24/7 Emergency Glass Repair
Broken window, smashed door or a break-in. Board-up and make-safe any hour, glass replacement to follow.
Learn more →What a screen is actually made of
Every compliant shower screen in Australia is grade A safety glass, which in practice means toughened. AS 1288 treats glazing in and around a bath or shower as one of the highest-risk positions in a building, and for good reason: wet feet, hard tiles and a solid enclosure. Toughened glass is roughly four times stronger than the same thickness of ordinary glass, and when it fails it breaks into small blunt granules rather than blades.
Thickness follows the style. Framed screens usually run 5mm or 6mm because the frame carries the panel. Semi-frameless typically sits at 6mm. Frameless needs 10mm, occasionally 12mm on tall or wide panels, because the glass is doing the structural work itself through hinges and clamps fixed to tile and substrate.
The three styles, honestly compared
Framed is the workhorse. An aluminium perimeter on every panel, a bottom track, a door that seals against the frame. It is the cheapest option, it handles walls that are out of square or out of plumb without drama, and it leaks the least. The trade-off is visual — you see the metal, and the bottom track collects grime.
Semi-frameless frames the fixed panels and hangs the door off hinges or a slider with no frame on the free edges. It is the middle price, and for most renovations it is the sensible compromise.
Frameless is glass, hinges and silicone. It looks the best by a distance and it costs accordingly. It also demands accuracy: tiles flat and plumb, substrate strong enough to take hinge fixings, and a floor that falls to the waste, because without a bottom track the floor fall is what keeps water in the shower. A frameless screen in a badly graded base will weep onto the bathroom floor forever.
Repairs and replacement
Panels get replaced more often than whole screens. Common jobs are a shattered fixed panel, a door that has dropped because a hinge or pivot has worn, a rolling door that has jumped its track, and perished seals that let water out at the bottom. Hardware for older screens is not always still made, which sometimes forces a full replacement even though the glass is fine — worth knowing before you start hunting for a matching pivot.
Where it fits with the rest of the bathroom
If the bathroom is being renovated, template the screen, the mirror and any glass splashback in one visit after the tiling is finished. Same measure, same install run, one call-out instead of three, and the glass tint matches across all of it.
For a shattered screen right now, the glass is safe to clean up but sharp at the edges, and the opening should be made safe — see emergency repairs. For what moves the price, see the cost guide, and for the rules behind the glass choice, the AS 1288 guide.
More services
Explore our other services
Window Repair and Replacement
Reglazing timber and aluminium windows, plus custom awning, double-hung, sliding and louvre units.
Learn more →Shopfront Glass
Laminated shopfront panels, entry doors and after-hours board-ups so the shop still opens in the morning.
Learn more →Glass Splashbacks
Toughened 6mm splashbacks for kitchens, laundries and bathrooms, colour-matched and templated on site.
Learn more →Double Glazing
Insulated glass units for Melbourne's cold snaps and hot northerlies. Retrofit or full window replacement.
Learn more →Mirrors
Cut-to-size bathroom, wardrobe, gym and studio mirrors with polished or bevelled edges.
Learn more →Glass Balustrades
Frameless and semi-framed balustrades for stairs, balconies and decks, built to the fall height rules.
Learn more →Glass Roofs and Skylights
Overhead glazing, awnings and skylights in laminated glass, because overhead glass has its own rules.
Learn more →Pool Fencing
Frameless and semi-frameless glass pool fences built to the Victorian barrier rules.
Learn more →Glass Doors
Hinged, sliding, stacker and bi-fold glazed doors, plus reglazing the door you already have.
Learn more →Fly Screens
Pleated, sliding and fixed insect screens in extruded aluminium with PVC-coated mesh.
Learn more →Smart Glass
Switchable privacy glass that goes from clear to opaque, for partitions, consult rooms and bathrooms.
Learn more →Table Tops and Furniture Glass
Cut-to-size table tops, shelving and cabinet glass with polished, bevelled or pencil edges.
Learn more →Scratch and Graffiti Removal
Polishing scratched and acid-tagged glass instead of replacing it, where the glass can take it.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Frameless, semi-frameless or framed - which should I pick?
Framed is the cheapest, most forgiving of out-of-square walls and the most watertight, but it shows more metal. Semi-frameless keeps a frame on the fixed panels and leaves the door clean. Frameless looks best and costs most, needs thicker glass and accurate tiling, and relies on silicone and good fall to the waste rather than a bottom track.
Why can a shower screen not be cut down on site?
Because it is toughened. The glass is cut, edged and drilled first, then heated and quenched, which locks the panel at that size permanently. Cutting or drilling it afterwards shatters it. That is exactly what makes it safe glass, and it is why the template measure happens after tiling and waterproofing, not before.
My screen shattered on its own. Is that normal?
It happens, and it is usually spontaneous breakage from a nickel sulfide inclusion in the glass or from a chipped edge that has been quietly stressed for months. Toughened glass under tension fails all at once into small blunt pieces. Nothing was done wrong in the bathroom that morning. It gets replaced, and a chipped edge on a new panel should always be reported.
How long from measure to installed?
Typically one to two weeks for a made-to-measure screen. The template measure is taken off finished tiles, the panel is fabricated and toughened, then installed. Rushing that window is possible but limits your hardware and finish options, and the toughening process itself cannot be shortened.
How do I stop the glass going cloudy?
Squeegee the glass after use and dry the bottom rail. The white haze on old screens is mineral deposit from hard water and soap etching into the surface, and once it has etched it cannot be cleaned off - it has to be polished. A protective coating applied at install slows it, but the squeegee does most of the work.
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