

    As a test, we told Jeff that we wanted to think about it for a couple of days before signing anything. He was okay with that and remained very pleasant, but it was understandably not what he most wanted to hear. We signed the contract but didn’t give Jeff any copies (his request). In a day or two we plan to call and approve the job, at which time we’ll mail in the contract and a deposit.

    Jeff said that the job would take one day and that it would happen 6-8 weeks after receipt of the deposit.

    It was an interesting and friendly ninety minutes.

  34. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Sounds like a good experience, overall. Please let us know how the install turns out; the more data we can present here, the better for future Googlers looking for input about their local shop. 🙂

  35. Michael Rainey Says:

    On April 2, David showed up around 8:00 to do the installation. I had received a cheerful confirmation call from Bath Fitter a few days prior to his arrival.

    David was one of those polite, quiet types who works best when left alone. Having been a computer programmer for many years, I understood perfectly. He did bring a radio that looked ready for action in a war zone, but kept the volume so low I couldn’t hear it from the living room.

    David’s first move was to cover the hardwood floor with protective material, from my front door all the way to the bathroom. This worked quite well – when David left he didn’t leave even one scratch on the floor.

    He spent several hours removing the tub and enough of the existing wall tiles to give access to the plumbing. There was a good bit of unavoidable noise – that’s the price of admission. I continued to leave him alone while he was working, though he was happy to offer me an occasional peek.

    In the afternoon, David confessed to me that he had made a miscalculation that was going to make it difficult to get everything to fit together properly. I encouraged him to think things through and apply his experience to coming up with a solution. He wound up pulling some pieces out and reinstalling them – in the end, the job looked beautiful and there’s no way to tell that there was ever a problem.

    David finished up about 7:00 the same evening. He said the rework had cost him a couple of extra hours. He’s a very polite, conscientious worker who knows his stuff. No two jobs are exactly alike, and I commend him for figuring out how to deal with his problem. He assured me that I should give a call any time I had the tiniest complaint and someone would be out to fix it. I believe him.

    He left the house as clean as he found it, no damage of any kind.

    The shower is beautiful and looks exactly like the one featured by Uncle Andrew. The fixtures are top-quality and guaranteed for life. The one thing that kind of caught me off guard is the sheer size of the thing. It’s big! The downside to that in my smallish bathroom is that it eats noticeably into the space around the toilet – doing your business is a little trickier than it used to be, and I’m going to have to train myself to keep my butt from banging the door when I’m moving around.

    Bath Fitter in Spartanburg gets high marks from me.

    The job cost $5755, which is not trivial.

  36. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Michael,

    Thanks for the update! I’m really glad things went so smoothly for you; I would have felt terrible if you had taken the plunge based on our post and things had turned out badly. ❗

  37. randy Says:

    Just wondering about which cleaner would work the best for a bathfitter tub that has developed
    some stains? Any particular cleaner that has really “shined”? Thanks! 😀

  38. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey Randy! Sorry it took so long to reply; I was digging up the sheet Bath Fitter gave us on cleaning. Here’s a link to a scan of the sheet. It’s a pretty exhaustive list. But to be honest, we’ve never used anything but white vinegar and baking soda to clean ours.

  39. Ethree Says:

    Unk Andrew, as a quick aside – if your shower doors were installed by Bath Fitter, check your warranty info and give them a call – that rusted piece, as well as any of the silicone caulk, should be covered by a lifetime parts & labor warranty. I know they’re piddling things, but it shouldn’t be any cost for you.

  40. John Says:

    Just found your site. We signed up with bathfitters today to get our tub and shower replaced with a shower. Like most of the people here I have been checking the net for opinions. I was very glad to see all the good reports here. I’ve been trying to find out if folks say their warranty is as good as the company says it is. The salesman told us it covered everything even staining or plumbing leak for life. We have acidic water and it has always left blue green copper stains in our tub. He said that will not happen in this shower. Do you have any experience with that? Thanks

  41. Uncle Andrew Says:

    Hey John,

    Our water isn’t at all acidic, so we haven’t had this problem. I would imagine that, if Bath Fitter is really willing to stand behind that claim, they should be able to provide a copy of the warranty, highlighting the section where stains of this sort are handled. I definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving it as an oral understanding between you and the salesperson, if this sort of staining is a common problem with bathroom and plumbing fixtures in your area.

    Andrew

Leave a Reply

All comments containing hyperlinks are held for approval, so don't worry if your comment doesn't show up immediately. (I'm not editing for content, just weeding out the more obvious comment spam.)


All portions of this site are © Andrew Lenzer, all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.