Tub-to-shower conversion in Davie, 10 days.

Owners on the acre lots in the Rural Ranches, Agriculture and R-1 districts ask me first whether a conversion is even allowed. It almost always is, because a conversion swaps one fixture for one fixture: the tub drain becomes the shower drain, and the system isn't asked to carry anything it wasn't sized for. The one thing that changes the answer is a moved drain line, which can't cross the drain field.

• On septic I don't add a second shower on its own drain or a body-spray system. One drain, one trap.

If your lot is in the Rural Ranches or Rural Estates land-use categories, the town lets you stay on a private well as long as you file an annual well-test affidavit, and that test covers hardness, iron and hydrogen sulfide. Those three decide a conversion's finishes. Iron stains light grout and white tile orange; hardness spots glass; sulfide shortens the life of some valve cartridges. Bring me the last affidavit, or we'll test, and I'll pick to match: a mid-tone porcelain, a high-performance grout, a hinged door rather than a fixed panel where spotting will be constant, and a valve with a cartridge the plumber can swap.

• Town water customers get something different: Davie Utilities made all of its 2025 water at the System V plant, Floridan Aquifer water run through reverse osmosis, with 53 ppm of sodium in the finished water.
• Streets served by Sunrise, Hollywood, Ferncrest, Broward County or Fort Lauderdale bulk water each have their own chemistry. I check the town's service-area lookup before I write the quote.

The subdivision houses in Forest Ridge, Pine Island Ridge and the 1980s tracts sit on a slab, where the mortar pan goes straight on the concrete and a curbless entry needs a linear drain or a recess. The older rural houses often have a raised wood floor over a crawl space, where the plumber sets the drain from below and a zero threshold comes easier. Then there are the mobile homes, almost 15 percent of all Davie housing and most of the east side, including Park City Estates with about 1,200 sites. In a mobile home I look at the floor framing before I promise a mortar pan. Sometimes it carries one; sometimes a lighter pan is the honest answer, and I'll say which on the first visit.

• Forest Ridge and Long Lake Ranches: HOA documents to the first visit, gate access on the schedule.