Home › Pennsylvania

Bathtub Installation in Pennsylvania

Across the 303 Pennsylvania towns we cover, 36,775 housing units lack complete plumbing facilities — hot and cold piped water, a flush toilet and a bathtub or shower. That is 1.41% of the 2,607,649 units in those towns.

Quick answer

In Pennsylvania, 1.41% of housing units across the 303 covered towns lack complete plumbing facilities, or 36,775 units. Lacking means missing any one of piped hot and cold water, a flush toilet, or a bathtub or shower.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25047.

TubSet is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. Every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check, so you can confirm before work begins. We carry out no work, we sell no fixtures, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

What the figure is, and is not

36,775Housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities across the 303 Pennsylvania towns we cover. American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25047, 2023 release.

Pennsylvania ranks 14 of 38 among the states we cover on this measure. That is above the 1.05% we measure across all of them.

It is a count of housing units, including vacant ones, and it covers the towns we route in rather than the whole state — our coverage is uneven between states, so this is not a statement about Pennsylvania as a whole. What the definition actually means is worth two minutes.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25047, 2023 release. Universe: 2,607,649 housing units, including vacant ones.

Why this site has no town pages

Because the town-level version of that figure is a column of zeroes. Measured across 4,387 towns the median is 0.7%, the tenth percentile is 0.0%, and 918 towns are at exactly zero. Thousands of pages whose central fact is "0%" would be worse than none.

At state level the same measure holds up — a tenfold spread between the states we cover — so the state page is the smallest unit the data honestly supports.

What most people here are actually dealing with

Not a missing bathroom, but an existing one. Whether to replace a tub or refinish it turns on whether the complaint is how it looks or how it behaves. What is behind the tub — the wall, the drain and overflow, the subfloor — is where the cost and the surprises come from.

And CDC’s injury study contains the fact that should shape any of it: 37.3% of bathroom injuries happened bathing, showering or getting out of the tub, against 2.2% getting in.

Source: CDC, MMWR: Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years, United States, 2008.

The published dimensions, if you are changing anything

The ADA standards set grab bars at bathtubs 33 to 36 inches high, 1¼ to 2 inches in diameter, with an absolute 1½ inch clearance from the wall. They govern facilities covered by the ADA rather than private homes, so in a house they are a reference rather than a requirement — and a better one than guessing.

Source: US Access Board, ADA Standards, Chapter 6: Bathing Rooms.

Checking a plumber in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has no state license for plumbers. Its Department of Labor and Industry states it has no jurisdiction and keeps no records of which municipalities require one, so the only reliable answer is your own city or township. Start here. Ask the contractor which municipality licenses them and confirm it with that office before work begins.

Changing a tub is mostly about what is behind it.Tell us what you want done and we will route you to a contractor in your area, found from your ZIP code, who can look at the wall and the floor before quoting. No charge to you, and we will not ask you why. Anything else needing a plumber is fine to bring up while we have you.

Call (888) 764-3080