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Urgent - glass thickness for frameless shower door

15 years ago

before I place an order - what's your suggestion on glass - 3/8 or 1/2"? Difference is about $300. Opening is 47W by 78" high. There will be one stationary panel and one swinging door with hinges on the wall. It's a steam shower. No header. The glass will go from floor to the ceiling obviously...

Thank you!!!

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Comments (3)

pharaoh
15 years ago
We have both. I like the heftiness of the 1/2", looks more elegant (same reason why countertops look nice with the thicker edges).
But make sure you are getting starphire glass. 1/2" regular glass will look totally green! I would get 3/8" starphire over 1/2" regular.
igloochic
15 years ago
I have half inch and love the richness of it. It's amazing what a difference that 1/8th makes. For that small of a price difference, I'd go half inch in a heart beat. For me, the price difference was SIGNIFICANTLY higher!!!
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Talked to my tile installer and he was able to provide this to me. This is a residential steam shower and not a continuous use shower (which is what you need the DS for). See below for KERDI info. I’m a structural engineer and ran a calculation on a 10.5 ft 1/2” panel and it worked fine. The 3/8” was not working - BUT we were very conservative with our assumption (assumed spanned full height and will actually be supported on 4 sides). Looking for others who have done something this tall...trying to avoid a much deeper structural analysis to prove it will work and get installed feed-back. What did you use? Thanks!
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modernhouse
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I went with 3/8" low iron glass in two different showers. The 1/2" glass was nice, but ultimately my wife and I decided that it made the door feel too heavy for us. We used a towel bar handle on both sides of the door.

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