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Author: Noah Watkins

Why Panel-Door-Panel?

Posted on by Noah Watkins

Shower Door of the Week: Panel-Door-Panel in Ellicott City, Maryland

So, you’ve decided on a swing door instead of a sliding door for your shower alcove. Great! But how many panels will you choose!? A door & panel layout is the most popular choice. But some customers prefer a panel-door-panel system like this gorgeous frameless shower enclosure we recently installed in Ellicott City, MD instead.

There are three main reasons why you might choose the panel-door-panel option:

1. We can adjust the panel sizes to account for other bathroom fixtures. Sometimes homeowners will want a door between a 24” panel to clear a toilet on the left and a 6” panel to clear a towel bar on the right. Panel-door-panel shower doors have a lot of bathroom layout flexibility.

2. Some customers are all about symmetry. The door & panel layout almost never has perfect symmetry between the door and panel widths. The panel-door-panel option, on the other hand, makes centering a door between two equal-sized panels a piece of cake. 

3. Door & panel shower doors have limited width. They max out at widths of 60” when hinging off of a wall and 54” when hinging off of the glass panel. For openings wider than this, a metal header would be required, which undermines the “fully frameless” look most customers want. The panel-door-panel option can accommodate widths up to 76” without needing a metal header for stability! So for relatively wide shower alcove openings, opting for a panel-door-panel means choosing the “most frameless” option available. 

Give us a shout if you want to discuss all-things-panel! Are you in Ellicott City? Great! Are you somewhere else in Maryland? Virginia? West Virginia? Washington DC? We got you covered. Check out our showroom and service area to see if we can help you with the shower door of your drams!

If you’re really keen to get started, send us your rough dimensions for a free quote!

Corner Shower Barn Doors in Ashburn, VA

Posted on by Noah Watkins

We love everything about this modern monochrome bathroom in Ashburn, Virginia! And it was an honor to provide the capstone for the remodel: a custom Serenity shower door.

Serenity shower doors are a single-sliding barn door style. This means only one piece of glass slides open and closed, while the other glass panels are stationary. The square metal header bar and exposed rollers have an almost industrial look, so the Serenity is a natural complement for this bathroom’s modern and monochrome design.

And Loudon County is a really hip place! Home values there are relatively high, so homeowners have incentive to invest in home improvement projects. While upgrading, many choose frameless shower doors instead of framed or semi-frameless doors with bulky metal components. Modern shower doors like the Serenity are therefore quite popular! 

In fact, our records show that sliding barn door style shower doors continue to get more and more popular in Loudoun County. This fits the regional data that show the percentage of barn doors versus swing shower doors has steadily risen in the last 5+ years. If you want to take part in this smart trend, get in touch! We install shower doors every week near Leesburg, Herndon, Sterling, and Purcellville and can easily swing by to measure your space.

To get the exposed rollers rolling, please do fill out our online quote request form. We’ll email you a free estimate within 24 hours.

 

Frameless Corner Shower Door in Olney, MD

Posted on by Noah Watkins

The homeowners clearly went above and beyond designing their “dream bathroom” on this project, so the pressure was on us to really deliver the goods when it came time for the shower doors! Fortunately, we were up to task, and this corner shower with a bench seat turned out perfectly.

Note the mixed media in the materials they used:

  • Aged gray wooden bathroom floors
  • Grey tile with white caulk
  • White marble on the bench seat and shower curb
  • Mosaic tile for the shower pan
  • All tied together with the gray pattern on the back wall

We really wanted to show off these distinctive bathroom design elements, so we recommended glass-to-glass pivot hinges located at the very top and very bottom of the shower door. Standard glass-to-glass shower door hinges are located about 8″ down from the top of the door and 8″ from the bottom. But because of the custom design elements on the walls (including the marble niche under the shower head) we wanted to keep the horizontal sight lines as clean as possible.

Olney is such a charming town too! We do a lot of shower door work along 270 in places like Rockville, Germantown, and Gaithersburg; and we also do a lot of work along I-70 between Frederick and Baltimore. Since Olney is tucked pretty much equidistant between these two major highways, it’s a great place to start or end our day to avoid the stop and go traffic.

So if you’re looking for a shower door in Olney, MD? Give us a call! We would love the opportunity to earn your business.

 

Shower Door Experts Annual Pig Roast

Posted on by Noah Watkins

A big thanks to all our friends and contractors who made it out to our annual pig roast this month! We appreciate the dedication our employees give to Shower Door Experts and enjoy celebrating their success with music, food, and brews.

Special thanks to local band Nate Walbert and the Ley Lines. They’re a fun 3-piece cover band who provided 4 hours of entertainment – on and off the stage! They set the tone for the night with their grooving music and personality.

Exceptional craft beer provided by another awesome local establishment: Rare Creature Brewing Company. Check them out for creative brews with unique ingredients.

Again, thanks to everyone in our Shower Door Experts community who supports us in what we do best: bouncy castles. Wait, no, custom shower doors!

Work hard, bounce hard.

Shower Thoughts: Glass is Weird

Posted on by Noah Watkins

Shower Thought…

Are edible glass doors the the future!?

Well, no. But here are some things to think about the next time you gaze upon your gorgeous custom glass shower door!

Did you know:

Glass is an amorphous solid. So is cotton candy! Their atoms do not hang out in a stable orderly pattern like a normal solid. Next time you’re in the shower, consider all those molecules bopping around. Just don’t try to snack on your shower door…

Glass is 100% recyclable. The shower door  industry is naturally eco-friendly, and we recycle everything we can as part of our green initiative.

Glass is made from sand. Yeah, you probably knew that, smartypants. Silica + lime + soda ash are the main ingredients of glass. To the naked eye, glass appears smooth, but it actually has microscopic ridges and valleys where soap scum can hang out. Applying sealant to your glass will make it more hygienic and – our favorite part – easier to clean!

Glass is colored by adding minerals. Standard shower glass has a slightly green tint from iron content. Low-iron glass (aka HD or Starfire glass) is more optically clear. 

Glass is one of the most versatile materials in construction. In 1950, the English company Pilkington UK Limited crafted an 50x8ft glass window pane, the largest flat pane on record. Please give us advance notice if your shower is 50ft long…

Comments? Shower thoughts? Fun glass facts?

You can chat with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Expert Advice: Shower Shaving

Posted on by Noah Watkins

Shower Door Expert Emily here for some real talk: shaving your legs in the shower isn’t always easy. Or safe! Shaving shouldn’t be an afterthought when you’re designing or upgrading your shower enclosure, so let’s break this down. Here are three structural elements to consider for comfort and safety:

Bench Seat

If you decide to install a bench, you are already living your best leg-shaving life! No more balancing on tiptoe for you, rock star. That said, if your seating area is filling up with bottles and loofahs, consider saving space with additional shelving. Your legs deserve lots of room! We might seem biased, but glass shelves really are an attractive, easy, and inexpensive solution to shower storage.

Foot Rest

Installing a small corner seat or foot rest is much safer than praying your foot will stay put on a slippery shower wall as you’re shaving. (I know I’m not the only one who has tried this.) In a smaller shower, a built-in corner foot rest can give you stability without sacrificing space. Still, consider installing shelving close by so you don’t have to twist around for shaving supplies or running water. Smooth skin and safety!

Niche

Niches can be an eye-catching upgrade for your shower storage. But if tall bottles start to take up all the vertical space, consider customizing your niche with glass shelves. Creating a smaller space within your niche is ideal for shaving supplies, especially razors.

 

Questions? Comments? Top shaving tips?

Join the discussion on Facebook!

Frameless Corner Shower Showcase

Posted on by Noah Watkins

Bathrooms with corner showers are very popular in the area. Single family homes built from the 1980’s on often have master bathrooms with a shower pan (tiled or acrylic) located directly beside a soaking tub. This layout requires glass on two sides to fully enclose the shower. Here are three corner shower doors we recently installed near our shower door showroom in Frederick County, MD.

Frameless Glass Corner Shower in Frederick, MD

 

We installed this corner shower enclosure in early February 2017, and it is a great example of how this bathroom layout can be used to great effect. This homeowner in Frederick had custom tile walls and a custom stone shower pan installed beside their soaking tub. By extending the horizontal run of the notched stationary glass panel beside the shower door, we were able to incorporate the tub deck as functional storage space within the shower. The return panel was positioned as close to the tub as possible, giving the homeowner a place for shampoo and conditioner bottles beyond the tiled wall niche. This makeshift ledge also helps with the delicate balancing act of shaving one’s legs!

Frameless Glass Corner Shower in Urbana, MD

 

Sometimes homeowners prefer to leverage the tub deck for bath use instead of shower use, however. You have to put those aromatherapy candles somewhere, after all! Since we installed a glass corner shelf for this client in Urbana, they did not need extra space for shampoo and conditioner bottles. So the notched inline glass panel beside the shower door uses the minimum setback of 3/4″ – positioning the return panel on the tub deck as close to the innermost edge as possible. This is a handsome unit with an upgraded Aria shower door handle and Aria through-the-glass robe hook, both supplied by Portals Hardware.

Frameless Glass Corner Shower in Walkersville, MD

 

Not all corner shower doors are located beside soaking tubs. This project in Walkersville, for instance, just needed a narrow stationary panel at 90-degrees to fully enclose an otherwise linear layout. Because of the layout of the bathroom, we engineered this shower enclosure using glass-to-glass hinges, attaching the shower door to a stationary glass panel instead of the wall. By using slightly thicker glass panels (1/2″ instead of 3/8″), we are able to safely hinge shower doors off of adjacent inline panels in this manner. The homeowner selected oil rubbed bronze shower door hardware to match the fixtures in their bathroom. They also upgraded the standard c-pull shower door handle to a square pull.

GET AN ONLINE QUOTE ON A GLASS SHOWER DOOR

3 Recent Shower Door Installations in the Leesburg Area

Posted on by Noah Watkins

Loudoun County and Fairfax County, Virginia are both short, scenic drives from our shower door showroom outside of Frederick, MD. As a result, we travel to these areas several times per week, installing frameless shower doors in some of the region’s most impressive homes. Here are three examples of shower door installations we completed towards the end of January 2017 in Reston, Leesburg, and Purcellville, VA.

Frameless Steam Shower Enclosure in Reston, VA

 

Steam showers are fully enclosed with glass in order to capture and contain digitally regulated steam. Typical frameless showers leave space above the unit for steam to escape, but steam shower enclosures run full-height to the ceiling.

GET A QUOTE ON A FRAMELESS SHOWER DOOR

However, because fabricating shower doors in heights that exceed 84″ is bad for the hinges long-term, it is common to add a glass transom above the door. This steam shower enclosure in Reston, VA actually has two transoms above the shower door: one operable transom and one fixed transom. The operable transom immediately above the door pivots open and closed, giving the homeowner another way (beyond the digital steam regulation) to adjust the density of steam within the shower.

Frameless Shower Door and Panel in Leesburg, VA

 

This frameless shower door and panel is pretty straightforward from a hardware perspective. We used standard glass-to-wall hinges on the right wall and standard 2″x2″ glass clamps on the left wall to secure the glass panel. On the handle, however, the homeowners opted for an upgrade: a square combination 6″ pull handle/24″ towel bar.

Square Towel Bar

 

 

These handles are popular because they offer the best of both worlds: a convenient pull handle on the inside of the shower door, as well as additional (and conveniently accessible) towel bar real estate on the outside of the door. It’s a very practical upgrade.

Framed Corner Shower Door in Purcellville, VA

 

In addition to frameless shower enclosures, we also fabricate framed shower units like this corner shower door in Purcellville, VA. Framed shower doors purchased from Big Box stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s can be dicey options. They are all prefabricated with limited adjustability to accommodate inevitable out of plumb and level conditions. The problem is that this adjustability undermines long-term usability of the unit. They have a tendency to settle and shift, requiring ongoing readjustment over the years.

Our framed shower units are not much more expensive than the ones available at the Big Box stores, and they are all pre-measured and fabricated to fit your exact space. This means that they will both look and function better over time. Framed shower enclosures are handsome, affordable alternatives to fully frameless shower doors.

OFFER: FREE GLASS CORNER SHELF WITH SHOWER DOOR PURCHASE

We are offering a free glass corner shelf to our customers in Loudoun County, VA and Fairfax County, VA with every purchase of a shower door between February 1, 2017 and March 31, 2017. Use coupon code SILVERLINE to take advantage of this offer!

 

Frameless Shower Door with Textured Glass in Columbia, MD

Posted on by Noah Watkins

 

Even though our shower door showroom is in the Frederick, MD area, we do a significant amount of work in the Baltimore area as well. We recently completed this frameless glass shower door in Columbia, MD.

It’s a very simple layout: a 28″ opening, perfect for a single door. For openings wider than 32″, we recommend a door and stationary panel, even though we can fabricate single doors in widths up to 36″.

Frameless Shower Doors with Textured Glass

This shower door uses 3/8″ rain glass instead of the more typical clear glass. We offer a wide variety of textured glass options for shower doors, but we generally only recommend them in the following situations:

  • When bathrooms are relatively large
  • When bathrooms receive an abundance of natural light

Outside of these situations, it is generally best to opt for clear glass. Textured shower glass tends to make bathrooms feel smaller, which is why we do not recommend them for bathrooms that already have limited space. Textured shower glass also reduces the amount of light that comes into a shower enclosure. This can be appealing in situations where textured glass is meant to provide extra privacy while showering. However, in the absence of abundant natural light to offset the effects, it can also lead to a drab and dim showering experience.

This bathroom in Columbia, MD is a beautiful space that receives a lot of natural lighting. In addition to good lighting design, the homeowners were smart to opt for lightly colored tile and paint. This further amplifies the natural light and more than offsets the textured glass. Also, the shower cabin is independently lit with warm lighting, and this combination of light sources makes it a fantastic space in which to start one’s day.

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To our customers in the Baltimore area (within 25 miles of the Inner Harbor), we invite you to use the coupon code CHARMCITY through 02/28/2017 to receive $100 off your frameless shower door order.

3 Recent Shower Door Installations in the Frederick Area

Posted on by Noah Watkins

We had a great holiday season at Shower Door Experts! But after the 1st, it was time to get back to business. And we’ve done some really good work in January so far. Here are a few jobs in the Frederick area from the first half of January 2017.

Frameless Steam Shower in Frederick, MD

 

Steam shower enclosures require very precise measurements, because the glass needs to be tapered to accommodate the out of level conditions of the ceiling as well as the base. This panel-door-panel steam layout in Frederick, MD had knee walls on either side of the door opening. So we opted for glass-to-glass pivot hinges instead of swing hinges. If we had used swing hinges, we would have needed to use a glass-to-wall hinge at the bottom of the door, drilling into the knee wall. In contrast, these pivot hinges anchor into the shower curb and the ceiling, providing a very clean line of sight. This glass shower enclosure is now steam tight, making the shower experience extra luxurious and refreshing.

Frameless Corner Shower in Walkersville, MD

 

We do a lot of corner shower enclosures adjacent to soaking tubs, and this is our preferred layout when possible. It helps keep the costs down when we are able to hinge the shower door off of the wet wall (instead of a glass panel) because we can fabricate these units using all 3/8″ glass. We were able to do so on this job in Walkersville, MD. When we have to hinge off of stationary glass (to avoid a door swing conflict with a vanity or toilet, for instance), the stationary glass panels must be 1/2″ thickness instead.

GET A QUOTE ON A FRAMELESS SHOWER DOOR

Since so many homes in the area have bathrooms with this layout, it’s smart to invest in a frameless glass shower enclosure. When it comes time to sell your home, it will have a feature that distinguishes it from other homes on the market. Plus, you get to enjoy your investment every single morning in the meantime!

Frameless Corner Shower in Boyds, MD

 

Not all corner shower enclosures are adjacent to soaking tubs. Some simply meet knee walls at 90-degrees that serve to functionally divide a bathroom space. This one in Boyds, MD, for instance, divides the shower from the toilet, and doubles as a convenient spot for the toilet paper holder. Again, we were able to hinge the shower door off of the wet wall, saving the homeowner money on their new frameless shower enclosure.

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