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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask if you love or loathe your shower screen?

43 replies

Toomuchstuffwillkillme · 22/09/2019 10:59

Just that really. I need to buy an over-bath shower screen. Ahh the excitement. Don't really know where to start. Please enliven my dull rainy Sunday with your shower screen do/don'ts!! If you love yours, or your cousin's, or hate your MILs (wrong thread perhaps) then why? Happy to spend a sensible amount to get a decent one - I remember my parents' old ones leaked and the seals were hideous to clean.
I have a tall DH and not very house-trained splashy DC so guess I need one at least 1500 tall. Not sure how wide or whether it should fold or slide or whatnot. Don't know what makes are likely to be any good. Soft water here thank goodness. Any ideas? Thank you!

OP posts:
Mamamia456 · 22/09/2019 13:22

Ours is more or less the same as Bigbluebus, except that it's curved at the bottom as well as the top as we have a "P" shaped bath. Opens outwards as well as in, and the seal at the bottom comes off for easy cleaning. Still looks new after 2 years. It was supplied by our plumbers when we had our bathroom done but I have seen them in Wickes.

Toomuchstuffwillkillme · 22/09/2019 13:26

I'm actually quite surprised how many of you like curtains... sure I remember a thread a few years ago when everyone said curtains were naff and outdated / kept going mouldy / stuck to your legs when you got in the shower! Bathroom fashion is a weird thing. We had an outasight one, which was a great idea in principle for occasional showers when DC were small, but couldn't cope with regular use. Not solidly enough built and you couldn't wash the curtain, and replacement parts insanely expensive.

OP posts:
ZoomingCockerel · 22/09/2019 13:32

Haven't RTFT so it's probably been mentioned but DON'T get a folding one! The seals are always shite and they're SUCH a PITA to clean. I'd get a shower curtain myself, that's what I'm planning on getting when I replace my en suite shower

elprup · 22/09/2019 13:36

Hate mine. I live in a hard water area so have to spray and scrub it with white vinegar constantly to keep the stains at bay.

Also, the plastic rim at the bottom of the screen gets small drips of water in it which have now turned into orange mould. The rim is sealed onto the shower screen so not sure what to do!

elprup · 22/09/2019 13:39

I'm actually quite surprised how many of you like curtains... sure I remember a thread a few years ago when everyone said curtains were naff and outdated / kept going mouldy / stuck to your legs when you got in the shower!

Curtains don't look as smart as a sparkling clean shower screen IMO, but they do look better than a shower screen with hard water marks all over it.

18TilIDie · 22/09/2019 13:52

We have a flat door type that rests on top of the bath. We use a window squeegees (from Ikea) and also give it a quick dry with a towel that's due to go for a wash. We clean the seal at the bottom with a bleach spray and replaced it recently as it does discolour but they just slide off easily.

elprup · 22/09/2019 13:58

My seal is stuck onto the screen with clear silicone gel - maybe I need to wrench it off and get a new one! The gel hasn't stopped water getting in at either end anyway.

Kittywampus · 22/09/2019 14:09

I hate ours - dp insisted on getting it, and it's a pain in the arse. It only opens inwards because we have a washbasin next to the bath. It makes it really hard to bath the children, and they hide at the far end of the bath when they don't want me to wash their hair. Every time I 'accidentally' smash it into the wash basin I hope that it's going to break.

Yerroblemom1923 · 22/09/2019 14:11

Shower curtain all the way! Glass screens rarely look nice for long and usually the edges/ corners/ joins get mouldy and there's no way on earth to get to those hard to clean bits!

PettyContractor · 22/09/2019 14:35

I'm actually quite surprised how many of you like curtains... sure I remember a thread a few years ago when everyone said curtains were naff and outdated / kept going mouldy / stuck to your legs when you got in the shower!

That's what I used to think, and I had two bathrooms with over bath showers for 20 years and have thoroughly explored the options. I've had folding screens and a horizontal blind contraption. (The blind was better but was always needing parts replacing and looked decrepit and manky a lot of the time. It was better than a glass screen because it was better at keeping water in the bath area, no need to clean limescale, and if folded away when not in use. Even a see-though glass screen makes a bathroom feel much more cramped compared to a blind or curtain that folds away completely.)

After rebuilding my bathrooms, for the one where I didn't replace the bath with a dedicated shower, I'm back to using curtains, and in my scenario it's far better. The scenario is a P-shaped bath that in effect creates a large 90cm corner shower area, that's a cross between a 90cm square and a 90cm circle. I have a 88cm semicircular rail suspended from the ceiling so that when the shower curtain is in use, it overlaps the bath width by half the width of the bath at each end. The side of the semicircle that is next to a wall clings to the tiled* wall as soons as it wet, so literally no water from the corner mounted shower is getting out that way. On the opposite side any water that misses the edge of the curtain falls into the bath.

I ordered the curtain in a custom size so that it could be shorter (only hang 10cm into the bath) and to get exactly the width that covered a semi-circle. I got an unexpected benefit: the custom curtains were made from woven polyester, which means when you spray the shower on the inside, the gaps in the weave allow the outside to get damp. This is great because it means I can just spray the bottom few inches of the curtain with the shower head while I'm waiting for the hot water to come through, the spray forces it against the side of the bath where the dampness on the outside causes it to stick as if it's been glued. So there is absolutely no flapping about or sticking to you by the curtain, it's more rigid and waterproof than any screen I've ever used.

The only maintenance I need to do is maybe once every two months spray the bottom couple of inches of curtain with bleach spray. There's are no solid surfaces or fixtures where limescale can build up. (All screens with a wall support tend to get limescale around the bottom corner where they meet the bath.) If the curtain ever did get manky, a replacement would cost £20. (If something went wrong with the manufacturer-option glass screen I could have got with my bath, a replacement would cost £1500!)

  • irrelevant detail: shower area wall not actually tiled, each wall covered by a single solid perspex sheet instead. Far more waterproof than tiles, and no grout to go mouldy.

(The new shower bath is actually actually in many ways better for showering than the dedicated shower. It's main relative downside is the bath floor have a noticeable slope compared to the showers flat standing area, and that the whole bathroom steams up much more, surprisingly the dedicated shower enclosure seems to make a massive difference to steam spreading around the bathroom as a result of the area be completely enclosed, even steam could theoretically escape out the top. It takes about 15 minute for a fan to clear humidity from the dedicates shower, and about two hours fro the fully steamed up bathroom where the shower-bath is.)

BeepBeeep · 22/09/2019 14:39

I clean my glass screen with some cream cleaner on a nylon scourer then rinse it off with the shower. Sparkling.
I clean the strip at the bottom with an old toothbrush and cream cleaner.
Then I usually jump in the shower and do the same with the tiles, before cleaning myself, but not with cream cleaner may I add.

bloodywhitecat · 22/09/2019 14:39

Straight forward glass screen that opens outwards, it gets wiped down with a window blade at every use and still looks as good as new. Would never go back to a curtain, they are far harder to keep clean (I live in a very hard water area)

Jaffacakebeast · 22/09/2019 14:47

Oh god no no no, I literally cannot cope with those glass 1s, a cheap curtain changed a few times a year, totally annoying when the stick to you but OMG the glass 1s leak and are horrible to clean, I couldn’t go back

hazell42 · 22/09/2019 15:16

Honestly. I give no fucks about my shower screen
It's a shower screen
Buy one you like the look of.
Sorted

Snuffkindle · 22/09/2019 17:20

I'm 8 weeks into my new bathroom with glass shower screen. So far so good. (Slightly worried about the plastic bit at the bottom going mouldy now so will have to look into that more carefully. )But glass cleaning is fine. I watched some.Mrs Hinch videos. I clean the inside with flash bathroom spray to get the soap off and a window wiper thing. and then the outside with astonish glass spray. The best thing I learned from her is about the green minky cloth she calls Kermit. A good buff up with a dry one of those with the astonish spray does marvels. Mine is very sparkly still. One thing I think I shouldn't have chosen is the chrome towel rail on the outside of the screen..makes it harder to get round it.

Blibbyblobby · 22/09/2019 17:28

We have had this one since last November. I’m not a fan of the thick silver hinge but it is doing the job. It leaks a little at the hinge but less than most, a flannel against the seal easily stops it.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GZRXYU0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

We have hard water (London) and make a shower spray from white vinegar, surface cleaner and water. Spray then squeegee after using the shower keeps the scale at bay.

MiniMum97 · 22/09/2019 17:51

Is a water softener the answer?

ihavehobbies · 22/09/2019 18:03

I had two, the foldable one (good but cleaning a nightmare) and plain glass. Plain glass one, squidgy after every use (you get used to it and becomes second nature) and stays good as new, I don't even clean it when I'm doing the rest of the bathroom.

Shower curtains are awful, they stick to you and do go mouldy, just brought my brother another one as I couldn't deal with it

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