Latest Trends: Frameless Shower Doors

Bathrooms are no longer just an afterthought for modern homeowners. Today’s bathrooms are often beautiful, with user-friendly sinks, bathtubs, and showers. Outdated and obsolete bathroom fixtures are being replaced with chic and efficient new designs, making for the perfect marriage of form and function. One area that’s getting special attention is the bathtub-shower. Frameless shower doors are turning heads and changing the look of contemporary bathrooms. They’re bright and sophisticated, and they make your bathroom appear more spacious than it actually is.

What are frameless shower doors? Frameless shower doors are just what they sound like – doors and enclosures without those ugly aluminum frames of the past. The aluminum frames aren’t just unsightly; they also pit and corrode over time, causing rough places that can cause injuries and hard-to-clean spots that harbor germs.

Frameless shower doors, on the other hand, don’t use aluminum frames, or frames made of other materials, for that matter. The door panels are completely without frames. Thick glass panels that are fixed support the track and header, while the sliding or swinging glass panel provides the opening. Silicone gel is used to treat and seal the glass edges. This creates an ultra-smooth surface and also provides a water-tight seal where the door meets the fixed panel.

Not only are frameless shower doors attractive and functional, they’re also very safe. Each panel is made of thick safety glass that’s been tempered to withstand impacts. Breaking one of these doors would prove difficult, and in the rare occasion of breakage, these doors would still be much safer than regular glass. Because they’re made of tempered glass, the doors fracture differently than regular glass. Instead of sharp, dangerous pieces, tempered glass fractures into fairly uniform beads that are relatively smooth.

Frameless shower doors are available in several different styles. The most popular is the sliding glass doors. These are made up of two fixed panels and one sliding panel. Most traditional bathtubs employ this style.

Bypass frameless shower doors are often used for walk-in showers. With this style, the fixed glass panels support the header, and a hinged panel swings open to allow entry into the shower. These are the perfect choice for corner shower doors.

If you have a tub or shower in a unique or unusual design, you can have frameless shower doors custom made to fit. Consumers have a choice of square doors, rectangle-shaped doors, and even octagonal doors.

As far as other choices are concerned, you can choose a shower door to match or complement your bathroom. Choose a special color or tint, or even a unique etched design. There’s also a wide spectrum of hardware available for frameless shower doors, ranging from vintage-inspired styles to contemporary choices.

If you’re building, remodeling, or just upgrading an existing bathroom, frameless shower doors are definitely the way to go. They’re the wave of the future. So toss out those moldy old shower curtains or ugly aluminum framed shower doors and ride the wave! You’ll be absolutely amazed at what a huge difference frameless shower doors can make in the appearance of your bathroom.