We fabricate and install semi-frameless shower doors across Chicago. Slim framing around the perimeter, an open frame-free door panel, and tempered glass cut to your opening.

Semi-frameless gets described as the middle option, which undersells it. The framing does real work. It supports the glass so the panels can be thinner and lighter, it gives the installation tolerance when a wall is not perfectly plumb, and it holds a seal along the edges where a frameless enclosure relies on layout instead.

In a lot of Chicago bathrooms that is not a compromise. It is the better-performing enclosure.

We design and install semi-frameless shower doors and enclosures throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, with every panel cut for a single opening.

The perimeter framing on a semi-frameless enclosure is structural, not decorative. It carries load along the edges, which is why the glass can be thinner, typically a quarter inch or three-eighths rather than the half inch a frameless panel often needs.

That has knock-on effects. Lighter glass puts less demand on wall anchoring, which matters in older homes where blocking was never installed. It also means hardware is simpler and less expensive, and the enclosure is more forgiving of walls that have moved.

Chicago’s older housing stock has one thing in common regardless of neighborhood: the walls have moved.

A bungalow bathroom framed in 1925 has had a century of settling. A postwar ranch in the near suburbs has had sixty-plus years, plus in many cases a layer of tile laid over the original tile, which changes the opening dimension. Measure an alcove like that top to bottom and you will often find a quarter inch of variance, sometimes more.

Frameless glass has nothing to absorb that with. The panel is cut to a dimension and the wall either matches it or you get a gap. Semi-frameless framing spans that variance, holds the seal, and produces a cleaner result in exactly the conditions where a frameless enclosure struggles. This is why we recommend it as often as we do, and not because it is the cheaper line on the quote.

The honest comparison comes down to three things: appearance, conditions, and budget.

Frameless looks cleaner. There is no arguing that. If your bathroom is newer construction with true walls, and the budget allows it, frameless will give you the most open result. Semi-frameless has visible metal at the perimeter, though modern framing is far slimmer than the heavy framed enclosures people picture from the 1980s, and finish options let it read as intentional rather than builder-grade.

Where semi-frameless wins is on out-of-plumb walls, on cost, and on maintenance simplicity. Where frameless wins is on a clean sightline and on having no tracks to clean.

We will look at your actual bathroom and tell you which one belongs there.

Custom shower doors start at $999, and semi-frameless is where most Chicago projects enter that range. Thinner glass and simpler hardware keep the cost below a comparable frameless enclosure, often meaningfully so. What moves your number is the size and configuration of the opening, the glass thickness, and the hardware finish you choose. A single hinged door across a standard tub alcove sits at the low end. Door and panel combinations, sliding configurations, and corner enclosures cost more. You get one firm written number after the on-site measurement, and it holds through installation.

Call us and we schedule a free on-site measurement at your Chicago home. We check the opening top to bottom, look at how true the walls run, and talk through configuration and finish. If your walls are square and the budget supports frameless, we will tell you that too rather than steering you to the cheaper enclosure by default.

Once you approve the quote, your glass goes into fabrication at your measurements. We call to schedule installation when it is ready. Our crew handles the install, removes the old enclosure, seals the perimeter, and walks the finished shower with you before leaving.