Date: 11/6/2021
With so many shower glass enclosures online, choosing the right enclosure or door for your new bathroom can be intimidating. Usually the contractor may offer a suggestion or you may go to your local home improvement retail store which may have a model of shower door you like. This is all fine and can keep your stress down but its better to be informed on the various types of shower enclosures and why a custom shower door could be right for you.
What makes a custom shower glass enclosure custom? and why is it more expensive than a box at home depot?
More often then not the tile of the shower can be off to an angle or is bowed in the center where the glass will be sat or pressed against. This is due to various of reasons the home could be at a slope causing warping and changes in the foundation and walls, the masonry worker, tries their best to minimize the impact that this will have when making the shower but sometimes it still has an effect. The home owner has a certain plan for the shower enclosure which the masonry worker has to abide to the home owner may not have thought how this plan can effect the efficiency and structure of the shower. Lastly human error, sometimes a tile sticks out a centimeter more than the others and the worker just didn’t see it in time or the wall has a small slope meaning a bigger gap at the top or bottom this happens. Unless you want to wait another week you have to just live with it. Sometimes that error of tile is just perfectly on the line where the glass will lay.
So when buying a stock door at home depot the measurements are already cut at straight angles meaning gaps can stay or the glass should fit but because one small section of the wall is an inch to tight the whole door cant go in. This is when custom shower doors are a great option, once the tile is set and done a glazier can come in for a free estimate and measurement. Measuring the opening, taking into account any bumps or differences between the walls, using his experience to see what type of shower door will work best and also providing a price. This glass is custom for the glass is made and cut to the specifics of that shower and to what the customer wants maybe the the customer wants a sliding shower door. The price can be more for the fact that it is built to the customer specifications, higher quality materials are used, and of course the manual labor of installing the glass securely for the costumer.
Now that we have a better idea of what a custom shower door is for a customer what options are there?
First lets break it down to the framing of the shower door; there’s frameless showers which have the least amount metal used to give it a floating look or clean look, semi-frameless which uses some metal frame and the glass is more thin, and finally framed which is cheaper then frameless and can coordinate the metal frame finish with the other fixtures but can obstruct the view of the tile behind.
To keep this article short I will list pro’s and con’s for each type of frame.
Frameless Pros: Provides a clean look or floating look making the shower door more elegant, view of the tile design that you payed for, most popular and modern today, glass is thick and sturdy, easiest to clean and less corrosion of metal.
Frameless Cons: Most expensive, depends on hinges and fasteners so if the enclosure is missing necessary studs or the costumer wants a long shower door a full frameless may not be a option, higher possibility of leaking out through the door gaps to the floor and metal finishes are less.
Semi-Frameless Pros: Provides a view to the tile, can enable for long extensions of glass, cheaper than frameless, leaks less and more metal finish options.
Semi- Frameless Cons: Obstructs view more than frameless, glass can be thinner, metal degrades over time and harder to clean.
Framed Pros: Cheapest of the 3, most options for metal finishes and colors and leaks less than frameless and semi-frameless.
Framed Cons: Obstructs view of tile, Metal corrodes, and hardest to clean.
Now lets talk about glass types besides the framing some costumers want the glass to be obscure or give the illusion of rain. Most of the glass can be made for all types of frames but again it can vary. Mains ones are clear, tinted glass, rain glass, and obscure. Most are tempered with frameless clear glass having more options for glass thickness.
Time to turn attention to shower door design, we have swing doors, pivot doors, bypass doors, fixed panels and various sliders
Whether framed or frameless swing doors are the most common opening for a shower door we install. Frameless usually have universal hinges meaning can open in and out with only a plastic stop as to restrict on side (optional) while framed would be fixed to either open in or out. Pivot doors are similar.
Some homeowners are happy with just a fixed panel to deflect water meaning no door just a open entry way into the shower. This can be a good option for showers that have deep walkways.
Sliders/Bypass doors, there are various sliders we can choose from, on the frameless side the most popular style are the barn door showers. This means a fixed panel on one preferring the opposite of the shower head side. The door being on rollers gliding on top of the header. Another option is the dual sliders when both sides are doors this can come in any framing form. Sliders are a good option when limited in space or to ensure optimal space. Due to more hardware usually the slider options can cost more than a simple swing doors.
Most shower doors can come be provided in the finish you would but some models of hardware are limited to the most common colors.
Theres still a lot more to choosing the perfect shower.