Upgrading a Builder-Grade Ensuite in Aurora

Have you been looking at the big corner whirlpool tub and narrow shower stall in your Aurora primary ensuite and wondering how to make better use of the room? Step into almost any detached two-storey home built between 1990 and 2010 across Bayview Northeast, Bayview Wellington, Bayview Southeast, Aurora Grove or Aurora Highlands and you will spot the same builder floor plan: a massive corner tub set into a wide tiled box under the window, right beside a 32- or 36-inch shower stall with a framed aluminum door. Two decades later, the corner tub rarely gets filled, the shower stall feels cramped every morning, and the silicone seams along the deck keep splitting. Here is how Aurora homeowners are reworking that room into a comfortable and functional retreat—and what each option costs.

Five telltale problems in a 20-year-old Aurora builder bathroom

Across Aurora’s family subdivisions, original builder primary ensuites and upstairs hall baths share five weak spots that show up around the 15- to 25-year mark:

• A corner tub platform that swallows 20 to 25 square feet of floor area while gathering dust and blocking comfortable access to the window.
• A tight fibreglass or 4-inch-tiled shower stall with a framed door track that traps soap scum and a tired mixing valve that swings from hot to cold.
• A low 30-inch oak or melamine vanity with a single basin, cultured-marble top and open cabinet doors instead of deep drawers.
• Cold 12 x 12 inch ceramic floor tiles with wide, darkened grout lines laid over the bedroom hallway or garage ceiling below.
• A noisy, low-CFM builder exhaust fan that leaves steam on the mirror and peeling paint along the ceiling line.

The advantage in Bayview Northeast, Bayview Wellington and Aurora Grove houses is that the underlying ABS drain stacks and floor framing are modern, giving you three clear ways to reconfigure the room depending on whether you want to keep a bathtub in the primary suite.

Four high-value upgrades for an Aurora subdivision ensuite

1. Replace the corner tub and small stall with one generous walk-in shower

When your upstairs hall bathroom already has an alcove bathtub for kids or guests, taking the corner tub out of the primary ensuite is often the smartest layout decision. Removing both the corner platform and the narrow stall opens up a 5- to 7-foot wall for a custom walk-in shower enclosed in 10 mm frameless glass, complete with a built-in stone bench, recessed shampoo niche, linear or point drain, and an overhead rainfall head paired with a slide-bar hand shower.

Whenever a conversion moves the drain across the floor or upsizes a 1.5-inch tub waste to a 2-inch shower trap, the Town of Aurora Building Division treats that change as a plumbing alteration requiring a permit. Source: Town of Aurora: Plumbing and Drain Permit Application & Building Division Guidelines (accessed November 7, 2026) Visit our tub-to-shower conversion page and our frameless marble walk-in shower case study for completed examples.

2. Swap the corner platform for a freestanding tub and expanded glass shower

In wider ensuites across Bayview Southeast, Aurora Highlands, Hills of St. Andrew and Aurora Estates where you still enjoy soaking in a tub, demolishing the framed lumber deck and setting a sculptural freestanding oval tub under the window reclaims valuable floor space—leaving room to widen the shower beside it into a curbless or low-curb glass enclosure. See how that transformation looks in the before-and-after slider below and in our freestanding tub and pebble-floor primary bathroom case study.

3. Install a comfort-height double vanity with quartz top and drawer banks

Contemporary vanities sit at 34 to 36 inches tall—much easier on your back than 1990s 30-inch cabinets—and combine centre drawer towers with an undermount quartz countertop, dual faucets and backlit LED mirrors. Under the Town of Aurora’s guidelines, replacing bathroom cabinetry and countertops in the same position without plumbing changes does not require a municipal building permit; see our bookmatched marble double-vanity ensuite case study. Source: Town of Aurora: Applications, Permits and Inspections (When are Permits Not Required?) (accessed November 7, 2026)

4. Add electric radiant floor heating, wet-rated pot lights and a quiet fan

Many primary ensuites in Aurora sit right above the unheated garage ceiling, making porcelain tile floors freezing cold on winter mornings. Laying an electric floor-heating cable into an uncoupling membrane beneath the new tile—connected to a programmable thermostat on an ESA-inspected circuit—keeps the floor warm and helps dry shower splashes quickly.

What a builder-grade ensuite remodel costs in Aurora

Our published labour package for a 9 x 12 ft four-piece primary ensuite is $11,500 and includes demolishing the old corner tub deck, shower stall and bulkhead, relocating the toilet and shower drains, building a curbless frameless-glass walk-in shower with a bench and niche, converting a single sink to a double vanity, installing a 2-way rain shower, four pot lights, two vanity sconces, an exhaust fan and a one-piece toilet. When a larger 15 x 8 ft primary suite combines a freestanding soaking tub and walk-in shower inside a continuous waterproofed wet zone, our published labour package is $15,000. All-in with finish materials (porcelain or stone tile, vanity, quartz, glass and fixtures), primary ensuites in Aurora typically start at $30,000 or more.

Compare full room-size price bands and individual trade line items on our Aurora bathroom renovation cost page or explore our full bathroom renovation service.

What about condos along Yonge Street & Wellington Street?

If you live in a condominium building or stacked townhome along Yonge Street, Wellington Street or Bayview Avenue, a builder-grade bathroom usually means a compact 5 x 8 ft room with plain ceramic tile, a shallow vanity and dim lighting inside the tub alcove.

Remodelling an Aurora condo bathroom follows four building rules:

• Condo board alteration sign-off comes first. We provide our written scope of work, active WSIB clearance certificate and commercial liability insurance naming the condominium corporation.
• Reserved service elevators. All tools, tile deliveries and disposal bags travel through padded elevators during booked windows.
• Weekday daytime noise rules. Tile stripping and cutting take place strictly within the building’s permitted weekday hours.
• Fixtures remain on existing slab drains. Because drain traps are cast into the concrete floor slab, we keep the toilet and tub/shower drains in their existing positions and upgrade the room with a walk-in glass shower, floating vanity, backlit mirror and full-height porcelain. Visit our small and condo bathrooms page and read our condo shower and powder room case study.

Planning your Aurora ensuite remodel

• Check whether your new layout moves any drains by reading our article on Aurora bathroom renovation permits.
• See how we prepare scaled layout drawings prior to demolition on our 5-step renovation process page.
• Verify contractor credentials with our checklist on how to vet a bathroom contractor in Aurora.

Ready for a written price on your bathroom? Send us a few photos of your Aurora ensuite on our free quote page and we will prepare a line-by-line written estimate backed by our written labour warranty.