Framed vs. Frameless Shower Enclosures - Shower Doors Tutorial 101 How To

Learn the terminology, tips and how to of buying and installing your new heavy glass frameless or framed shower door from the shower door experts at Basco Shower Enclosures.
www.bascoshowerdoor.com
Framed product is traditionally a standard product that fits very general openings. Framed product, as in frame around all four edges of the operating door, is usually product up to quarter inch thick glass. Semi-frameless, like framed, up to quarter inch glass product, in most cases, but will show some exposed glass; most likely will have headers involved. Totally frameless - we are talking about heavy glass - we are talking about anything from 5/16" to 3/8' and in some cases, 1/2", very little to no vertical framework and a true exposed glass edge on your operating panels. In most cases, depending upon the configuration, very little to no continuous overhead metal support. In general terms, most likely, when you have a single door opening (and usually that's nothing wider than 3-foot in span), you are almost always able to get by without any kind of header support or even any overhead support.
When you start building larger openings with doors and fixed panels of glass, often times a common configuration is a shower/tub combo where you have a shower door that fits up and sits and returns back on a tub. Certain panels sizes require additional supports and in most cases, that's a continuous header
bar that runs the span across the top of the shower door.
Again, when we talk about framed and semi-frameless product, we are talking about a lot of standards; not being able to customize that product as much as you are able to customize a frameless enclosure...something that is a lot more forgiving in terms of measurements and installation.
When we talk about being able to roll up your sleeves and install this product on your own, framed and semi-frameless is going to be able to give you that opportunity. When we talk about frameless, it's a completely different animal in terms of custom-made, custom-crafted shower doors that fit a lot of design options in terms of hardware selections. Really, we are talking product that has to be measured and installed by a true professional versus some of the framed and semi-framed product that you can install on your own.
With Basco, you'll never have to worry about the custom enclosure ordering process because we offer a turnkey solution from measuring to ordering and all the way through to installation.