Start with the bathroom you actually have. A lot of Vancouver housing stock is older, and East Van bungalows or century homes in Grandview-Woodland often have small, tucked-away bathrooms with dated plumbing. A good installer will check whether your hot water tank can fill the tub quickly, because a bigger tub with a slow fill and a cold wait is a common regret. In condos downtown or in Yaletown, the questions shift to strata rules, water shut-off access, and moving materials through shared hallways and elevators. Ask about that early.
For the tub itself, prioritize a low or zero-threshold step-in, a quick-drain time so no one sits shivering while the water empties, and a comfortable seat height that lets your parent stand back up easily. Built-in grab bars and an anti-scald valve should be standard, not upgrades you have to fight for. When you talk to installers, ask specifically about seniors and accessibility work. Someone who does this daily will think about transfer space, door swing, and where a caregiver stands, not just the fixture.
Confirm the basics too: licensing and insurance in BC, a written warranty on both the tub and the labour, and how fast they respond if a seal leaks or the drain acts up. In our experience, service response matters more than the lowest quote, because a walk-in tub is a plumbing fixture your parent uses every day.
Here's our take. If your budget is tight, a well-installed grab bar and a shower seat can be safer sooner, and we'd steer some people there first. But if bathing is the goal and your parent still enjoys a soak, buy the walk-in tub and pay for professional installation, not a handyman fix. The trade-off is honest: it costs more up front and ties up the bathroom for a day or two, but a proper watertight door and correct drainage are exactly where cheap work fails.
