Island girl needs help with frameless shower door pleae

12 years ago

Hello everyone

As some of you might remember I live on a small island (St John) in the US Virgin Islands.

We finished our bathroom remodel last year with the exception of the glass frameless shower door and here in lies my dilemma.

There are no stores on St Thomas or St John where I can order a shower door or even look at one for that matter, so I am ordering, sight unseen, from a company stateside who will deliver it to Tropical Shipping in Miami and it will be put in our 20' container that we are shipping down and then my husband will install (he is an amazing remodeler - currently 40' up on scaffolding rebuilding all the exterior of the house - we are open to the elements - think no walls) but I have no clue - and I really mean no clue - what looks best.

What I am referring to is the Uchannel or clamp that I have been told by hubby I need. Now don't laugh but my vision of frameless is well frameless - beautiful glass without any visual "tracks" around it. Hubby asked me how I expected it to attach to the wall and curb and my answer was "I don't know I just want it to look pretty" so now I guess I have to have a "Uchannel" or a clamp, so for the experts out there what is best - what will give the visual of a floating glass door and panel (lol)

If it helps the opening is 48" and we are planning on a fixed panel 12" wide attached to the stud on the left side, and then the door 36" wide attached on the right side into the concrete wall (both sides have glass tile installed) so the door will open to the right at the area where it meets the fixed panel if that makes sense. We do have big issues on island with mold and mildew (we have no a/c only open windows) so I'm not sure what will visually give me the closest look to my vision and what is best for maintenance given island conditions - does the Uchannel mold ? - I have no idea what a Uchannel looks like and do you need it on the bottom and up the side of the wall ? and please tell me I don't need any railing/track across the top of the door and panel (asked you not to laugh) and again I can't even go to a store (or model home for that matter) to look at any showers but I am currently obsessed with watching every home remodeling/decorating show and freezing the picture on every shower I can see - unfortunately they are not very clear :(

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated and close up photos most welcomed.

Piaa

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Comments (6)

skatermom
12 years ago
Hi
we just put our shower panel, return panel and door in recently and am very happy with the clamps. So Happy!

I think I would be very unhappy with the uchannel and header. In fact, the 1st estimator would only install the unchannel and header. I was very bummed to get that esitmate...but after pereservering, The 2nd and 3rd esitmates said they could use the clamps, but would have to put the panel all the way to the ceiling ( we were missing a stud for the door side so they need to use the ceiling for extra support)

It might be a trickier install, but it looks so much better.

We also did not cualk at the base so a little bit of water comes out at shower time, but I would rather clean up water than have a gloppy moldy mess from the silicone caulk.

I hope I can post pictures soon.

Good Luck!
gr8daygw
12 years ago
if you go to houzz.com there are tons of shower pictures of bathrooms with clamps, u channels and ones that dead end to the ceiling. Happy hunting! This was also discussed with pix very recently somewhere around here in the forums .
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gr8daygw
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Here is a recent forum discussion about frameless shower doors. Lucky you in the islands. We did a sailboat trip from Tortolla a couple of times and visited all the islands there, beautiful! Here is the link for the recent discussion. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: frameless shower door-should it have a metal track at top
piaa
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you all sooooo much :)

Piaa
sarahneider
12 years ago
I am also looking so a totally frameless shower door for the mural I am painting on the wall. We must have sliding doors so I am thinking about this one? a pretty bit of hardware instead of no hardware?? just passing it along.... the very idea of a framelss shower in a "frameless house" sounds like heaven. have fun, sarah http://www.surplusdecor.com/vigo-72-inch-frameless-frosted-glass-chrome-shower-door-3342.html
nyc_sport
12 years ago
This site also supplies a variety of materials and has "how to" guides.

http://www.wilsonglass.com/

Island girl needs help with frameless shower door pleae

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Island girl needs help with frameless shower door pleae

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