Frameless Glass Shower Installation in Wellington

Frameless showers fail for one reason more than any other, and it is never the glass. It is the floor. Tiled shower floors are laid to fall toward a waste, so the bottom of a glass panel is almost never sitting on a level line. Panels cut square to a nominal opening end up with a gap at one end that water finds within a week.

Getting a frameless enclosure right

Three things decide whether it works, and only one of them is the glass.

Templating the fall

We measure the finished tiled floor at multiple points and cut the panel to the fall, so the bottom edge follows the tile rather than hovering above it at one end. On a badly fallen floor that can mean a panel with a deliberate taper.

Hardware into something solid

A frameless panel puts real load into a few small fixings. Those need to land in framing or in proper substrate fixings, not in the tile adhesive. Where there is no noggin behind the tile we will say so, because the alternative is a hinge that pulls out in eighteen months.

Seals and the swing

Water escapes at the hinge side and under the door. Correct seal profiles and a door that swings outward rather than inward deal with most of it. On a small bathroom a swinging door may not fit the room at all, which is worth knowing before the glass is ordered rather than after.

Frameless, semi frameless or framed

Frameless is the look most people want and it is the most demanding to install. Every millimetre shows, the substrate has to be right, and the glass is 10mm rather than 6mm.

Semi frameless keeps a channel at the bottom or along one upright, which absorbs a degree of floor fall and out of plumb wall and costs less. Framed is the most forgiving and the least fashionable. We will tell you honestly which one your bathroom is a candidate for, because selling a frameless enclosure into a room that cannot take one helps nobody.

Replacing a broken shower panel

Toughened glass fails all at once, usually from an edge chip that has been there for months. When it goes there is nothing to salvage and the room is full of granules.

We template the replacement off the existing hardware where the hinges and channels are sound, which is usually faster and much cheaper than a new enclosure. Made to order, so allow several days, and we can fit a temporary curtain rail in the meantime.

Why frameless showers leak, and how to stop it

The floor, not the glass

Tiled shower floors fall toward the waste, so the bottom of a panel is almost never sitting on a level line. A panel cut square to the nominal opening ends up with a gap at one end that water finds within a week.

We measure the finished floor at several points and cut the panel to the fall, which on a badly laid floor can mean a deliberate taper along the bottom edge.

Fixing into something real

A frameless panel puts serious load into a handful of small fixings. Those need framing or proper substrate fixings behind the tile, not tile adhesive.

Where there is no noggin behind the tile we say so before quoting, because the alternative is a hinge that pulls out of the wall in eighteen months and takes the tile with it.

Frameless Glass Showers at a glance

Glass

10mm toughened for frameless, 6mm for semi frameless and framed

Template

Multiple points off the finished tiled floor

Hardware

Hinges and channels fixed into framing or proper substrate fixings

Options

Frameless, semi frameless, framed, fixed panel and walk in

Lead time

One to two weeks from template to install

Replacements

Templated off existing hardware where it is sound