Ten years ago, we weren’t installing many frameless shower doors in Washington County, Maryland. Outside of Hagerstown, there just weren’t many high-end bathroom remodels being undertaken.

The landscape has changed dramatically since then, however. We’ve been picking up a lot of work in the southern part of the county recently, especially in towns like Sharpsburg and Boonsboro. There are a lot of beautiful old homes in these areas (and across the bridge into Shepherdstown, WV) where an upgraded bathroom can be a transformative project.

Besides the high ROI potential, replacing a clawfoot tub with a glass shower enclosure, for instance, can have a huge impact on one’s day-to-day routine. Anyone who has showered in a clawfoot tub with a jerry-rigged shower head and shower curtain knows it is a distinctly different experience than stepping into a glass shower enclosure each morning. Wiping the sleep from your eyes underneath a high-pressure rain shower head, ensconced in billowing steam, is like a shot of espresso!

Tiled Shower with Knee Wall in Boonsboro, MD

This frameless glass shower door we recently installed in Boonsboro is a great example of the design possibilities. The homeowner renovated their bathroom and had their contractor install beautiful, intricate tile work in the shower space. Note the integrated tile bench seat. Ever tried to shave your legs in a clawfoot tub?! It can be a dangerous, acrobatic feat. Incorporating a bench seat into a shower design is every bit as practical as it is relaxing for this reason.

The design also incorporates a 42″ high knee wall. The contractor left a comfortable 30″ opening for the shower door, so we were able to fabricate this unit as a door and buttressed inline panel, leaving maximum walkthrough space. The brushed nickel hardware finish of the shower hardware matches the brushed nickel framing detail around some of the tile work, as seen on the left wall.

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We could not be more pleased with how this project turned out! The frameless glass shower enclosure is just one of several attractive features in this upgraded bathroom, but it will be among the most heavily used on a day-to-day basis.

 

2016 is coming to a close, and the holidays are in full swing at Shower Door Experts. We had our annual Christmas dinner last Tuesday in Frederick, and it was an awesome night. Our Lead Technician, Mark Holsinger, won the Employee of the Year award, and he got this AMAZING custom championship belt for his efforts!

We have very little year-to-year turnover (Mark has been with us for over 10 years), so the holiday dinner is a great time to kick back with good friends, who we also happen to work with. We ate some steak, reflected on the year that was, and planned for the year that will be.

2016 marked our 25th year of operations. The owner, Tom Huck, started this company in 1991, and he’s built something really special in the meantime. Mark and our other lead technician, Rob Rice, do phenomenal work in the field. We’re a small company, but we box above our weight class when it comes to both volume and quality. We install a lot of shower doors. Some days our crews are in Maryland and Virginia, other days they’ll be in Washington, DC and West Virginia, grinding out some of the area’s best installations.

We are fortunate to the have the team we do, both in the field and in the office. Devin Huck, Tom’s son, controls the chaos of scheduling appointments, answering phones, replying to emails, and generally making sure the trains run on time. And he does a bang up job.

As we begin our 26th year in business, it is a blessing to have such a strong team in place, and it bodes well for 2017. To all our past, present, and future clients: we are honored that you let us into your homes, and we thrive on the smiles that follow a job well done.

Happy Holidays from Shower Door Experts!

GET A QUOTE ON A NEW SHOWER DOOR FOR 2017

Use coupon code ULTIMATEWARRIOR to be a champion like Mark: $100 off your brand new shower doors!

Our shower door showroom is located in Frederick County, MD, but we do a ton of work in adjacent counties, including Montgomery County, MD. Here are two recent shower door installations in Damascus and North Potomac that turned out really well.

Shower Door and Panel in Damascus, MD

This frameless shower door layout is popular for openings between 36″ and 60″, which covers a majority of simple shower openings in the DC Metro region. This homeowner in Damascus, MD remodeled their bathroom and opted to replace their fiberglass shower stall with custom tile. It’s a shame to cover up tile work like this with a shower curtain. So the homeowner decided to install a frameless glass shower door and panel instead.

We matched the brushed nickel bathroom fixtures with brushed nickel shower hardware: two glass-to-wall hinges, two glass-to-wall clamps on the left wall, and low-profile u-channel at the base of the stationary glass panel. All of our hinges have a lifetime warranty, and we sealed the glass with our Diamond Seal shower glass sealant, which also has a lifetime warranty.

 

Serenity Sliding Glass Corner Shower in North Potomac, MD

This is another popular shower layout in the DC Metro region: a shower stall directly beside a soaking tub. There are a few different ways to approach this layout, including a swing door beside a notched stationary panel that is cut out to accommodate the tub deck. However, when there isn’t enough space in the bathroom for a shower door to swing outward and avoid conflicts with a toilet or a vanity, there are sliding corner shower options as well.

We installed this sleek, modern Serenity frameless sliding shower door in North Potomac, MD, and it turned out perfectly! Instead of u-channel at the base of the glass, the homeowner selected glass clamps to keep the stationary glass secure. Unlike bypass sliding shower doors, modern sliding shower doors like the Serenity, Hydroslide, and Essence use a single sliding glass door that passes over an inline stationary panel. We have the flexibility to place the sliding panel on the inside or outside of the stationary panel to ensure that these frameless shower doors will not leak.

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Since December is #ShopSmall month, we’ve assembled some of our most recent local shower door installations into a single post. We’re a proud local, family-owned business, and every single one of our employees lives in one of the towns or cities we serve in the Frederick area.

We have employees who live in Hagerstown, Frederick, Jefferson, and Brunswick. And all of them say the same thing: their favorite jobs are the ones down the street from their homes and our showroom. The workdays are shorter, and doing great work in a neighbor’s home is rewarding in its own unique way. These are the people you smile at and wave hello to at the store. They’re the people who have a shared vested interest in a tight-knit, thriving community.

So in the spirit of celebrating #ShopSmall month, here are five local shower door installations we completed over the past few weeks:

Frameless Corner Shower Door in Frederick, MD

This is a beautiful frameless corner glass shower enclosure we installed in November. To complement the earthy tones of the tile, the homeowner opted for oil rubbed bronze bathroom fixtures, a finish we matched with the shower door hardware. The door is hinged off of a stationary glass panel using glass-to-glass pivot hinges, tastefully located at the very top and bottom of the door. These give the shower enclosure the fully frameless look most homeowners prefer.

Frameless 2/3 Neo Angle in Middletown, MD

 

 

This layout is increasingly popular in the area. A relatively deep shower space is divided from the bathroom by an angled knee wall and a narrow shower door opening. This is considered a 2/3 neo angle layout because it only has the one angled panel. Full neo angles have two angled panels–one on either side of the door–meeting the front face of the shower at 135 degrees. This homeowner opted for a 6″ ladder pull handle in chrome to achieve a modern hardware look.

NEED AN ESTIMATE FOR A NEW SHOWER DOOR? FILL OUT OUR QUOTE REQUEST FORM ONLINE!

Frameless Corner Shower and Tub in Sharpsburg, MD

 

So many homes in the area have a master bathroom with this layout: a shower pan directly beside a soaking tub. This frameless glass corner shower enclosure is a great example of how homeowners can approach this layout. The door hinges off of the wet wall, and a notched stationary glass panel is cut out to accommodate the bathtub. A buttressed return panel completes the enclosure at 90 degrees, held securely in place by a corner clamp, as well as a glass-to-wall clamp on the back wall.

Frameless 2/3 Neo Angle in Martinsburg, WV

 

 

We’ve been picking up a lot of work in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia over the past 2 to 3 years. We’re generally out that way at least once a week, working in some beautiful homes in Martinsburg, Charles Town, and Shepherdstown. This 2/3 Neo Angle in Martinsburg turned out really well. The homeowner opted for a 6″ Symphony handle to tie the rustic wood flooring to the marble and river stone shower pan. Even though jobs in the Eastern Panhandle are out of state for us, they’re still closer than the jobs we pick up in Baltimore or DC. Our showroom is right off of Route 340, so it’s a straight shot, and you couldn’t ask for a more beautiful drive than the one that takes you over the rivers and through Harpers Ferry.

Frameless Shower Door and Panel in Greencastle, PA

 

 

Last but not least, we have a door and notched panel that we did for a customer in Pennsylvania. Towns like Greencastle and Waynesboro are a short drive up Route 15 from Frederick, and we pick up 2-3 jobs per month in this area. You can see at the bottom left of the shower that we had to accommodate a geometric tile design detail. So we fabricated a stationary glass panel with a slight notch, and then used u-channel up the wall so we could set the door centerline on the shower curb. The oil rubbed bronze shower hardware works really well with the earthy hues of the tile.

NEED AN ESTIMATE FOR A NEW SHOWER DOOR? FILL OUT OUR QUOTE REQUEST FORM ONLINE!

We’re proud of every single shower door we install, all around the DC Metro region. But these jobs in our backyard are extra special to us. Take advantage of our shower door showroom in Jefferson, MD, near Frederick, and check out our full-size shower displays any weekday between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM. Whether you stop in just to get some design ideas or you’re ready to make a purchase, we guarantee you a memorable and neighborly #ShopSmall experience!

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!

We recently installed this corner shower enclosure in Adamstown, MD, outside of Frederick. It has several hardware upgrades that complement the modern decor of the bathroom.

 

 

Bathroom Fixtures

The fixtures in this bathroom are very modern. Note the brushed nickel shower panel on the wet wall. It is a functional way to consolidate the shower controls, rain head, and body spray into a stylish, unified fixture. Also note the bathtub spigot, which has a modern, geometric vibe. We recommended accessories for the glass shower enclosure that would complement the style of the bathroom.

Modern Shower Hardware

 

The Taiga series of accessories from Portals Hardware ended up being a good fit. Our customer opted for a handle upgrade, selecting the Taiga 6″ modern square pull:

 

The customer also chose the matching Taiga robe hook, which shares the distinctive square look of hardware suite:

Robe hooks can be a great addition to stationary glass panels. They’re small enough not to be a distraction, but they’re godsends during cooler times of the year, when having a robe in arm’s reach can make or break your morning routine.

Frameless Corner Shower Design

Like most corner showers, the shower pan in this bathroom is directly adjacent to a soaking tub. This requires a notched stationary glass panel beside the shower door and a buttressed return panel at 90 degrees. We notched out the granite overhang on the knee wall to accommodate low-profile u-channel at the base of the shower enclosure.

The corner clamp on the corner and the glass-to-wall clamp on the back wall are also from the Taiga hardware series. They are there to ensure the glass remains stable, but their 2″x2″ dimensions ensure that the unit retains a frameless look. The glass-to-wall hinges are also from the Taiga line.

Frameless Shower Doors in Frederick County, MD

Frederick County, Maryland is our home, and we are blessed that so many of our neighbors welcome us into theirs! We offer special discounts to our neighbors in the Frederick area, and we invite you to visit our shower door showroom in Jefferson, MD for a free consultation.

We recently installed this frameless neo angle shower door in Frederick, MD using 3/8” glass and oil rubbed bronze hardware. This frameless shower enclosure uses a low-profile header and pivot hinges, both of which distribute the weight of the shower door downward towards the curb of the shower.

Customers have different aesthetic preferences when it comes to frameless shower doors, and this system caters to those who prefer clean vertical lines of sight. Frameless glass shower doors that do not use a header require glass-to-glass hinges located approximately 8” up from the bottom unit and 8” down from the top of the unit. Using a header also eliminates square glass clamps—or brackets—on the two walls. As seen in the picture, there is absolutely no metal hardware used on the walls of this neo angle shower enclosure, just glass and tile sealed with translucent silicone. Both frameless styles are handsome and stable, so choosing one over the other is more a matter of preference than functionality.

Since the right panel of this shower enclosure rests on a neo angle knee wall, the door has a mitered—or angled—edge to ensure a tight seal. Neo angle shower pans typically have three sides that meet at 135-degree angles. By mitering the shower door, we were able to accommodate the neo angle knee wall.

Custom Shower Door Handle

This shower enclosure also has an upgraded Portals Symphony shower handle in oil rubbed bronze. The décor of this bathroom is rustic and traditional, and this handle option matches the style of the other bathroom fixtures perfectly. We have many custom shower handles and towel bars on display at our shower door showroom just outside of Frederick, MD in Jefferson, and we welcome you to visit us there any time for a consultation or shower door estimate. You can also get a shower door estimate online by filling out our quote request form.

Frameless Neo Angle Shower Door in Gainesville, VA

We recently completed this frameless neo angle shower door in Gainesville, VA. It’s an interesting shower enclosure for several reasons. First, it’s a relatively tall unit, coming in just under 82” in height. Second, the two stationary panels are both on knee walls, and they have custom angles. This is not uncommon with custom neo angles. In fact, it’s one of the benefits of custom neo angle work: not being bound to 135-degree angles if the layout of the bathroom or look of the shower can benefit from alternatives.

To account for the knee walls, we used a glass-to-glass hinge at the top of the door and a glass-to-wall hinge at the bottom of the door. This requires very precise installation, or else the door won’t align properly. Since the weight of the door is partially supported by the stationary glass panel on the left, we used 1/2” thick glass panels and a 3/8” door. This reduces the load the panel needs to support and reduces the number of glass clamps required on the back walls. Whenever possible, using a single glass clamp is desirable because it helps create a more frameless look.

An added benefit of this job was getting to work in Prince William County. We’ve done a number of jobs in Manassas and Gainesville over the years, and that part of Virginia is a really unique and beautiful part of the country, especially in autumn. Our shower door showroom is in Jefferson, MD—about an hour away from Prince William County, VA—is popular with residents in that area because a) it has the most comprehensive selection of full-size shower door displays in the DC area, and b) because a scenic 1-hour drive towards Maryland on Route 15 is more peaceful and enjoyable than a 1-hour bumper-to-bumper drive towards DC on Route 66!