Shower Enclosure Costs UK 2026 — What to Charge to Supply and Fit a Shower Cubicle

Types of Shower Enclosure and What They Cost to Supply

The enclosure type drives both the supply cost and the difficulty of the fit. A budget framed quadrant out of a box is a different job to a bespoke frameless walk-in screen, and your quote needs to reflect that. Here's a breakdown of the main types with current UK supply-only price ranges before labour.

Framed Enclosures (Budget)

Framed enclosures have aluminium framing around every glass edge — top, bottom and sides. The frame hides tolerances, which makes them the most forgiving to fit and the cheapest to buy. They're the standard choice for rental properties, trade specs and budget-conscious customers. Glass is usually 4–5mm toughened safety glass.

These are the enclosures you'll fit most often. The trade-off is appearance and longevity — the frames collect limescale and grime, and the rollers on sliding doors wear out faster than pivot hinges.

• Framed quadrant or square (760–900mm): £150–£300 supply
• Framed sliding-door rectangular (1000–1200mm): £200–£350 supply
• Glass spec: 4–5mm toughened

Semi-Frameless and Mid-Range Enclosures

Mid-range enclosures use 6–8mm glass with minimal framing — typically a wall profile and a slim handle, but no frame around the door edges. They look considerably better than budget framed units and are the default for most owner-occupier bathroom refurbishments. Many come with an easy-clean nano coating on the glass that resists limescale.

This is the sweet spot for most domestic jobs. The customer gets a quality finish, and the slightly heavier glass and tighter tolerances mean a fit that demands more care — which justifies a higher labour line than a budget framed unit.

• Semi-frameless quadrant or square: £300–£550 supply
• Semi-frameless rectangular or pivot door: £350–£700 supply
• Glass spec: 6–8mm toughened with easy-clean coating

Price toward the top of this range where the customer has specified a branded enclosure (Merlyn, Roman, Kudos, Matki entry ranges) rather than a generic merchant own-brand.

Frameless Enclosures (Premium)

Frameless enclosures use 8–10mm glass with no surrounding frame — just glass-to-glass hinges and brackets. They look like a single sheet of glass and command premium prices. The heavier glass is harder to handle (often a two-person lift), the tolerances are unforgiving, and any deviation in the wall or tray shows immediately. These jobs need an experienced fitter.

• Frameless hinged or fixed panel: £700–£1,200 supply
• Frameless three-sided or bespoke: £1,000–£1,500+ supply
• Glass spec: 8–10mm toughened

On frameless work the supply cost is high enough that your margin on the product can be modest — make sure your labour line carries the job. These are slow, precise fits.

Walk-In Screens and Wetroom Panels

Walk-in showers use a single fixed glass screen (sometimes with a short return or deflector panel) and no door. They're paired either with a low-profile tray or a tiled wetroom floor laid to fall over a tanked substrate. The screen supply is relatively simple, but if the job involves a wetroom floor the complexity — and the price — climbs considerably because you're into tanking and floor formers.

• Walk-in fixed screen (700–1000mm): £250–£600 supply
• Walk-in with return/deflector panel: £500–£900 supply
• Frameless walk-in (10mm): £700–£1,500+ supply

Quote the screen and the floor as separate lines. A wetroom floor former, tanking kit and tiled fall is a job in its own right and should never be buried inside an "enclosure" price.

Shower Trays — Supply Costs

The tray is where a lot of fitters lose money, because a cheap tray fitted badly is the fastest route to a leak callback. Tray choice affects both the supply cost and the difficulty of getting a level, fully supported, watertight base.

Stone Resin Trays

Stone resin (cast mineral) trays are the workhorse of the trade. They're rigid, heavy, sit flat and rarely flex once bedded properly. Most come with an anti-slip surface and a removable waste cover. They're the safe choice for the majority of jobs.

• Standard stone resin (760–900mm): £100–£250 supply
• Large rectangular (1200–1700mm): £200–£400 supply

Low-Profile Trays

Low-profile trays (typically 25–45mm high) give a near-flush, modern look and are popular for walk-in showers. The flatter the tray, the more critical the floor preparation and the waste arrangement — there's less room for a shallow trap, so you may need to lift floorboards or notch joists. Factor that into your labour.

• Low-profile stone resin: £150–£350 supply
• Slimline tileable-tray (wetroom former): £200–£400 supply

Tiled Trays and Wetroom Floors

A fully tiled tray or wetroom floor uses a former laid to falls, a tanking membrane and tiles laid over the top. There's no off-the-shelf tray cost as such, but the former and tanking kit run £150–£400 in materials, and the labour to lay falls, tank and tile is significantly higher than dropping in a stone resin tray. Quote this as a wetroom floor, not a tray.

• Cheap acrylic/ABS trays: £80–£150 supply — fine for budget jobs, flex more

Waste, Sealing and Sundries

The small parts are easy to forget at quoting stage and easy to skimp on — which is exactly where leaks start. A good shower waste, the right sealant and a properly fitted upstand are the difference between a job that lasts and a callback in six months.

• Shower waste (fast-flow 90mm): £15–£50
• Neutral-cure silicone sealant (per cartridge): £8–£15
• Tile/seal upstand or trim: £10–£30
• Tray feet/riser kit (where used): £20–£50
• Fixings, plugs, profiles and consumables: £15–£40 per job

Always use a neutral-cure (not acetoxy) silicone on shower work — acetoxy can fail to cure properly against some sealants and finishes and smells of vinegar. Build a sundries allowance of £40–£80 into every enclosure quote so the small parts never come out of your labour.

Labour — What to Charge to Fit

Fitting an enclosure onto an existing, sound tray and tiled wall is a day's work for most jobs. A clean swap — pull the old enclosure, fit a like-for-like new one onto the existing tray — can be a half day. But the moment you're also supplying and bedding a new tray, sorting the waste, or tiling, you're into a full day or more.

• Fit enclosure only (existing tray, like-for-like): £120–£200 (half day)
• Supply and fit tray + enclosure: £200–£350 (full day)
• Frameless or walk-in with tiling/wetroom: £350–£600+ (day-plus)
• Typical day rate, bathroom fitter/plumber: £200–£350/day

Day rates vary by region — £200–£250 is common in the North and Midlands, £300–£350 in the South East and London. Frameless work and wetroom floors should always carry the higher end because the precision and time involved are far greater than a framed swap.

Worked Examples — Supply and Fit

Here's how the numbers come together on real supply-and-fit quotes. These assume the wall and floor are sound and tiled — strip-out, tiling and making good are separate lines.

Example 1 — Budget framed quadrant, new tray

• Framed 800mm quadrant enclosure: £220
• Stone resin quadrant tray: £140
• Waste, sealant, sundries: £60
• Labour (full day): £250
• Total supply and fit: ~£670

Example 2 — Mid-range rectangular, new tray

• Semi-frameless 1200mm sliding enclosure: £480
• Low-profile stone resin tray: £260
• Fast-flow waste, sealant, sundries: £70
• Labour (full day): £300
• Total supply and fit: ~£1,110

Example 3 — Frameless walk-in screen, wetroom floor

• Frameless 1000mm walk-in screen (10mm): £950
• Wetroom former + tanking kit: £300
• Waste, sealant, sundries: £90
• Labour (day-plus, falls + tanking, screen fit): £550
• Total supply and fit (excl. floor tiling): ~£1,890

Note example 3 excludes the floor tiling itself — price that separately on a per-m² basis with the customer's chosen tiles. Burying tiling inside the enclosure price is how walk-in jobs lose money.

Glass Spec and Why It Matters to Your Price

All shower glass sold in the UK must be toughened safety glass to BS EN 12150 and marked accordingly. Thickness is the headline spec: 4–5mm on budget framed units, 6mm on most mid-range, and 8–10mm on frameless and premium. Thicker glass feels more solid, sags less over time and looks better — but it's heavier to lift and harder to fit square.

Easy-clean coatings (nano/hydrophobic treatments) are worth flagging to customers as a value add — they genuinely reduce limescale build-up and the customer notices the difference. If a customer is choosing between a 6mm coated panel and an 8mm uncoated one, the coating is usually the better real-world upgrade. Use glass spec as a selling point in your quote rather than letting the customer shop on price alone.

What Adds Cost — Check Before You Quote

Enclosure quotes go wrong when the fitter prices off a photo rather than seeing the bathroom. Before you commit a price, check the following:

• Wall flatness and plumb: Out-of-true walls are the number-one cause of fitting grief, especially on frameless and semi-frameless units where there's no frame to hide the gap. Check before quoting.
• Existing tiling condition: If you're fitting to existing tiles, are they sound and watertight? Drilling near a cracked tile can shatter it — note any risk in writing.
• Tray support and floor level: A tray that isn't fully supported underneath will flex and crack the seal. Suspended timber floors may need extra bracing or a bedding compound.
• Waste and trap access: Low-profile trays leave little room for the trap. You may need to lift boards or notch a joist — that's extra time.
• Access and stairs: Large glass panels are awkward and heavy. Tight stairwells, landings and door widths can turn a one-person job into a two-person lift.
• Strip-out of the old enclosure: Removing and disposing of an old enclosure and tray is dirty work and takes time — price it as a line, don't absorb it.

Always view the bathroom before quoting frameless or walk-in work. A ten-minute survey that catches an out-of-plumb wall or an awkward waste run saves you a day of grief and a margin-destroying surprise on site.

Quick Reference: Shower Enclosure Costs UK 2026