Any experience with selecting frameless shower glass/ door?

By "remains clear" I meant it doesn't have the green tint that other glass does, not that it doesn't get dirty or water spots.

Mine is referred to as “semi-frameless” which means the actual door itself is frameless, but the surround has a frame. Mine is thick, but I don’t think it is a full 1/2”. I’ll measure the thickness shortly.

I have seen truly frameless shower doors in hotels and they look damn nice. If you opt for frameless, I would get the thickest glass available.

I have never seen glass get a green tint, so I wouldn’t bother with that. The only thing that I have seen is shower doors invariably get cloudy due to etching of the glass by chemicals/minerals in the water, so I would get a style of glass that you can tolerate that on. You don’t want to be tempted to change the glass out every couple of years when it gets cloudy.

Another thing I have noticed on the frameless is that depending on placement of the showerhead, they sometimes tend to leak all over the floor. If opting for frameless, be sure you are comfortable with the sealing mechanism.

Glass shower guy here. I've installed thousands. I've manufactured tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of showers.

Your two basic types of glass are 3/8 and 1/2". 3/8" is used in like 95% or more of shower enclosures. 1/2" is used where it's structurally needed, or if someone just wants to spend the extra money because they have it.

Clear vs Low-Iron. I'm not a big upseller on low-iron unless I think the room needs it. Most showers are fine with standard clear. If you have a very white bathroom, low-iron may be beneficial. With more neutral color bathrooms you don't really notice the green tint. 1/2" has more of a tint than 3/8.

Coatings: There are a couple types of this. One is applied at the float facility when the glass is made, and another is applied after the glass is tempered at your local fabricator. The factory-coated stuff is pretty legit, but they price it like it's legit (sometimes 2-3x the cost of the glass). It actually seals the micro-pits in the glass. The fabricator-applied coating is less expensive, but it does have a lifespan, regardless of what the guy selling it to you says. It's basically a hydrophobic coating that sheds water more so than keeps it clean. Depending on the hardness of your water, a coating may or may not be necessary.

A cheaper solution is to apply Rain-X every few months. Just depends on if you want that hassle. It'll also get you pretty high when you're applying it in a closed space.

1/2" low-iron in a white bathroom:



1/2" standard clear in a light-colored bathroom:



1/2" standard clear in neutral bathroom:



3/8" standard clear in white bathroom:



3/8" standard clear in neutral bathroom:

That's nice work Bottomland! Are you in Southern Louisiana?

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That's nice work Bottomland! Are you in Southern Louisiana?

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back off!!

BB is a national treasure here in nashville.

Tempered glass is a mysterious material. I temper glass all day, and while I know how it physically works, it still kind of has a mind of it's own. It's impressive just how much stress is placed on the molecular structure.

The impurity mentioned to you is known as an inclusion. It's basically a tiny fragment of metal that gets in the glass when it is made at at the float facility. Most of the time the inclusion is too smal to be seen with the naked eye. When the glass gets tempered, the stress around that inclusion can cause the glass to explode right away, or it could take years. When you were out of town, was it colder or hotter in your house because a thermostat was turned down? Temperature fluctuations can cause an inclusion to blow the glass.

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Ours shattered 2 weeks before we moved while we were out of town.

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Ours shattered 2 weeks before we moved while we were out of town

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Mine shattered into thousands of pieces at 3 AM one night. I was slipping around the house like a commando with my pistol in my hand!