30 Useful Questions About Shower Glass

Check out our  frequently asked questions about Shower Glass Panels and Tempered / Toughened glass

You will find plenty of useful snippets on how shower screens and shower doors are made, cost and recommended sizes for shower screens, walk in showers and enclosures. and everything else shower glass.

1) How much do Shower Glass Doors Cost?

For a Bespoke Shower Glass Door with fixtures seals and hinges, Expect to pay approximately £300-500 for the door. Saying this, if you were to opt for Low Iron Glass with Easy-clean surface protection and gold plated hinges and handle it could be up to £1000.00

2) What Glass is used for Shower Screens and Panels?

In the UK, USA and other Countries, Glass has to be Toughened or Tempered Glass. Glass supplied as ready-made kits can be as thin as 5mm thick however if you go for a bespoke or custom made glass, you would expect to use either 8mm,10mm or 12mm glass.

3) How thick should shower glass be?

For Custom made glass or Bespoke Frameless glass the glass is usually 8mm, 10mm or 12mm in thickness. For bath panels this can be 6mm in thickness. For off the shelf glass, the thickness can be as low as 5mm glass. We recommend that all shower glass starts at 8mm.

4) Are Frameless Shower Doors safe?

If a frameless shower door is installed correctly and at the right thickness it will be safe to use for many years. If an incorrectly installed frameless door struck a tile or the correct rubbers or inserts are not used, this could potentially cause the door to break. Also wrenching the door or not treating it correctly can cause damage.

5) Are Shower Screens made from safety glass?

For Building Regulations and for general safety to human beings, shower doors should be Tempered or Toughened. This process will strengthen the glass and if the glass were to unfortunately break, the glass would shatter into small ice-cube shaped pieces. Although they can cut you, generally it's not life-threatening.

If the glass is not toughened it could break into large shards that could certainly cause much more damage than toughened glass.

6) What way should a shower door swing? In or out?

Good practice says that a shower door should open outwards in case of a slip or fall that will allow easy access for assisted help to that person such if that were to unfortunately ever happen. A door can swing in and out if the room allows for this type of set-up. 

7) Do Frameless Shower Doors leak water?

A well-planned shower enclosure will minimize any leak, that said there are small gaps to consider where you find the hinges on most bespoke glass doors.

You could use a continuous shower door hinge to overcome this problem. Frameless Glass Doors usually have seals supplied that are placed on both sides of the door and a wipe seal that will go across the bottom of the door. You could also consider a threshold.

8) How do frameless shower doors work?

Frameless shower doors are usually mounted either to an adjacent Glass Panel with hinges or directly to a wall. The fixed panel can be mounted by using a U-Channel or Glass Clips or could be just sunken into the tiles. To stabilize the glass you will find plenty of supporting arms, braces and brackets.

9) Why did my shower glass shatter by itself?

On the rarest of occasions, the best explanation is a Nickle inclusion that can be found in the glass itself. When the glass heats up or cools down, it does so at a different rate to the rest of the glass and can cause spontaneous breakage. Another reason could be that poor installation or the glass has simply moved from its original position and is striking a tile for instance.

10) What is the smallest size shower door width?

Ideally the minimum size for a shower door should be 600mm however smaller sizes have been produced. we have had doors that are specifically made for pets that are only 400mm wide and 1200mm in height. It does depend on the user and the application.

11) How long does it take to install a frameless shower?

For a Shower Glass Door alone it could take up to 2 hrs for a fixed glass panel and a door it could take 3-4 hrs and a fully bespoke shower it could take 4-6 hrs. A bespoke sliding door with 2 or 3 panels can also take up to 6 hrs to complete, this would include all cleaning and adjustments.

12) What's the difference between a framed and frameless shower.

Generally, framed shower screens can be bought off the shelf and they would have a bold or thicker frame that surrounds every part of the glass. A semi or frameless shower has the minimum amount of fittings surrounding the door and enclosure and is usually bespoke or custom in nature.

13) How wide does a walk-in shower screen need to be?

Depending on the type of tray, the position of the shower head and the pressure of water that comes out all determine the width of a shower screen. Normally 1200mm or larger is sufficed to cover any water that could otherwise splash into the bathroom area.

14) How much do frameless showers cost?

Depending on the overall layout of the enclosure, the height / Width and how many individual panels are required to determine the cost.

A typical inline setup with1 door and 1 adjacent panel can cost from £500.00 to £1000.00 depending again on several factors. A floor to ceiling 3 sided enclosure with Low iron Glass could cost up to £2500.00

15) How long does it take to order and receive a bespoke shower?

Typically it can take between 1-2 weeks for delivery from order however, if there is a requirement for a special glass or Intricate cutting details required, this could add longer lead times for glass enclosure.

16) What's the difference between a wet-room and a walk-in shower?

Quite simply its a glass panel. A complete wet-room design would not have the need for a glass screen as the whole floor area would be designed to allow for this.
a walk-in shower would normally have only a certain area that can accommodate a wet area, a glass panel would help with keeping the water confined to this area only.

17) Do Frameless Shower Doors or Frameless Shower Enclosures add value to my home?

Always, Going bespoke or custom made shower will always outshine an off the shelf enclosure. The idea behind a frameless glass is to make the glass blend in rather than stand out in a bathroom or wet-room. Any purchaser will accept this costs more than a standardized shower and can see the added value.

18) Can you see through tempered glass?

Tempered Glass looks exactly the same as non-tempered glass, on occasion if you look across the face of the glass from the side you might just see some roller marks/ impressions when the glass passed through the tempering furnace.

19) Is all tempered glass green?

No, regular float annealed glass is green. You can temper Low-Iron Glass, this is almost clear when looking towards the face of the glass, the edge of the Low-Iron glass is usually a pretty aqua coloured as opposed to the dark green edge of regular Annealed Glass. 

You can also temper the tinted glass including Bronze, Grey, Blue and Green (bottle colour)

20) Can you tell if glass is tempered?

Most countries ask that all toughened glass has a safety standards mark either in one of the corners on the face of the glass or on the edge (furniture stamp). It can also be produced with a certificate by the glass producer.

Visually, the glass looks exactly the same as regular un-tempered glass. If you were to look at the face of tempered glass, sometimes you can see roller marks where the glass has passed through a tempering furnace.

21) Does Low-Iron glass have a green edge?

Low Iron Glass has less of a green edge than Regular Glass. Low-Iron glass has more of an Aqua colour on the edges, the larger the glass the darker the edge of the glass becomes. This is due to the amount of Iron in the glass that is being refracted to the edge. Unfortunately, If you take all the iron or of the glass, the glass will fail as Iron Oxide is one of the components required to form glass.

22) Is tempered glass fragile? 

Tempered glass can be 4-5 times as strong as regular non-tempered glass and is extremely hard to break on the flat surface, this includes bending of the glass. However, the edges of the glass are the weakest area and even if gently hit can damage a corner/ splinter the edge or worse case destroy the whole panel.

23) What's the widest a shower door can be?

Depending on the Hinge configuration Glass Shower Doors can be ordered up to 1000mm in width and approx 60 Kgs in weight so that would mean a 12mm thick glass door could be 1000mm wide by 2000mm in height. In 10mm it would be 1000mm wide x 2400mm in height.

24) Which is better Framed or Frameless Shower Doors?

Depending on the application, for standardized openings then you could put an off the shelf or framed shower door. If the size of the opening is a non-standard size then Ideally a Frameless shower Door works best. For aesthetics, frameless is the most popular choice due to the ability to blend into a bathroom or shower room.

25) Are Frameless Shower Doors better than Shower Curtains?

3 good reasons to choose a shower glass door over shower curtains are: 

1. Shower curtains attract bacteria more so than Shower Glass
2. Shower curtains can make the room look smaller
3. Shower curtains can make the room look darker.

26) What is better, frosted Shower screen or a Clear shower screen?

This comes down to the design and privacy aspects. Doors you may find in a public area such as a Gym or Spa, for instance, are generally Frosted so to give the user privacy when using the shower.

Clear glass is ideal at home as normally most people will have a lock on the bathroom/ shower room door. Some people will choose a mixture of clear glass with a privacy strip.

27) Can you see through frosted glass?

Normally if the glass is Sandblasted or Acid-etched it's not fully transparent, it will, however, show a silhouette. If the glass has been treated on just one side and that side becomes wet it does become more see-through!

28) What is the best Type of Shower Door?

Ideally, the best types of shower doors are a hinged door from either a wall or an adjacent glass panel. Other configurations can include a bi-folding door, salon doors where there is a door on each side of the opening or a sliding door by means of rollers on a top or bottom rail.

29) What height is a regular shower glass door?

There is no set limit to the height of the shower door, generally, they can average out between 1850mm and 1950mm but if you have restricted head height the can be as low as 1700mm or if you have very tall ceilings and looking for a full enclosure, you could go as high as 2500mm or more.

30) Does a Walk-in Shower need a door?

If the design is proven correct then there should not be a need for a door however sometimes you might find water splashing outside the designated wet area. Retrospectively doors can be fitted to a walk-in shower, the shower then becomes enclosed and will retain the water to the designated area correctly.

If you need any more help with shower screens or panels, please visit our updated version Shower Glass FAQ V2

if your ready to install, have you got the right kit? visit our what tools do shower glass installers use