Installing frameless shower door: How hard is it?

[gulph]

I've just ordered a frameless shower door -- specifically, a door and an adjacent flat panel. The whole thing is about four feet wide (panel and door) and 6'5" tall.

This is one of those ridiculously expensive -- but cool-looking -- shower doors that mounts with a couple of chrome brackets or "clips" rather than the traditional channels.

After we got the bid, I noticed that about a third of the cost was installation -- $500. So, I immediately said I'd do it myself. The glass guy said OK, but did a lot of head-shaking and said, "We really don't recommend that."

Has anyone installed one of these things? Is there some trick to it that would justify paying anyone $500 to install it. I mean, you measure carefully, drill and mount your brackets, right? Is there anything I'm missing?

Mark

[BocesLib]

I got a frameless slider, installed it myself. Not that hard to install. With the door system that you have the measurements have to be spot on. Its also important what the doors will be supported on. I assume that they are going right into beams right? Doors were heavy as hell. (3/8" glass) One thing to be real careful about is handling the glass. Do NOT bang it around when installing it. Any hard surface contact can shatter that glass real easy.

[Steve Manes]

It's not that hard providing you've got secure timber to drive those clip mounts into as well as a couple of strong friends to help you. Frameless shower doors are both very heavy and fragile.

Steve Manes Brooklyn, NY

[Frank J Warner]

The devil's in the details, Mark. There are things you can't plan for because you don't have the experience.

One good way to look at it is to recall all the specialized knowledge you need to do your job well, or even adequately, whatever your job might be. Maybe it's trading stock & bonds. To the rest of us, you're just picking up the phone and yelling "buy!" Anybody can do that. But you have to know when and why and to whom to yell it and for how much and then keep records of the transaction and try not to go to jail in the bargain.

You're paying for this guy's expertise as well as his labor. If he screws up, you get a new shower door. If you screw up, at best you've got a crooked shower door that never quite closes right. At worst you've got a $1000 worth of broken glass on your bathroom floor.

-Frank

[Steve Manes]

Providing you can find a frameless shower surround that costs that little

Steve Manes Brooklyn, NY