I had mine custom made by a glass shop.

Ann

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Thank you, Ann. Was it simply a glass place or did they have experience with steam showers? The steam is contained well? My husband once started our steam shower with the door not completely closed and it must have taken an hour for the smoke detector to dry out and stop screeching!

I'm in the Los Angeles area looking for someone to do it and I'm getting contact names in another part of SoCal altogether and in Canada. I think there must be someone close (hoping that means saving some $$$$) but I can't find them. Meanwhile, (and if you don't mind) did it cost a fortune?

I see your steam port is under the bench. Are you not bothered by the steam so close to your feet? It really bothers my husband (who's the only one who uses the shower) and I'm trying to see if there's a way to deflect the steam more effectively. His steam port is opposite his bench.

Also, how did you encorporate light and venting? Our shower is not near a natural or room lightsource and can be very dark.

I am really frustrated by the scarcity of info when I'm trying to design something workable and affordable before we commit too far.

PS I've picked the same Hansgrohe fixture for the shower. I think it looks sexy and has an incredible amount of flexibility and appeal for rather simple plumbing. Do you like it?

Can I ask what the point of the second fixed showerhead is? I hadn't considered a second fixture and wonder if I should.

Thanks again. I don't know a thing about showers but when our present one began to show leaking and water damage I needed to start coming up to speed FAST!

I thought seeing where we're starting might help.

The area is about 4'x 6'. It might look a little deeper in the pic because 2 rows of floor tile hade to come up too. The wall and door you can barely see on the right are the WC with the toilet. On left is an internal hall that has a large skylight. Out of view on the right is the vanity along the wall with 2 windows at either end and then the tub along the wall opposite the shower.

Inside the shower area the steam port is barely visible very low on the left  just above my GC's toolbox. The shower head is up on the center of that wall. My husband's bench used to be a box that extended along the whole right side. Now it will be a corner deal. I had planned a box but I like the look of Ann's simple thick ledge. Putting the shelf in the corner will redirect my husband's feet away from the direct jet of the steam. A niche will be opened in the plywood at the back for his grooming things.

The ceiling of the shower will be lifted about 6-9" to be where the ceiling for the rest of the room is. And I need a large but not jarring light in it as well as a highly efficient vent that can clear the moisture so we NEVER have leaking shower and water damage again. =o

Thanks to Ann and any others for making this project workable, affordable and come together in my head.

I also had mine made from a glass shop.

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We have a standard shower light in the steam. Also have a solatube in the bathroom which brings in a lot of light.

Janine

I have no picture, but I found the prices and the TLC much better with a local glass shop, much better! all around.

cabogirl & Ann- Lovely, both of them! Thanks for sharing them. How thick is your glass? The Canadian company supplies 3/8" and 1/2" glass. Does it need to be tempered? Does your lightfixture include a vent for the shower? Right now we have the vent just outside the shower door and I don't think that's adequate to dry out the shower after a steam.

cabogirl- Love, love, LOVE solartubes! We just had 4 installed in the kitchen and internal hallways along the front of the house. Each day I walk through sunlight inside my house I'm thrilled that we finally did it! The only thing is when you're working in the kitchen and the light is great until a cloud passes over and you think for a minute you're having a small stroke. ;> Seriously, it's one of the best things we've ever done!

Hi imrainey,
I'll try to answer your questions. I'm in the San Francisco Bay area and got 2 quotes from 2 different glass places, both ~very~ expensive. They both did a lot of steam showers but they're "regular" glass places. We went with the one that was lower cost, but still spent around $3000 for the glass plus installation using starfire glass, 1/2" thick. The steam is very well contained with the exception of a slight draft (very slight) at the hinges on the right of the door. In hindsight we should have had the corners of the glass angled at a 45 degree angle rather than squared off, but it looks like from your picture you won't need any angles done.

We don't use the angled bench to sit on, so the steam coming out under it isn't an issue. We just use the teak bench for seating.

For lighting we just have a regular shower light in the ceiling of the shower, and a powerful Panasonic vent for the bathroom itself. We have a fixed skylight plus the window that you see in the picture, so lighting is not an issue for us.

I love the Hansgrohe Raindancer - it was actually the only good option for us because of how the ceiling sloped down to the wall. We didn't want a rain shower head on the ceiling. The only thing I might change on it is the ability to swivel side to side, but that's a minor thing. The second shower head is where the original shower head in the previous shower was (we expanded the shower stall by about 2 feet in length). My DH and I often take showers together and love having our own shower heads. The teak bench is usually outside the shower unless we're using the steam shower, so the shower area is very roomy. We decided against a tiled bench because we liked the possibility of the extra room in the shower.

Hope this helps!
Ann

Yes, Ann. Thanks.

It's encouraging and helps me get my own thoughts
straight as well as providing hard images to share
with the builders who, irritatingly, can't always
get what's in my head.

That's a very interesting thought about having the
seams meet at 45 degree angles. I'll ask about
that because it sounds highly effective. But I can't
imagine how fabricators would be able to support
those huge, heavy expanses of glass to cut them at
45 degree angles...

Is your glass tempered?

Yes, the glass is tempered. The starfire option added about $500 to the total cost, but it was highly recommended by others here and I'm glad we went with it.

Good luck!
Ann

Sorry. Don't understand "starfire". That sounds
like a texture option but your pic seems to be clear
glass...

Just got mine installed yesterady from a local glass shop also. I have not tested it out yet but there are soft plastic strips at the edge of the door and the steam escape to keep it air tight.
Also, mine is not 100% frameless, there is a frame rail at the top but no mounting brackets at the side or the bottom. It was suggest to me this way because the size of the glass and the marble I was using for the shower. I don't know if this is really true but it seems to look good for me.

Thank you, sharkm. Lovely!

My GC keeps trying to get me to buy into the
concept of a "mullion". I think what you have
is what he's talking about. And I can see that,
for the amount of stability he's saying it will
provide, it's very unabtrusive.

Appreciate your input and love how you've
integrated your shower enclosure and bath!

Sharkm... Can you tell me which marble you used in your shower? It looks close to the one we picked out (Gris Mirage). But my main question is, how did you handle the edges of the marble where they flow over to the drywall? Did you have the ends polished or bullnosed? Hard to tell but it looks great. My wife want to put a pencil type bullnose trim at the edges. Not sure yet how to handle it. Thanks..Gary

goddi, the marble I use is white carrara. It was not as nice a some I've seen because this lot have more dark spots and are more gray. I was able to get some nicer one when I was doing my main entrance and it was more white and the gray lines were more crips. Anyway, this still turns out good and is cheaper.
For the edges, I have ALL the edges bullnosed. Most was done by the granite/marble place I bought it from, a couple were finished on site by my contractor.

Having had a steam shower, I know how wonderful they can be. It was a frameless glass unit, and I found it necessary to actually 'crack' the door a bit to tolerate the pressure caused by the steam.

Just a note of caution that steam showers are not to be considered if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure.

I had a client who insisted on having a steam shower installed in his home. He came home one day after riding his bike, took a steam shower, and died within minutes of the shower from a massive heart attack.

This is why warning signs are posted on all the health club steam rooms by the city health departments.

Sharkm...
"...For the edges, I have ALL the edges bullnosed. Most was done by the granite/marble place I bought it from, a couple were finished on site by my contractor...

Thanks...Can you tell me how much per foot they charged you for griding/polishing to make the bullnose edge? I prefer the bullnose, but my wife wants to use in some darker 'pencil' edging tile....not cheap either. Did the bullnosing work out well??? Gary

Gary, the marble shop charge me $5 per bullnose edge. It works out well. There are couple that have to be done on site by the contractor - example, the ledge of the shower, since we don't know exactly the width at the time of order - Is it 6" or 6 5/8"? Only 1 side was done the the the other side was done on site. It works out good.

bumping because I still want to find out more before I pop for $3K or $4K of glass. ;>

bumping again because I want as much info as possible. We're getting the enclosure plastered tomorrow and will need to order very soon.

Thanks in advance and to all who have already shared their experiences and their photos.

I would like to have a frameless shower glass for my steam shower. One company Alumax told me that they do not have frameless steam shower doors/ sides. Another glass company said that they can do anything we want. My specific question is for those folks who have already installed the frameless with a steam shower. How does it work? Does any steam escape? Any advice? We are trying to do something like annkathryn's shower posted on July 12th. Many Thanks!

My frameless steam shower enclosure is being installed and I don't think they did it correctly. My steam shower is the same shape as Ann and Sharkm's above (two sides glass; two sides travertine). They may not be completed yet, so I may be jumping the gun, but there is a significant gap where the door and the glass panel meet. Obviously, I'm concerned about steam escaping in that gap, but it's big enough that water will escape during a regular shower. We have wood floors in the bathroom, so that cannot happen. Can someone show me a close up picture of the seal that you have where the door meets the glass panel?

Also, Ann is your transom above the shower door operable? Do you use it? My installer is trying to convince me that I don't need an operable transom, but I think it's necessary to allow steam to quickly escape once I'm done steaming. The high-powered vent is right on the other side of the transom for that very purpose.

Thanks!

aja - a very little bit of steam escapes through the hinges on the right hand side of the door, but not enough to affect the temperature of the steam shower.

soonermagic - the gap should be filled by a flap of some sort (I'm not sure what mine is made of - a flexible plastic or silicon??) I'll post a closeup. At first the lower part leaked water when I showered, but the glass guys came to adjust it and it's fine now.

The transome above the shower door is not operable - it's fixed. The steam escapes very quickly when the door is opened, no problems at all.

Ann

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We just put in a steam shower with frameless glass door. Looks like the one pictured above. Works great. Chose not to install a transom, as the glass people said they wind up breaking and are unnecessary anyway. We just leave the door open for awhile after showering.

We have a frameless, curbless steam shower in our master bath with gaps of about 3/16--5/15, cold air comes in around the door andof larger concern is the abount of steam that gets out. With the bathroom door closed all of the windows in the bedroom are steamed up after the shower, as is the closet that is adjacent. Our builder is saying because it meets the standard of 3/16, gaps are ok. I am concerned about effects of steam over time on the wooden vanity and paint etc. Any suggestions?

Triceric,

Do you have a vent fan in the bathroom? Also, I am not sure how having gaps in a steam shower works but I am not very familiar with the setup. For better answers, you may want to start another post to gather more responses.

Good luck!

You have valid concerns and we take extra measures to acommodate steam vapor escape by treating the ceiling and/or adjoining painted surfaces outside the shower with usually an oil based primer and sometimes topcoat of paint .

Steam rooms require a few things to be just right and if so you shouldnt have excessive release of vapor. Starting with the proper sized generator for the "adjusted cubic ft" A proper glass install with the acceptable tolerances ( we use sweep and bulb gaskets to compensate for minor inaccuracies and zip our steam showers up and then utilize the transom.) A transom smartly placed in relation to the Fan that also needs to be the proper CFM for the room and other hvac concerns,. Our fans are always on a timer, and preferably jumped on the same circuit as the showers interior light. You want the fan on from the start of the shower and remaining on for 30 +/- mins after you get out. I always suggest opening the transom and swinging the shower door IN to the shower when done.

On this steamer ceiling we used the existing bathroom fan and planned ahead and had the painter coat our cedar install with sikens marine grade topcoat. Hope that helps a bit in your effort to rectify your concerns.-best

"I always suggest opening the transom and swinging the shower door IN to the shower when done."

Do you recommend getting a door that only swings in, or one that can swing in and out? We have wood floors and will use a transom, but I would prefer the door swing in. Designer said swinging in only is not safe bc if someone falls you can't get to them. Are there doors that do both?

Great question

Swing both ways especially in a steamer, bathers can get disoriented too hot and too long .. drinking or have other underlying illness and in a fog of steam it is safety smart for 180 deg. swing (Your glass installer will educate you on Quality hinges and consider the inward swing and head valve placement ) -best