Custom Showers Explained: Pans, Glass Doors, and How They're Built

A "custom shower" isn't one product — it's three decisions that most homeowners don't realize they're making until they're standing in a showroom. There's the base you stand on, the glass that encloses it, and — the part nobody photographs but everybody should care about — the waterproofing hidden behind the tile. Get the first two right and you have a shower that looks good. Get the third right and you have one that's still leak-free in fifteen years.

This guide walks through all three, plus what a custom shower actually costs in Ottawa and how it differs from a walk-in shower or a simple tub-to-shower swap. It's the background worth having before you talk to anyone about building one.

Shower Pan (Base) Types Compared

The pan is the floor of the shower — the piece that collects water and sends it to the drain. It's either a preformed unit that drops in, or a tiled base built on site. The choice sets the look, the price, and how much can be customized.

Pan Type	Relative Cost	Customizable?	Best For
Acrylic / fibreglass (preformed)	$	Fixed sizes only	Budget builds, fast installs, rentals
Solid surface	$$	Some sizes/colours	Low-maintenance, seamless look
Stone resin / cultured stone	$$	Limited	Low-profile, modern minimal showers
Tile over mortar bed (site-built)	$$$	Fully custom	Any size or shape, curbless, feature tile
Cast iron / porcelain enamel	$$$	Fixed shapes	Durability and a traditional finish

The big divide is preformed versus tiled. A preformed acrylic pan is cheaper and quick, but you're locked into its size and shape. A tiled base built on a sloped mortar bed can be any footprint, supports a fully curbless (barrier-free) entry, and lets the floor match or contrast the walls — but it depends entirely on the waterproofing underneath being done correctly, which is where corners get cut.

Curb or curbless?

A curbed shower has a small lip you step over — simpler to waterproof and contain water. A curbless (barrier-free) shower is level with the bathroom floor, which looks seamless and is far safer for aging in place, but it needs a properly sloped base, a linear or offset drain, and extra waterproofing to keep water heading the right way. Curbless is almost always a site-built tiled base, not a preformed pan.

Shower Glass Door Types

Glass is the most visible decision, and the one with the biggest range in price. There are two things to settle: the framing style, and the door configuration.

Frameless vs Framed vs Semi-Frameless

This is the question everyone asks first, so here's the honest trade-off.

Frameless

• Clean, open, high-end look that shows off your tile

• Fewer metal channels means less to clean and less mould

• Adds the most resale appeal

• Uses thick tempered glass (3/8" or 1/2")

Trade-offs

• The most expensive option

• Needs walls that are close to plumb — a real issue in older Ottawa homes

• Relies on precise measurement; custom glass can't be trimmed after fabrication

Framed doors use aluminium channels around the glass. They're the most affordable and forgiving of imperfect walls, but the frame collects grime and reads as more basic. Semi-frameless splits the difference — a frame on the fixed panel, clean edges on the door — giving much of the frameless look for less money.

Door configurations

Configuration	How It Works	Best For
Hinged (pivot)	Swings open like a door	Standard-size showers with clear floor space in front
Sliding (bypass)	Panels slide past each other	Tight bathrooms with no room for a swing
Bi-fold	Folds inward on itself	Very small showers and alcoves
Neo-angle	Diagonal front across a corner	Corner showers in compact bathrooms
Fixed panel (walk-in)	One fixed screen, no door	Larger curbless showers with an open feel

Glass Options: Clarity, Thickness, and Coatings

Beyond framing, the glass itself has choices worth knowing:

• Clear — the standard; shows your tile fully. Standard clear glass has a faint green tint at the edges.

• Low-iron ("ultra-clear") — removes that green tint for a truly colourless look; costs more.

• Frosted / satin — obscures the view for privacy, common in shared bathrooms.

• Rain / patterned — textured for privacy with a decorative effect.

• Tinted — grey or bronze glass for a dramatic, modern look.

Thickness matters too: frameless doors use 3/8" or 1/2" tempered glass for rigidity, while framed doors can use thinner glass because the frame carries the load. A protective coating (a hydrophobic sealant) is worth adding — it makes water bead off and dramatically cuts hard-water spotting, which is a real issue with Ottawa's water.

Not sure how a glass style will look in your bathroom? A 3D design shows the shower, glass, and tile together before anything is ordered — useful when custom glass can't be changed once it's cut.

How a Custom Shower Is Actually Built

This is the part that separates a shower that lasts from one that leaks — and the part a glass-only supplier doesn't touch. A tiled custom shower is only as good as the waterproofing underneath it. Here's the real sequence:

1. Clean and level the subfloor

2. Fit the shower drain, integrated with the waterproofing liner

3. Build the base — a sloped mortar bed or a preformed pan — so water runs to the drain

4. Set the curb at the entrance, if the design has one

5. Attach cement backer board to the walls

6. Install a waterproof membrane across the walls and floor, with every corner and seam sealed with a waterproofing band

7. Tile the walls and floor over the membrane

8. Grout, then seal the grout

9. Rough in and connect the shower head, valve, and fixtures

10. Water-test the drain and check for leaks before the glass goes in

Step 6 is the one that matters most and the one that's invisible once the tile is on. Be Leaf builds with a fully bonded membrane system (Schluter-Kerdi) so water can't reach the wall behind the tile — which is exactly why properly built tiled showers don't grow the recurring mould that plagues poorly sealed ones. If a shower is leaking or the tile feels loose, the waterproofing has usually failed, and no amount of re-grouting fixes it.

This is the difference between a renovator and a glass shop. Glass specialists supply and fit the enclosure. A custom shower installation from Be Leaf includes the base, the waterproofing, the tile, and the glass as one coordinated build — so there's a single team accountable for the whole thing staying dry.

Installing the glass door

Once the shower is tiled and cured, the glass goes in: the installer measures the finished opening precisely (frameless glass is fabricated to that exact measurement and can't be adjusted afterward), the panels and hardware are mounted and set, the edges are caulked, and the door is cleaned and tested for smooth, leak-free operation. Expect the glass step to follow a few days after the tiling, since custom glass is fabricated to order.

What Does a Custom Shower Cost in Ottawa?

Price depends on size, base type, tile, and glass, but as a starting point using Be Leaf's own pricing:

• Tub-to-shower conversion — from $7,000, reusing the existing tub footprint (1–2 weeks)

• Standalone walk-in shower — from $8,000 (2–3 weeks)

• Fully custom tiled shower — from $9,000, rising with size, natural stone, frameless glass, curbless entry, or a steam system

Feature tile, a curbless base, low-iron frameless glass, and built-in niches or a bench all push the number up — but they're also what make a shower feel custom rather than off-the-shelf. A fixed-price quote after an in-home measure is the only way to know your real number.

Custom Shower, Walk-In, or Tub-to-Shower?

These terms overlap, so quickly: a tub-to-shower conversion is the fastest and cheapest — it swaps an existing tub for a shower in the same space. A walk-in shower is a low- or no-threshold shower built for easy, open access. A custom shower is the fully bespoke version — any size, shape, tile, and glass you like. And if the whole room is dated, a shower is usually done as part of a full bathroom renovation rather than on its own.

Building a Custom Shower in Ottawa?

Be Leaf Renovation builds custom showers end to end — sloped base, Schluter-Kerdi waterproofing, tile, and frameless glass — so one team owns the result and it's guaranteed to stay dry, backed by a 3-year workmanship warranty. That's the difference between a glass supplier and a renovation team that builds the shower behind the glass.

We work across Ottawa, including Kanata, Nepean, Orleans, Barrhaven, and Stittsville. For a bigger project, a custom shower folds naturally into an ensuite renovation.

Book a free in-home estimate: 613-883-0018

The Bottom Line

A custom shower is three decisions: the base, the glass, and the waterproofing that ties them together. The base sets the shape and whether you can go curbless; the glass sets the look and most of the cost; and the waterproofing — the part you'll never see — decides whether the whole thing lasts. Choose the first two for how you want it to look, and choose your builder for how they handle the third.