The majority of adults shower daily, but 11% of American adults shower more than once each day.

Showers are refreshing and healthy, but it’s always better to take one in a bathtub that looks great. If you’re tired of your old shower, you might be preparing to renovate your bathroom. While you do this, you could replace the tub.

As you start looking at your options, you might wonder, “what is a tub surround?” Do you need one? What are your options?

Here is an informative guide to help you learn about tub surrounds.

What Is a Tub Surround?

If you look at a bathtub, you’ll typically see two main parts. The first part is the bathtub, which is the fixture you get into to take a shower or bath. The other part is the tub surround, which covers the walls around the bathtub.

The tub surround is a bathtub enclosure that protects the walls from water damage. Every tub needs a surround for protection because water from showering would damage the drywall without it.

You could end up with soggy walls from the water damage, as well as mold and mildew in your bathroom.

The other feature of tub surrounds is the ledges, slots, and shelves they have. You use these areas to store your shower products.

When you decide to complete a bathroom renovation project, you may want to consider all the options you can choose from for your tub surround before selecting one.

What Are They Made Of?

When redoing your bathroom, you can decide what type of tub surround to choose. The main thing to know is that you can pick from different materials. All the materials have one thing in common, though: they’re waterproof.

Some of the common tub enclosure materials you can find are fiberglass, stone, ceramic, and acrylic. These are non-porous materials, which means they won’t absorb water or moisture. Instead, they block it.

What Types of Tub Enclosures Can You Choose?

You can choose from two main types of shower enclosures:

  • Stock
  • Custom

Stock enclosures are premade tub surrounds that you can purchase from home improvement stores. They come in limited types, materials, colors, and styles but cost less than custom surrounds.

The other option is custom tub enclosures. If you want your bathroom to look trendy, unique, and gorgeous, you may want to order a custom enclosure.

When you choose a custom shower enclosure, a company will build it for you and install it when ready or build it on-site. You’ll have more choices if you decide to go with a custom enclosure.

Plan Your Remodeling Project By Choosing the Right Tub Surround

What is a tub surround? After reading this guide, you should have a great understanding of what they are, why you need them, and the options you can choose.

You can talk to your remodeling contractor to learn more or visit a showroom to get some ideas.

If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of our blog for more informative blogs about remodeling projects.