Planning Guide
Planning a frameless shower enclosure before the walls close up
Most disappointing frameless showers were decided months before the glass arrived. The glass is the last item installed and the least flexible: it is cut to the opening that exists, and tempered panels cannot be trimmed. This guide walks through the decisions in the order a renovation actually makes them, so the enclosure you want is still possible by the time anyone measures for it.
Written by the Gloria Glass installation team
Stage one: layout, while it is still a drawing
Three things on the plan determine what the glass can be. First, where the shower head sits relative to the door — spray aimed at a door gap will find it, whatever the hardware. Second, which way the door swings and what it clears: a vanity, a WC, a towel rail or a door into the room can each make a swing impractical, and discovering that at installation is expensive. Third, where the hinge side lands, because that wall has to carry load.
It is also the moment to be honest about the configuration. A single fixed screen with no door is the simplest, cheapest and most reliable enclosure there is, and in a generously sized walk-in it often outperforms a door-and-panel arrangement. A neo-angle in a tight corner is efficient but sensitive to construction accuracy. Choosing the configuration for the space rather than for the photograph is the single highest-leverage decision in the whole project.
Stage two: framing, blocking and the curb
Frameless hardware transfers real load into the wall. Hinges, clamps and support bars need solid backing behind the finish — blocking between studs, a stud in the right place, or another appropriate substrate. Adding blocking during framing costs almost nothing. Adding it after the tile is on means opening a finished wall.
The curb or threshold is decided here too. A conventional curb is straightforward and forgiving. A low threshold or a fully curbless shower depends on the floor assembly: whether the framing can be recessed or the slab depressed, where the drain sits, what slope can be achieved within the available depth, and how the waterproofing is detailed. That is a builder, designer and plumber decision, not a glazier's — and nobody should promise you a curbless shower from photographs. Once the assembly is confirmed buildable, the glass is detailed to it.
One more framing-stage item: walls that are plumb and corners that are square make a frameless enclosure look right. Frameless glass has very little tolerance to absorb deviation, and a panel set against a wall that leans shows the gap. Where a wall cannot be made true, a semi-frameless configuration with slim channel is a better answer than forcing the frameless look.
Stage three: waterproofing, slope and where water goes
A frameless enclosure directs water; it does not seal a compartment. Whether it keeps water in the shower is mostly decided by the floor. The slope has to carry water to the drain rather than toward the door line. The threshold, if there is one, needs to be pitched inward. Sweeps and seals do the last few percent of the work, not the first eighty.
Consider also what happens outside the enclosure. A bathroom floor that continues under a door swing will collect drips regardless of hardware. That is normal for a frameless enclosure and worth expecting rather than treating as a defect.
Stage four: finishes, then measurement
Final measurement happens after tile, stone or panel finishes are complete and the curb is set. This is not a scheduling preference — it is the constraint that makes the enclosure fit. Finished surfaces change dimensions, and out-of-plumb tile changes them differently at the top and the bottom. Measuring earlier means fabricating glass for an opening that no longer exists.
Build the wait into the programme. Once measured, panels are drawn, approved, fabricated, edged, cut out and tempered before installation, and that sequence takes time that varies with the fabricator's queue. Planning for a gap between "tiling finished" and "shower usable" avoids the pressure that produces bad decisions.
Stage five: hardware, glass and coatings
Choose the plumbing fixture finish first, then match the glass hardware to it. Doing it the other way round leads to near-misses that are more noticeable than deliberate contrast. Confirm hinge type against the swing you agreed at stage one, and confirm handle and towel bar positions before the drawing is approved — every hole is fabricated before tempering.
On glass: clear tempered is the default, low-iron reduces the green cast that shows at thick edges, and obscured options trade sightlines for privacy. A hydrophobic coating makes the surface easier to keep clear, particularly where water is hard. It reduces cleaning; it does not remove it, and it is not permanent. Read our guide to laminated and tempered glass for why shower panels are tempered in the first place.
The five mistakes we see most
- No blocking behind the hinge wall, discovered after tiling.
- A door swing that fouls the vanity, discovered at installation.
- Floor slope that runs toward the door line rather than the drain.
- Measuring before finishes are complete, then trying to make fabricated glass fit a changed opening.
- Ordering hardware in a finish chosen before the plumbing fixtures were settled.
Every one of those is cheap to avoid at the right stage and expensive to correct later, which is the entire argument for involving whoever is making the glass earlier than most renovation schedules assume.
Where to go next
For configurations, hardware, process and estimate inputs, see frameless shower enclosures. For the bathroom's other glass, see custom mirrors, and for routine care read how to care for frameless glass.