Maintenance Monday: Glass Shower Enclosures

Posted on | December 10, 2007 |

Our master bathroom is, well, not palatial. ;-)  Really, it’s less than 7′ x 5′ — I kid you not.  I don’t think you can build a full bath any smaller than that.

When we remodeled the master bath earlier this year, one feature I set my heart on was finding an alternative to the standard framed glass enclosure for our shower.  No offense intended, but I hate them.  They’re ugly.  They’re tacky.  They’re so very ordinary.

So I set aside a chunk of my project budget for a custom-fit frameless 3/8″-thick glass enclosure.  For me, it was an expense that I fully expected to be worth my money but I was concerned about protecting my investment.  The last thing I wanted was to spend that much money only to be faced with degrading quality and value of the product or to be faced with having to replace the glass after just a few years.

So, I did what I always do, I started asking questions and seeking advice.  Here’s what I learned:  water spots, over time, will actually etch themselves into your glass (remember your physics:  glass is actually a very slow moving liguid, not a solid).  If left for too long, the only way to remove water spots is to subject the glass to expensive and complicated polishing and renewal processes.

The three universal pieces of advice I received for assuring a long life for my glass enclosure were:

1. use a squeegee every single time you shower;
2. clean the glass on a frequent and regular basis;
3. the application of a simple auto-supply product, Rain-X, will do wonders for helping protect the glass and help lighten the load of regular maintenance.

The daily task of using the squeegee, now that it’s become an ingrained habit, is laughably minimal.  I was concerned about getting everyone on board and did need to be slightly heavy-handed with the kids after the novelty of it wore off but now it’s an accepted part of everyone’s showering routine.

As for cleaning the glass, that’s a task that I’ve added to my every-other-week deeper-bathroom-cleaning schedule.  I’ve found it to be not nearly the unpleasant task I expected it to be.  When the enclosure was installed, the installers left me a can of foaming glass cleaner.  I find it easy to use and effective and will most likely go back and purchase another can of the same stuff when this can is empty.

The Rain-X, though, is the coup de grace.  It’s the magic bullet.  It makes the water run off in sheets, makes squeegeeing all that much easier, and dramatically cuts down on water spots.  I usually re-apply the Rain-X every 4 to 6 weeks.  The first time I used the Rain-X, I only put it on the inside of the shower stall.  After a few days, however, of using our new bathroom, I realized that an application on the outside of the glass would be well worth my efforts.  Because the room is so small, the sink is right next to the shower and splashes from tooth-brushing and hand-washing, etc. manage to get on the outside of the glass.  Now I keep both sides Rain-X’d.

Now, not everyone has a frameless glass shower enclosure — and not everyone feels the way I do about the framed ones.  None of that matters; if you have a shower with a glass enclosure, you too could benefit from using Rain-X on a regular basis.

image credits: Raghu, Elizabeth, and Amazon (respectively)

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