Shower doors are made of tempered safety glass, aluminum framing on framed and semi-frameless styles, metal hinges, clamps and handles in a chosen finish, clear plastic seals, and silicone at the fixed joints. Frameless doors use 3/8 or 1/2 inch glass. Accurate Glass & Mirror, a Bergen County NJ glass shop that cuts and edges shower glass in Lodi, lists 3/16 or 1/4 inch glass for framed and semi-frameless doors.
The glass in a shower door is tempered. The National Glass Association's frameless shower design guidance describes frameless enclosures as built of tempered glass that can be clear, translucent or opaque, with optional colors, tints and textures. The same guidance says the category typically uses single-layer tempered glass at least 3/8 inch thick, and that the vast majority of frameless enclosures are assembled with 3/8 or 1/2 inch glass. That thickness is there because nothing but the glass itself keeps a frameless panel stiff.
Framed and semi-frameless doors are built differently. The metal carries the load, so the glass can be lighter, and Accurate Glass & Mirror's shower glass thickness guide lists 3/16 or 1/4 inch for those styles. What tempering itself does to glass has its own answer. The order of work never changes: glass is measured, cut and edged in the Lodi shop, then sent out for tempering, because the National Glass Association says all cutting, drilling, notching and edge work on heat-treated glass must be done before heat treatment.
Metal shows up on a shower door in two ways. On framed and semi-frameless doors, aluminum channels hold the glass along some or all of its edges and give water a defined path back to the pan. The National Glass Association draws the contrast from the other side: the all-glass look of a frameless enclosure does not allow for an assembled kit of aluminum extrusions that interlock to hold water in, and a frameless door has no full-length metal attachments on its top, sides or bottom.
Every door, framed or not, carries hardware: hinges or rollers, clamps, a handle. In the hardware trade a finish is classified together with the metal under it. The Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association, which classifies finishes for door hardware in general, gives each pairing a code; its code 625, for example, is bright chrome plated over nickel on a brass or bronze base. That classification covers door hardware in general, not a particular shower hinge, so the hardware maker's specification is what sets the alloy. The hardware finishes Accurate Glass & Mirror installs are polished chrome, brushed nickel, matte black and oil-rubbed bronze.
The soft parts of a shower door do the water work. Clear plastic seals ride the door's edges where it meets the curb, the wall or the next panel, and the National Glass Association says those seals "do assist in minimizing water escape" but do not make a shower leak-proof. Seals are wear parts that slide off and back on, and sweeps, jamb seals and drip rails have their own hardware page.
Silicone belongs where nothing moves. A bead of it seals the joint where a fixed panel meets tile, and the National Glass Association notes that a short, narrow fixed panel meant to stop water can even be joined to a neighboring panel with a vertical silicone butt joint instead of clips or channels. A door is never siliconed to anything, because a door needs its clearance to swing or slide.
The finish you choose is a surface, and the metal under it is set by the hardware maker. The Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association classifies door hardware finishes together with their base metal, which is why a finish name alone does not tell you the alloy. Ask for the maker's specification when you choose the hardware.
Silicone seals joints that never move: a fixed panel against tile, or two fixed panels meeting glass to glass. A swinging or sliding door needs a small clearance at its edges to move without binding, so the gaps around a door are closed with clear plastic seals that can be replaced, never with a bead of silicone.
The Lodi showroom at 80 Industrial Rd has full enclosure displays and a glass and finish selection wall, open Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and Saturday 9 to 4. See polished chrome, brushed nickel, matte black and oil-rubbed bronze against real glass, then book the free in-home measure.
