Nobody can quote a frameless shower over the phone, and you should be wary of anyone who does. The glass is cut to your specific opening and cannot be trimmed afterwards, so the price follows the measurements — and the measurements don't exist until someone stands in the room with a level.
What we can do is tell you exactly what moves the number, so you know what you're choosing between before anyone gives you a figure.
1. Glass thickness
Frameless enclosures use 3/8" (10mm) or 1/2" (12mm) tempered glass. Half-inch costs more — it's more material, it's heavier, and heavier glass needs hardware rated to carry it. On a modest opening the difference is mostly about feel. On a tall door or a wide fixed panel it's structural: thicker glass deflects less, so the door doesn't flex when it swings.
2. Clear or low-iron glass
Ordinary clear glass has a green cast you can see at the edge — iron in the raw material. Low-iron glass removes it, and against white marble or pale tile the difference is obvious rather than subtle. It costs more per square foot. Whether it's worth it depends entirely on what's behind the glass: against dark stone almost nobody notices, against white it's the first thing they see.
3. How square the room is
This is the one nobody expects. Walls in real houses lean, floors slope, and tile amplifies both. A frameless enclosure has no frame to absorb that, so the glass is cut to the room's actual geometry — angled edges, notches, panels that aren't rectangles. Out-of-plumb walls don't make a job impossible, they make it more work, and that shows up in the price.
4. Hardware and finish
Hinges, handles, clamps and channel come in matte black, brushed brass, polished nickel, chrome and more, and the range between a builder-grade hinge and an architectural one is wide. This is the easiest place to spend money and the easiest place to save it. It's also the most visible: hardware is what your hand touches every day.
5. Configuration
A single fixed panel — a walk-in with no door — is the simplest thing we build. Add a swinging door and you add hardware and a seal. Add a return panel, a corner, a neo-angle, a transom above for a steam shower, and each one adds glass, edges and complexity. A steam enclosure is a different job entirely: it runs to the ceiling and has to hold vapour in.
6. Edgework, notches and holes
Every exposed edge is polished, every hinge needs a hole, every bench or niche may need a notch — and all of it happens before the glass is tempered, because tempered glass shatters if you cut it. More cuts means more fabrication and more risk of a remake. This is also why the template has to be right the first time.
7. Getting the glass into the room
A half-inch panel is genuinely heavy. A third-floor primary bath up a turning staircase, or a Midtown condo where the glass has to fit an elevator, takes more people and more time than a ground-floor bathroom you can walk into. Access is a real line item, and it's worth mentioning when you first call.
Common questions
Why won't you quote over the phone?
Because the number would be wrong. Two bathrooms with identical floor dimensions can differ by hundreds of dollars once you account for wall condition, glass choice and access. A phone quote is either padded to cover the unknowns or it gets revised upward after measuring — and neither is a good way to start.
Is a frameless shower worth it over a framed one?
For a bathroom you've invested in, usually yes — a frame visually chops the room and collects grime in its tracks. For a rarely-used guest bath, a good framed or semi-frameless door is a perfectly sensible choice, and we'd tell you so.
When should the glass be measured?
After the tile is finished and the curb or pan is set — the glass is cut to finished surfaces. Measuring earlier means measuring a room that doesn't exist yet.