I am remodeling a shower that was probably built in the 60s. (More accurately, I'm paying someone else to do it.) It's a sunken shower, the shower-floor is about 9" lower than the floor level. There's no tub or liner, just tiled walls and floor. The wall adjacent to the wall with the showerhead is an exterior wall. The exterior wall has a glass block window, about 5' high x 3' wide. The lowest course of block is about 9" above the shower-floor, which is pretty close to "ground level." I want to fill-in the sunken floor and make it level with the rest of the room. I also want to get rid of the glass block. I'd prefer to replace it with a window (slider or casement), but I don't want to do something that is going to cause me lots of headache in the future. A few contractors have told me "it's fine, just use a vinyl clad window with tempered glass" - but I'm hoping for objective advice from someone who doesn't stand to make money from the project. I had also considered (eventually) making the shower into a steam shower - I'm not sure if that effects whether there should be a window. So my questions are whether having a non-glass-block window in a shower is a horrible idea, and whether having a window (glass block or otherwise) relatively close to the shower floor is a horrible idea. For what it's worth, my house is block construction, and I'm in the hot and dry climate of Phoenix, AZ. Thanks for any advice.

 

Welcome to the forums! Placing a working window in a shower area is a disaster waiting to happen. It does not have a hermetic seal and water will eventually affect the window and possibly the surrounding framework in the eventuality of a leak. Glass block offer the ability to allow light in while, being occluded, don't have an external view. They are relatively waterproof, since water sheds off into the shower area. Just one view, so wait on the others.

 

That's what I was afraid of. The shower is really small and dark - and the outside is private - so was hoping for the view to make it feel a little bigger and a lot brighter. Thanks for the advice!

 

And even if you go with a solid vinyl 1 piece picture window, you still have to trim it to the inside wall and whatever material you use there. So you'd have to depend on some sort of caulk joint which will eventually allow leakage into the wall.

Thats why about the only kind of window you will ever see low in a shower (as opposed to high up on a wall above the splash zone) will be glass block. Soaking type tubs can be done differently.