The Pros

Cost - your average, L-shaped frameless Shower Screen from a company that sells direct ready-made shower screens, will cost you an average of $875. If you then have it professionally installed, it will cost you between $270-$300. This totals min.$1170 . Your savings, compared with having this Screen custom made and instlled by a professional compamy such as ours, will be approx. $300-$400. This might sound appeaking, BUT:

The Cons

1. A frameless shower screen hinge varies geatly in quality, and the savings in this area do not represent money well saved, as problems like: eventual slippage of door, eventual wearng off of chrome finish on fittings - may occur, as doors weigh as much as 35kg.

2. We have, in the past, done work for unhappy past clients of all companies supplying these ready-made shower screens in Sydney and have been called out to install, repair, or in some cases, to replace these often ill-fitting panels because the company supplying them will not give a refund, saying there is nothing wrong with the panels themselves. This of course is true - the problem is that these screens just will not fit in the space in which the customer is trying to put them, as walls are usually not plumb in houses, and floors not level.

3. Please understand that as a professional company, we custom measure to the millimetre, so that gaps between the glass & wall are even and allowing only 2-3 mm gap between panels &between glass and tiles. In fact, the ready-made screens, are not really fully frameless at all for this reason - as they all, because they are not professionally measured, are manufactured leaving undefined gaps between glass. They are all supplied with a necessary plastic strip which on installation, is inserted along front and back edge of the screen door and along the front edge of the return panel. This is not attractive, taking away from the frameless, sleek look you have the right to expect.

4. If you are thinking of doing the installation yourself, of ready-made screens, following instructions, be aware of the following as, again, our installers have experienced the problems first hand: the screws are often too short and threads inside the hinge can strip because of poor quality, causing door slippage in time. An inexperienced person, first of all, will not be able to work alone, as some of the panels are large, heavy and difficult to handle. There are numerous obstacles to overcome to perfectly align the panels e.g. getting the front edge plumb or hanging and aligning a 35kg glass door. Tthere are also many tricks of the trade in fitting this kind of ready-made square Screen well - do you know these? And how are your silconing techniques? Even our installers sometimes have to tell the clients that we just cannot make their screen fit and the client at this point will have incurred even more costs! The savings on a ready-made screem this type is minimal at best, compared to all the hassles and risks. And - the bottom line - how will your finished product look?

Our advice?

Use a Company who will do the job correctly for you the first time and give you a good warranty with their work - who will come down and professionally measure and install your job so that at he end, all your screen panels are fully frameless, are perfectly aligned and will stay that way. After all - isn't that what you are paying for?