After staying in a hotel last week with a walk in shower approximately 36" deep with a shower curtain, I strongly advise against a shower curtain. Assuming your bathroom will have an exhaust fan to help ventilate the moisture from the shower, you have to expect the shower curtain to be impacted by the moving air. The warm shower air is drawn up over the curtain into the fan. And of course more air needs to be drawn into the shower, so how does it get in there? That's right, it blows the curtain into the shower allowing the air to go under the curtain. Trying to shave my legs with a wet shower curtain sticking to my legs and arms and behind is very unpleasant. When I redo my master shower I will definitely be going with a glass door and/or fixed panel.

I say shower curtain, and here are my reasons/opinions: a) Shower curtains are more period appropriate; if you're going to all the trouble and cost of restoration-style stuff like basketweave floors yadda yadda, why stick in this big modern-style slab of glass? High-end houses of the Thirties might have a glass door in a stall/alcove shower, but they would be framed swing doors rather than fixed, frameless slabs. b) If you purchase the Watershed shower curtain from the Plow & Hearth catalog, it dries quickly enough in all except the soupiest weather that you can push it back almost immediately, to show off the tilework and make the room seem more open. I love ours. I admit I've washed it all of three times in the ten-ish months that our bathroom has been in use! *sheepish grin* We have never had any problems with it flapping, billowing, or sticking to anyone. You can also use the Watershed as a liner with a decorative curtain that hangs outside the tub and also looks good pulled back. c) Shower curtains and other textiles in the bathroom help mitigate the "echo chamber" effect of all the hard surfaces. d) As you pointed out, the solid glass wall is more physically confining. It's much easier to thump an elbow while washing your hair on a glass wall than it is a piece of fabric... If you actually wanted to take a bath in there, it would be like bathing in a box, or as you said a coffin! If you have or will have small children, it would interfere with bathing them once they graduate out of the kitchen sink. ;-) And if the glass wall is on the faucet end of the tub, wouldn't it be kind of a PITA to reach in to turn on or adjust the water? If it's on the other end of the tub, wouldn't you still get water spray coming out of the open section? e) Although a frameless, fixed piece of glass won't be quite the crud magnet that sliders are, if everyone who showers there is not careful about squeegeeing or wiping down the glass after showering, you will very likely end up dealing with ugly water spots and streaks. Even if I wanted large expanses of glass I would never have them in my house because my "absent-minded professor type" DH would simply forget to clean the glass every time he showered, and I'd be the one stuck scrubbing off the hard-water marks. Products like Rain-X can help but don't eliminate the problem. Hard water can actually etch glass, too, if life gets away from you and water marks are allowed to sit (ever have a vase get that haze inside that comes back even after cleaning?). Not good. f) With large sheets of glass, you may have to change your soaps, shampoos, conditioners, shaving creams, etc. to products that won't gunk up the glass as quickly. If you are very picky about your toiletries, have to use prescription products, or have a lot of allergies that make it difficult to find products you are happy with, this may be a problem. g) You can always start out with a shower curtain and change over to a glass panel/door later if you decide you don't like it. Shower curtains are usually a lot cheaper than big glass panels, and thus it is not as big a deal if you decide "I hate this" and get rid of it.

I have glass tiles but I guess mine are different. But I will say this if you get 10 glass door companies out there you will get 10 opinions on what needs to happen. The people that don't bring levels and such get rid of them first. They wanted to put support rods across the top of mine and drill into my floor. Here is how mine is constructed maybe you can tweak it to fit your needs. I have a 28" wide x 80" tall 3/8" thick door that has 45 deg hinges that swings off of a 1/2" thick piece of glass that goes from floor to ceiling. There are 2 clips on the wall and one at the top where this glass goes to the ceiling. This holds the panel steady. It is just siliconed at the wall and bottom, no drilling into floor. The other fixed panel is 28" wide x 80" tall 3/8" thick and has only one small attachment at the top corner the rest is siliconed in. It works beautifully and you see the true beauty of the glass not a bunch of hardware and head rails. My Glass tiles are bullet proof as it is glass laminated onto porcelain and it is really tough to drill through but I don't think they should have a problem using the correct drill bit and possibly keeping it wet while drilling with acetone or water to keep it cool. This company might have had problems before and they are now nervous with the situation. I suggest that you keep getting quotes. It's a pain and slows the process but in the end positive results.

Good Morning Everyone, Thank you all of the advises. My contractor decided to DEMO and WILL do the right things but unfortunately he admitted he never seen/ faced this problem by using the cooper pan nor needing using the waterproof membrane. He will give us his best TILE guy ( HE/the owner installed the tile at the beginning)to get this right and he apologized that we had to deal with this issue. He asks so many question on how to do so - waterproof the bench and flash /connect tight this WProof membrane to the copper pan. We told him that we were clueless and only learned recently. We need some advises or knowledge what is the best solution regarding the Copper Pan-since last conversation with the owner- there was no WEEPING HOLES when the plumber told us HE should be the one to do so? We thought the weeping holes were done by the manufacture? if we leave the copper pan -cement board and cover it with plastic waterproof membrane on top, do you think this is the right thing or we need to demo the floor/ take out the cooper pan? The last expert told us it is nothing wrong the copper pan since the water is over flooded-but we were worried about none of them place the weeping holes that in the long run we will have the same issue or create mold? -we dont have any knowledge at all but we have google a lot. If someone can give us a direction / solution what is the correct way to solve this - I guess I just find out only few states ( MA and NY?) that the UNION insists the plumber to use Copper Pan. From the bottom of my heart- We are able to breath when the contractor is willing to take care his mistakes.