glass door & panel

Swinging shower door 

A heavy glass shower door is a great solution often used in contemporary bathrooms. A fair amount of space is necessary to open the shower door out to the inside. It is absolutely illegal to install a swinging shower door lacking a possibility to open out. This is a very basic safety law. We recommend this elegant 3/8″  thick clear glass since it invariably creates a feeling of larger space. The clear glass makes a  huge difference even in spacious bathrooms.  The 3/8″ glass shower door is more economical. By just looking, the difference from the more expensive 1/2″ (thicker) glass is almost impossible to tell for a casual onlooker.

 

 

 

Shower door and panel

The bathtub enclosures used to be bypass types in the past, almost without exception. It is only from about the turn of the century we got requests for swinging glass shower doors of 3/8″ and 1/2″ thick on the tubs. The main advantage of this approach is the better accessibility of the tub. We think this shower door looks better too. It is more elegant and of course more contemporary. This side panel was installed with “U” channels to gain solid lateral support.

 

 

Shower door on a tub

There are sometimes special requests or special circumstances. On this bathtub, we installed a 3/8 swinging glass shower door to cover the opening between the walls on the two sides of the tub. Both doors do swing in as well as they swing-out. This way affords plenty of space to get into the tub, or to do something in it from the outside, pl. bathing a child or soaking something in the tub because it is this way totally unobstructed. A shower door must swing from a closed position toward the outside for obvious safety reasons. If a shower door swings only in, but not out, it can’t pass inspection. Such installation is against the law.

 

Shower door on both sides

This is an elaborate and beautiful bathroom. Large, with extra space to fill. Here we used a 1/2″ thick stationary glass shower door on both sides of the tub fastened on the walls all the way to the ceiling.  These glass panels, therefore, became really solid to support the 1/2″  thick heavy shower door we hinged on each of them to enclose this shower area. Notice how the clear glass is showing the well-selected and exceedingly beautiful tile work. The owner of this great four-bathroom home used to be a general building contractor and obviously does have a feel for superb design also.

 

 

Irregular shower door

Irregular corners are a bit more challenging. Some angels are called “nonstandard” angles on a shower pan. In such cases, a special angel bevel is needed on the glass to make a parallel gap between the panels. Universal “floating” angel hardware is usually necessary. Careful exact measurements are necessary on a well thought out “center line”. The proper measurement is the key to doing the shower door job perfectly the first time. Redoing special shower door glass and hardware is extremely expensive, not to mention the avoidable unnecessary returns to the job site.

 

The special shower door system

Here is another really special request we met. This is a  shower enclosure we installed along a straight wall with a special custom-made shower pan and shower door to the shower pan from two sides. The bottom of the shower glass panels is glued into “U” channels.  135-degree metal clamps are holding the top points securely together. We always use these clamps for top corners even if the panels are glued together all along the sides. This system is very large and the two shower door to it makes it uniquely convenient to use. As in all installations safety must be the first and most important consideration, overriding all else.

 

Rain glass shower door

This is an obscure glass shower door. “Rain glass” is the pattern name. It is a perfect, really pretty alternative to other obscure glass shower door choices of the past, the previously often used simple p-516 and similar simple patterns. This design creates the feeling of water running down on the glass. This shower door has a 6″ “U” shaped handle and a towel bar fastened to the stationary panel. We often vote against towel bars on the shower door glass, because when towels hang on it, some of the aesthetic value is being taken away from the look of the shower door glass. This design consideration is just as important here, even as the obscure rain-glass pattern used.

 

  

  Shower door, sand blasted

Another popular obscured glass option is the sand-blasted shower door. To sandblast the panels is a specially custom procedure involving another company doing it. It is an expensive shower door solution. Another way to have a  similar look is using “Padua”  or “mat lux” glass,  created to imitate the good old sand-blast look. This glass cost less. The appearance is almost the same, it is really difficult to tell the difference. This is the real sand-blasted shower door glass here, with clamps matching the location of the hinges on 1/2″ glass. This is a contemporary way to create privacy behind the shower door.