Month: November 2016

For relatively narrow shower openings, a frameless shower door and panel is the most popular layout option. We recently completed this glass shower door installation in Falls Church, VA, and it is a perfect example of this unit type.

The opening is approximately 34″ wide. In smaller bathrooms, openings between 28″ and 36″ are not uncommon. For openings narrower than 32″, we generally recommend a single glass door spanning the entire opening width. Doors of this size can use standard shower door hinges.

Single Shower Door vs. Shower Door and Panel

Sometimes it can be better to opt for a shower door and panel, however. For openings wider than 32″, we recommend a shower door and panel for two primary reasons. First, single doors between 32″ and 36″ wide (the maximum width) exert more pressure on the shower door hinges. Since we offer a lifetime warranty on our hinges, we want to make sure they perform perfectly for decades. Reducing the weight of the door by engineering it to be 26″-30″ wide is one way to accomplish this.

Second, small shower openings are most commonly found in relatively small bathrooms. This can mean that a toilet or vanity may conflict with opening the shower door. In these cases, having a stationary glass panel inline with the door is a matter of practicality. It ensures that the arc of the shower door opening leaves ample room for other bathroom fixtures.

Shower Doors in Falls Church, VA

In the Falls Church area, contractors and homeowners with narrow shower openings choose a shower door and panel layout over a single door approximately 80% of the time for these reasons. During the planning stages of a bathroom renovation, it can be helpful to commit to this layout so the placement of other bathroom fixtures (e.g., towel bars, robe hooks, etc.) can be optimized.

We do have options though when just a single glass shower door is preferable. We can use heavier duty hinges–or even a third standard hinge–to ensure that shower doors between 32″ and 36″ wide operate as they should for the life of the shower enclosure. All of our hinge options can be seen in person at our shower door showroom outside of Frederick, MD.

If you are debating which shower door layout is best for your bathroom project, contact us today! With a few details, we can provide you with a free shower door quote online or over the phone.

This frameless corner shower in Frederick, MD makes very efficient use of the available shower space. By planning ahead and thinking outside the box, the homeowner and bathroom contractor were able to create a beautiful shower enclosure next to the soaking tub.

The shower pan is a modest 34″x34″. But the contractor built a 12″ bench seat in the shower to open it up a bit. It was up to us to design and install a frameless glass shower  that would highlight the design features and make the bathroom space feel more open.

Shower Door Size

A typical shower door width is 28″. The maximum door width is 36″. Anything wider than this will wear down the hinge over time and can result in the door slipping. For 34″x34″ shower pans, we usually recommend a 28″ door next to a 6″ stationary notched panel that is cut out to accommodate the knee wall.

The homeowner did not want to limit the walkthrough space, however, so we opted for a single door that close against a fully buttressed return panel.

Corner Shower Return Panels

A return panel is a piece of stationary glass that meets the front of the shower at 90 degrees. When a return panel meets a notched panel, the return panel usually sets centerline on a knee wall. So if a knee wall is 4″ wide, the panel would set at the 2″ mark.

However, when a door meets a return panel directly, the panel needs to be set on the very innermost edge of the knee wall to ensure the door seals properly. This involves using a slightly different glass bracket – or clamp – and it is not an easy installation. Everything needs to be very exact for it to be successful. Fortunately, our technicians have all been with us for years (some as long as 15 years) and they’ve seen and done it all.

Shower Door Options in Frederick, MD

Choosing a layout and selecting hardware for a frameless shower door can be overwhelming. There are a lot of companies that make a lot of lofty promises, but none of them have what we do: a dedicated shower door showroom. Our staff is available to walk you through your options, show you full-size shower door displays, and answer any questions you might have.

Get a free shower door quote today!

 

We’ve been doing a number of shower door projects in Fairfax County, Virginia recently involving large showers. This recently renovated bathroom in Vienna, VA is a good example. The bathroom is a huge wet room, and the corner shower is correspondingly spacious.

The side with the shower door is approximately 82″ wide, and the side with the knee wall is approximately 52″ deep. Standard corner showers have an average width of 48″ and an average depth of 36″. So this corner shower is definitely on the large end of the spectrum.

Neo Angle Corner Shower

This unit has a nice design touch: it uses neo angles for a softer look where the two sides of glass meet. Most corner shower enclosures simply meet at 90 degrees. However, this designer used two 135-degree angles at the corner instead. It’s a subtle difference, but it gives the knee wall a distinctive look.

Granite Shower Knee Wall

The designer also selected granite slab to cap the knee wall. It coordinates nicely with the tile. And since the door is located between two pieces of stationary glass, we were able to accommodate the granite overhang design feature. When a shower door is directly beside a knee wall, this is not an option. The slab material should be flush with the edge of the wall when this is the case. However, when a stationary panel is directly beside a knee wall with overhanging slab material, we can notch out the granite to accept the glass in a seamless slot.

Shower Door Hardware

This shower enclosure uses clamps – or brackets – instead of u-channel to secure the fixed panels. It also has glass-to-glass swing hinges instead of pivot hinges. It can be difficult to choose between options like these without a frame of reference, which is why we have over a dozen full-size shower displays at our shower door showroom in Jefferson, MD, near Frederick. As always, we invite you to come compare hardware options and get a sense of how various shower door options look and feel in person!