More than any other build, which is the main reason to choose one. Wall profiles are made with a deliberate adjustment range, typically a few millimetres per side, and the glass floats within them.

Because the frame rather than the glass meets the wall, a lean can be taken up gradually along the height instead of showing as a tapering gap.

In an older building where nothing is square, that tolerance frequently decides whether the installation is clean or a compromise, and it is why framed units remain the default for refurbishment.

How much of the perimeter is in metal. A fully framed enclosure has a profile on every edge including the door; semi-framed keeps the structural profiles at the walls and leaves the door edges bare.

Semi-framed is a middle position: most of the adjustment and support of a framed unit, with a lighter look and fewer profiles to clean around.

The trade is that a semi-framed door needs slightly thicker glass than a fully framed one, because its own edges carry more of the load.

Not structurally, because the frame is doing the work the glass would otherwise do. Framed enclosures commonly use thinner toughened glass than frameless ones and are perfectly sound.

What thinner glass changes is feel rather than safety — a lighter door, more flex when pushed, and a different sound when closed.

All of it should still be toughened safety glass, and that is worth confirming on any enclosure regardless of thickness or price.

They collect it, yes, and that is the honest cost of the build. Every profile is a channel, and channels in a wet room hold water, soap residue and eventually limescale.

Semi-framed reduces the number of channels; frameless removes most of them. Against that, a framed enclosure has fewer exposed seals to perish.

The maintenance answer is the same either way: squeegee the glass and rinse the profiles, and the difference between builds becomes a matter of minutes rather than condition.

Framed, comfortably. The adjustment is built in, the components are lighter to handle, and the tolerances forgive a wall that is not true.

Frameless requires accurate setting out and heavy panes, and mistakes are far harder to correct once holes are drilled.

For a straightforward replacement into an existing space, a framed or semi-framed unit is usually the lower-risk choice, and the visual difference matters less once a shower screen is wet.