When our house was built 10 years ago, the shower door and two sliding glass doors to the exterior were very low quality. We've since upgraded all three. I'm wondering if you just go with the standard, if you might be able to upgrade later to a higher quality frameless shower door than the builder would install for equal to or less than the price of the $2200 upgrade. A shower door is a fairly easy install for a pro. I think our old one was out and the new one in in just a couple hours.

If at all possible, I would go with the upgrade. Are there other places in the in the budget that you can tweak. You probably won't be happy with the chrome shower door and in a few years when you replace it, the cost will be more. Good luck!

Definitely try and go for the frameless. It is such a clean seamless look and you will never regret it. Things like that are important to do from the outset, because you will probably never be inclined to replace it once it is done. Good luck!

I'm wondering about the price too. If it's VERY high quality, it might be worth it now, but if not, buy your own of very high quality later. I just went to a design center with a friend buying a new home and some of the upgrades were too high in price, with not very good upgrade options. The upgrades (brand names) I would have wanted weren't in the list of options.

i'd go frameless and skip upgrading the tile or something else. when you walk in and see the framed, fancy tile wont help. when you walk in and see the frameless you'll never notice the tile.

I agree I hate the framed ones I have been now to rip them out and put in shower curtains. gun collects on the frame. I am now looking for a non custom frameless door option. Can anyone hep with that ? which would be the best company Dreamline etc? thanks and I hope you go for it and get frameless you wont regret doing so.

Uh, unless you're shower is as big a cathedral, you should be able to get frameless 10mm clear for a lot less than that, even in Canada. I'm a full Journeyman and I don't charge close to that.

That's what I was thinking VanGo.

Go frameless and don't look back or blink. I hesitated at the price tag too and thank goodness my husband said... "we came this far why stop now"... it is what makes the bathroom!!

Frameless! I had a framed one in my last house, and now I have frameless. Frameless looks so much nicer!!!

Sunnydrew, what a fun day at your house!!!!!

Have to agree, go frameless - from the beginning. They are expensive whenever you do it, might as well buy your house exactly as you want it now.

I think there might be quite a variety in quality of shower doors. If so, that would be the deciding factor for me. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples when making the decision. If the price is close to the same for the same quality, I'd go with the builder. But, if you can get a higher end door through an outside contractor (for the same price), go with an outside source.

Here is one article about it (from a shower door company) and it does look like quality can vary. I'm not familiar with this company, but I just did a quick google search on shower door quality and this looked kind of informative.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/9339525/thumbs/understanding-cost-variation-in-frameless-shower-doors

Everyone seems to love the frameless showers. We always try to minimize the amount of metal by having the door hinge again the wall rather than at piece of glass. Usually you will not need a metal top rail. You will also have the option of clamps or c-channel along the bottom. I have a picture were the owner wanted the heavy duty clamps and hardware and no c-channels. This shower also has custom 3/8" thick dot glass that obscures the view.

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I would do frameless. I can't stand our framed shower doors..the track is a pain to clean, not to say impossible. The fewer things to clean, the better. Agree with Overland Remodeling about the seal. A friend of mine has the shower doors sealed and they still need use the squeegee

Go for it, you will not regret it!!!!!!!

Wow, just saw this thread after I posted a similar question. From what I am seeing here, they seem much, much easier to maintain than a standard metal framed shower. Hope they become classic. We won't be redoing our bathroom again, not after our upcoming redo, unless we win the lottery. We aren't breaking the bank but we sure aren't going under budget either.

The frameless looks really cool. It will make the space look bigger, and as someone before said, cleaner.

When discussing showers & quality, the main difference is selecting between custom & big box kits, which generally leak. Badly.

Other factors influencing price are:

1. Thickness of glass used

2. Type of glass used

3. Whether the installer is a trained glazier or not, and

4. Hardware used. It should be solid brass, then coated in your finish of choice. Clips are preferred to u-channel.

95% of my work is 10mm/ 3/8" clear "greenish" glass, even for high end design clients. Going to 12mm/ 1/2" is a bit more money but some people prefer the look. Keep in mind it does add more strain on the hardware due to weight and often requires larger hinges (which cost more).

The other clear glass opotion is low iron or "Starfire" which reduces the greenish hue. This adds significantly to the cost of the glass (up to 50% of glass cost), and therefore could be contributing to the $2200 price tag mentioned above IF they are quoting Starfire.

Do not use u-channel/ c-channel. Installers using it generally do so because they don't trust themselves to measure accurately to within 1/8" (industry standard). U-channel allows installers to cheat by hiding inaccurate measurements, but it gathers muck quickly and just doesn't look as nice as a proper frameless installation.

"Diamond coating "or whatever they call it is a cash grab. Buy glass sealer and apply it after installation but before using your shower for the first time. It is not an expensive product.

I only mentioned Canada because we have to pay more for materials than our US counterparts, so one would expect American pricing would be less than mine, not more. I am a Journeyman Glazier with 25 years experience in finishing glasswork.

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