Hi, dmac1108, I tried to post this earlier.... let me try again: 1. The wall with the plumbing has a cap piece that is 6" wide, so the wall is somewhat less than 6" thick. (Obviously there's tiling and wetboard on both sides which add to the thickness, plus there's an overhang on that cap piece.) 2. We worked with a design/build firm, so I don't know what the glass supplier knew during the ordering process, but I would assume that, yes, you would need to specify the size and location for the mounting of the slide bar, since a hole of a specific diameter would need to be drilled in a specific place at their workshop. In other words, that hole was not drilled onsite. (If I'm not mistaken, you can't drill holes in tempered glass; the hole must be drilled before the tempering process.) Notice that neither the shower LINE nor the head are mounted on the glass.... placing the shower head on the slide bar -- and mounting the slide bar on the glass -- is what makes this clean look possible. Happy renovating, Nancy

Can you draw a sketch of which way the opening would be? I think you can have a doorless, but what you want is for the opening and the shower head to be on the same wall. So, doorway 30" (you can do less if you aren't worried about getting a wheelchair in there) and 30" with the showerhead centered on it. The water will if anything hit the 5' wall 3' behind you. I had a 4x6 shower. My door opening was about 26" ( a bit smaller than I planned, not ideal). The shower head was on that wall, spraying towards the long back wall. My shower had a 1.5" curb. Never had water outside (well, until you leave the shower, obviously) :) Now, if i had put the shower head on the shorter side and sprayed towards the door, would have been a different story, in fact, it was plumbed wrong initially and I had them fix it.

What's the optimal size for a shower in an average master bath? Ideally 4' x 5' seems to be optimal. Mine is 44" x 5' and works great. And a related question -- how much glass surround is optimal? I noticed one of the posters on the 10ft shower thread commented that 3 walls of glass made things chillier. I believe I was the one who pointed this out but the problem wasn't that it was chillier. The problem is having to clean (squeegee) all that glass every single time you shower. Otherwise you'll be constantly seeing spots and soap scum on the shower. Yes Showerguard will help with spots and soap scum, but not 100%. The problem wasn't the glass. It was having 10'. Also I just played a bit with your plan again and here are my reasons: In the second bath, I moved the shower to the wall against the existing bedroom. This way you have more room in the actual bathroom for moving around. This also one day could be a handicap accessible bath if needed. Plus now every time you need to use the sink, you don't have to first close the bathroom door just to walk around the door. I moved the entry to your master further into the hallway. This creates a bit more of an "entrance" into your bedroom and actually makes your bedroom a bit larger because you don't now have the doorway taking up space in the bedroom. Plus now the doorway isn't practically hitting the closet door. I flipped the shower and tub and the entry and vanities. Why? So the bathroom door to the closets is closer. Then I moved the bed to the right wall and the dresser to between the closets. This is the exact same size, but notice how more spacious it feels? Plus now one person doesn't have to cram into the space between the night table and closet opening to get to their clothes. (And yes, ideally no one should need to walk around the bed to get to the bathroom, but in this case, I feel the much improved layout trumps having to walk slightly around the bed.

Why not just make the shower the same dimensions as the existing tub? You would have room for a bench, either built in or portable. (I favor portable) " I personally find 36"x 42" (or 48") to be about right, but you might not agree with that." I agree with catbuilder. This is a small-ish but comfortable size. We've lived with 27"x 41" for the past 25 years and it has worked although rather small(!); the 41" has been okay, but the 27" not so much. From our perspective, anything is bigger. This summer it is being removed and we're going with something larger.