You are going to get a lot of comments saying a shower without a door is cold, but we have one and it is not. Probably depends on your climate and the shape of the shower. Ours is about 4’ x 7’ with one end (4’) open and a sloped ceiling (9’ - 12’). Floors in the bathroom are heated (not in the shower), so the bathroom is always a little warmer than other rooms in the house in the winter. The real advantage to the open end is in the summer when any steam can rise and the showers can dry more quickly than if it were closed in. Much easier to keep clean.

Our shower is also 4x7, has a glass door but no other glass. Due to the configuration of the shower, water diesnt hit the door directly, just needs a quick squegee after showering. it is too cold if the door is open

We don't have a door on our shower and it's only chilly when the water is first turned on ... once you're in there and the water is warm, it's fine. Ours is much longer (3.5x 11) b/c it's a double shower and the opening is in the middle.

The problem with not having any glass in the shower area is that it will be pretty dark and cavelike. Sure, you can put a wet-rated recessed light in there, but not having natural light, too might feel a little claustrophobic. You could do something like this with glass blocks that maintains the flow of natural light and doesn't require the maintenance clear glass does:This

Glass Block Walls & Windows Highlight Modern Bath Remodel · More Info

This one has a door, but you could eliminate that.

I think it all depends on how good your design is. I have a large window and each shower has a wet-rated recessed light, plus light comes in from the rest of the bathroom. It's neither dark nor cavelike, but you do have to plan accordingly!

I was convinced by a designer to go with clear glass on my last remodel. I should have trusted my instincts and gone with frosted/patterned. It never looks clean enough.

If I had enough space to do a doorless shower, I would. That seems like a different subject to me, though. Clear vs opaque and doored vs doorless.

We are going from a glass block curved wall to a 6' pony wall. Shower should be decent size and has ots light so wont feel like a cave.

The very FIRST thing is your bath layout with all dimensions for everything. Where's that?: )

I prefer a shower curtain. It's so easy to clean (toss in the washer when needed) or re-style the bathroom by chaning out for another color/pattern.

Previous house had large doorless shower. I didn’t mind it in the summer but hated it in the winter. I would actually go and use the guest room bath that had shower/tub combo with shower curtain. We built our current house with a shower with glass door. We rinse, squeegee and then wipe it with a big fluffly microfiber towel. It always looks clean but we do not have hard water.

We have glass in our main bathoorm shower it gets squeegeed after every use takes maybe 2 minutes and then once a week I clean the glass well it has been great for us with minmal work and we do have a door also glass . I honestly do not find cleaning that on bit different than the tile shower we had in out old house

Have you explored having a water treatment system for the hard water? Perhaps could be done for just the bathroom or the entire home.

I HATE the open kind. So cold and breezy. Frosted glass is fine if that's what you like (I prefer clear and don't mind the water marks). But leave it open if you want - if you ever sell it's easy enough for the buyer to add a glass door to their preference.

Forgive the drone, please?. Post a very accurate drawing of the existing bath and surrounding area. Feet and inches all.........

I think it also depends on your physical abilities. We have a piece of glass now that we squeegee after every shower. It was okay until I started having back issues and bending over to reach the bottom was more difficult. Now that I’m 60 and building a new retirement house, I’m going with a full tiled open door shower, even though it’s in cold Michigan. My 84 year old mom has one and I love the low upkeep. I’d rather splurge on a towel heater and save my back.

When I remodeled I had my shower done with Showerguard. It is impregnated at the factory and isn't a spray on.

After six years of use, the glass is still pristine and I never squeegee. I just spray it done to get rid of any obvious globs of shampoo or conditioner as my last thing before I leave the shower. It gets cleaned once a week by my housekeeper with some kind of standard glass spray.

Thank you everyone! You've given some great ideas. When I saw the photo of the glass block shower I had to laugh. We have a condo in Maui and both showers, have glass block walls with no doors. Because of the warm weather there, they are not cold. But, my family thinks they are so outdated! I happen to love glass blocks. I will say, the 1/2" of grout between blocks gets mildewed and is hard to clean. I'm excited to learn about Showerguard. This could be an answer. But, it probably still means squeegeeing because of hard water. I will look into a water softener. The fact of aging and having a low upkeep shower is very appealing. I also showered in the guest bath that had a shower curtain so I didn't have to clean the full glass shower! Don't want to do this again. I don't have measurements or plans yet. The contractor is coming at the end of this month. Getting the shower right is very important to me due to what I consider mistakes I've made in the past.

@dcollins17 Our previous house master shower was glass block too.

@vinmarks That looks so similar to the shower in Maui! Same color tiles and rounded glass blocks. I think the picture above with the glass block wall and white with grey tile looks modern. But not our Maui one.

@dcollins17 I have Showerguard and my water is extremely hard - leaves crusty deposits.

My shower glass is pristine and I have never squeegeed in six years. During the pandemic I didn't have my housekeeper and so the glass wasn't even as regularly cleaned but it still cleaned up and has no deposits.

You have to buy the glass with the Showerguard as it isn't an after market product.

You can do a search of Houzz as there are some lengthy threads - some of which I started when I was remodeling and researching stuff including glass enclosures. There was no way I was going to squeegee every time the shower was used - I know myself.

I'm so happy to know this Helen! Now I can stop fretting!! I'll check out your other posts, too.

Here's what glaziers say about textured glass: difficult to keep clean but hides fingerprints better than smooth glass.