A shower enclosure keeps the water in one part of the bathroom, so the rest stays dry. We build six kinds in Bengaluru, from a single fixed panel to a full corner enclosure with a door. We measure after your tiling is finished, because the glass is made to the finished tile face.
Frameless or framed: what actually changes
A frameless enclosure is glass held by small metal clamps and hinges. There is no frame around the edges. It is the cleaner look, and there is far less for soap and hard water to collect on.
A framed or slim-profile enclosure sets the glass into a metal channel. You see the frame. It is more forgiving when a wall is out of straight, because the channel takes up the gap. That matters more than people expect: very few bathroom walls are truly plumb.
The one real difference in use is cleaning. A frame has a bottom channel, and a bottom channel collects water and soap. It has to be cleaned or it stains. A frameless enclosure has a strip of silicone instead, and it wipes clean.
We can fit either. On a wall that is visibly out of straight we will usually say so and recommend the framed version.
When to measure, and why it has to be after tiling
We measure after your tiling is finished. Not before, and not while it is going on.
Your glass is cut to the exact sizes we take, and it is cut to the finished tile face. Tiles are 8 to 12mm thick, and adhesive adds a few more. If we measure a bare wall, every panel is short by that amount on both sides, and a shower enclosure that is short by 20mm leaks.
Toughened glass cannot be trimmed after it is made. Cutting it after toughening shatters it. So a wrong measurement is not an adjustment on the day, it is a new sheet of glass and another 3 to 5 working days.
Tell us your tiling date when you first call. We will book the measuring for the day after it finishes, and you will lose no time waiting.
How we stop it leaking
Most shower enclosures that leak do not leak through the glass. They leak at the bottom edge, at the hinge side of the door, or through the silicone.
We fit a clear seal strip along the door edge. On a hinged door it is usually a magnetic strip, so the door pulls shut against the fixed panel. A sliding door gets a plain strip along the bottom instead.
At the wall and floor joins we use bathroom-grade silicone, which resists mould. It goes on the outside of the enclosure, not the inside. Silicone on the inside traps any water that gets past it, and that is what goes black in a year.
We also check the fall of your floor before we fix anything. If the floor slopes towards the door rather than the drain, no seal will hold the water, and you need the floor sorted before the glass goes in. We will tell you if we see it.
How thick the glass is, and how heavy
Shower glass is usually 8mm or 10mm toughened. The size and shape of the shower decides which.
8mm suits most fixed panels and most doors up to a normal size. 10mm suits a wide door, a tall panel, or a corner enclosure where two large sides meet. A 10mm door also feels more solid when it swings, which is what most people mean when they say an enclosure feels cheap.
A 10mm door is heavy, and the weight has to go somewhere. On a frameless build it goes into the hinges and then into the wall. That means the wall behind the hinge has to be solid. A hollow partition wall or a poorly fixed board will not hold it for long. We check this when we measure, and if the wall will not take it we will tell you before you order, not after.
What we do not do
We do the glass and the aluminium part of a bathroom. That is the enclosure, the screen, the partition and the fittings that hold them.
We do not do tiling, plumbing, vanities, counters or false ceilings. If your bathroom is being redone, we are one of the last trades in, after the tiling is finished.
We say this plainly because a lot of people searching for a bathroom renovation land here. If that is you, the part of your job we can do is the glass. Get the rest done first, then call us with the tiling date.
