If kids are going to use the shower, then by all means use a curtain. If the room is small, consider a transparent vinyl curtain. There are two advantages: 1) it will make the room look bigger. 2) you can pop it into the washer to clean the gunk off the curtain.

I'm not a fan of doors for the most part. I remodeled my current bath with a tub and a curtin.

I'm currently purchasing a house and remodeling, main bath will have a tub and a curtin, master shower will probably have a door.

I just don't like the gunky tracks etc and water spotted glass.

I agree about the gunky tracks! That is exactly what I mean!

The new tracks are L-shaped, so gunk doesnt build up.

We had one with the L-shaped track and still had a hard time keeping it clean. I'm going with curtains I can throw in the wash this go round.

I'm going with a curtain. 2 actually. easier to clean and replace.

qvc has had some curtains that are see thru at the top - that way light gets into the shower and no one can come in and surprise you either! They're solid colors.

I recently had a neo-angle pan corner shower. At the time I thought I was going to put in a frame-less door, but decided to hold off after seeing the price tag.

Decided to get a $10 rail kit at Ikea. There are little adapters that go into the drywall and the rails at attach to that. Even has a 90* piece. Shower hooks attach to this.

I can't find it online, but I can find the name of it if you need.

I was more of a shower curtain fan and my husband was insistent on shower door. In interest of full disclosure, he will spray shower cleaner or glass cleaner or whatever needs to be done after each shower while I tend to be lazy about that sort of thing.

Some of the benefits of the shower door - we have the handles on them so we can use one side as a towel bar and the other can hold something like a shower mat (which can be a space saver), you really can appreciate the shower tile (assuming this is something you want to show off), I think we get far less water on the floor and it keeps the steam in better, and growing up the shower curtain got really grungy and while we kids would clean the bathroom as part of our chores for whatever reason washing the shower curtain was never part of that process - maybe because it mixed chores - it required use of the washing machine AND was part of cleaning the bathroom:) The downside of course is cleaning the glass and track and only having access to half the shower when going in (for example, when giving the kids a bath you can't really reach the other side of the tub) and the cost - more for a shower door than curtain.

I think for the basement bathrooms, if it is more of a shower stall than a tub, I like the doors betters. Also, I'm not sure what kind of fan/venting you can do in a basement bathroom but since you mentioned your kids will use it when they get older, I will warn you that as a child I didn't understand the use of a fan for showers so you didn't get mold and mildew - to me using the fan meant the bathroom wasn't as warm when I got out. I am so grateful to the forum for mentioning the fan/timer switch and ultra quiet fans. When the kids start showering by themselves, I'll make sure they set the fan for 20 or 30 minutes and the best part is it will go off by itself and they will barely know it is on.

We also have very hard water and just had a Scaleblaster put on our well 6 weeks ago. The water softener we had for 15 years didn't seem to do the trick and this is what our plumber recommended. I was told by others who have a Scaleblaster that the residue will be much easier to remove. So far I think it is working but I guess it takes time to break down the crud in our pipes. Only time will tell if it really works.

In our new bathrooms we have a shower curtain in one and a beautiful frameless glass enclosure in the other. The glass shop gave us a product called Amazing that repels water drops. It's like the product you can put on your car windshield to repel rain. It actually works quite well and we also squeegee after showers. There is also another Amazing product that will remove water drop stains before you put on the repellant. I still need to find the perfect shower curtain and I don't have the heart to drill into the tile so will use the expansion rod.

I'll admit that I covet the look of frameless glass enclosures -- so sleek and elegant in photos. But when it comes to real life, I'm a curtain fan -- curtain and vinyl liner. I'm in too much of a hurry in the morning to stop and squeegee my shower.

I also really like having the curtain rod -- for drying things, and also for steaming wrinkles out of clothes. I can put a wrinkled linen shirt on one end of the rod while I'm showering, and it's good to go when I'm dressing.

My shower is in my tub enclosure, so having a curtain also lets me wash the dog with (relative) ease.

Thank you all so much for your opinions. I think I am leaning more toward curtains... :)

Put in framless, clear glass doors in our master shower, they look beautiful but I hate them! We have sold our house and will be moving in 2 months. Can't be fast enough just to not deal with cleaning those doors each morning.

Get a curtain,
Jane

I will probably be go the shower curtain route when I replace the shower enclosure in my master bathroom. I currently have framed glass doors and they are hard to clean. Have a shower curtain in the other bathroom and it just looks better, in my opinion. You can change the shower curtain out very easily if you want to change the look of the bathroom a bit and much easier to swap out a shower curtain if it gets dirty and unsightly than to swap out glass doors when you can't get them clean enough any more.

I am surprised to read how many of you prefer curtains. I definetly do not. The shower curtains I had never came out of the washer looking new. All of them were wrinkeld and I always left a trail of water from the washing machine to the shower-tub when hanging them up again. Kids pulled the curtain so that the holes ruptured out. I did not always want to replace the shower curtains after only a couple of weeks so they looked taped and wrinkeld most of the time. When somebody opened the bathroom door while another one was showering the curtain would move and cling to the person in the shower etc. Now we only have one of those curtains left. One brandnew semi-frameless shower enclosure with the special addition so that the glass does not hold scum. Works great and the squeeging we do for the marble tiles, not the glass. You get light in the shower and the bathroom looks bigger. OK, the 20 year old shower doors in the kid's bathroom cannot really be cleaned anymore but I guess that is because former owners used soap. The film on the tiles I could remove, but the glass is damaged. I guess it is time for new glass. I absolutely prefer glass.

The Hotel Curtains line at Bed Bath and Beyond are great! You don't need a liner (which I hate anyway) and it does come out of the washer looking brand new. I keep it spread out for a while after a shower to let it dry and and have never have a problem.

Our hall bathroom is small, no natural light, and is primarily a kids bathroom - we have a shower curtain (liner and fabric). We used a really nice brushed nickel rod and hung it up high to draw the eye up.

I like it for 2 reasons: 1 - it allows me to put a little fabric in the room (print and color) and softness that I don't have without a window/curtain and 2 - if the kids trash it I can replace it and if it gets dingy I can wash it.

I really wanted a frameless glass door, but it was not in the budget! I knew I did NOT want a mildewy vinyl liner anymore, as I am allergic to mold.
I got a simple white heavy duty cotton curtain, that was treated to be anti-mildew.
I am pleasantly surprised. Even though it is fabric, it keeps the water inside the shower. I pull it outside the shower/tub to let it dry; it dries quicker than I thought.
It's the best of both worlds. No glass to clean, no slimy vinyl.

We replaced our shower doors with a curtain. The base rail on the tub was annoying - it really hurt if you stepped on it. We can change the curtains to have a whole new look for the place.

Dollar store liners. Just toss and put up a new one when needed.

surprised privacy was not mentioned in this thread -

I am a fabric lover - so I prefer having a curtain - I use a good fabric liner & have curved rod - lovely all cotton curtain that I wash & starch/iron holds up very well.

I'd rather not have the up keep of the frameless glass doors, additionally it would preclude the "can I come in to get my hairbrush" or "brush my teeth" - w/all glass kiddies are going to say "NO"

I guess I'm in the minority in that I prefer glass doors. I think a curtain is fine for a basement shower and certainly more economical, but for my shower I would never do a curtain. I do not like glass doors for tubs however.

I LOVE the frameless shower doors, but someone here recommended against my using one in my condo since I'll want to sell at some point and it *might* not a appeal to people who like baths better than showers.

I got a shower curtain that matches the paint in the room and I'm happy.

{{gwi:1505919}}

That bathroom is beautiful Jeanine.

Shelley, get a shower curtain and if you don't like it, you can always put a shower door in, but the reverse would be too expensive.

I love the seamless shower doors but I don't want to do what I have to do to keep the glass clean. Shower curtains warm things up and can be changed with changing times.

I really like shower curtains, and do a fabric outer with a dollar store vinyl liner. Then when the liner starts to look gross, I replace it with a new one. I've had glass doors before, and they didn't provide enough privacy for my taste, and were hard to clean. Not to mention more expensive.

Does anyone have knowledge about shower glass doors shattering? A concern for me besides the maintenance. Trying to decide what to choose shower curtain or glass doors...thanks