Urgent request for help designing shower doors

15 years ago

The bathroom remodel is in progress, and I am now under the gun. I have to make a decision about the basic configuration of the shower doors, because this will affect the way the tiling is done at the edges of the shower. The tile guy is almost halfway done, so I have to make this decision right away.

This is a very small full bath, about 7.5' x 5' overall. There will be a long, narrow shower stall (2.5' x 5'), a toilet, and a pedestal sink. The shower stall will be tiled up to the ceiling and on the ceiling. The rest of the room will not be tiled. The tile will extend about 5" past the edge of the shower area.

Here is a diagram:

This shows one option, a fixed glass panel on the end of the shower stall with the hardware, and a hinged door attached to it. The last 6-12 inches of the shower would be left open. My contractor thought that it would be awkward getting in and out of the shower if the door were to swing in this direction, and my husband says that it's a bad idea to have the door to the room and the door to the shower potentially hitting one another. The other option is to have two fixed panels at either end and a door in the middle that would be attached to the fixed panel at the window end, that would open toward the door. I don't want to do this, because the window casing/windowsill would be in the way of where the fixed panel would have to be attached, and they would have to be cut off on one side. Here is a photo of the window and the casing I'd like to preserve. (I am planning to start an "ugliest before bathroom" thread and award myself first place! I did NOT choose this wallpaper.)

This photo is reversed, because my son took it in the mirror.

All comments gratefully accepted. I know that I should consider a sliding door, but that would not solve the problem of the window casing.

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Comments (10)

pepperidge_farm
15 years ago
How about sliding doors? My friend in the city (aka small bathrooms) has her shower stall, similar size (and bathroom layout) with sliding doors rather than swing, which is awkward.
polie
15 years ago
If you don't like the idea of a sliding door, I say go with the first option. I think hitting the open glass shower door with the wooden entry door won't happen often.
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suero
15 years ago
Can you replace the door to the bathroom with a pocket door?
If not, then put a small glass panel on the widow side and hinge the door onto that glass panel. We have a 60" wide opening, with two 13" wide 1/2" thick fixed panels and a 34" wide 3/8" thick door. The fixed panels are attached to studs in the walls and the door is attached with two hinges to one of the fixed panels. The panels are all 75" high.
marisany
Original Author
15 years ago
pepperidge_farm, Sliding doors would require hardware on the window end, messing up the molding. This is what I'm trying to avoid by leaving the opening at that end.

suero, I don't think I could do a pocket door. All the shower piping is in the wall on one side, and there is a recessed radiator in the wall on the other. The arrangement you describe is one of the options I'm considering, but I want to avoid having anything attached to the window end of the shower.

polie, I'm leaning toward that. I only wish I could test it out first!
laurmela
15 years ago
You could do an outside pocket door. It is the same premise but the door slides on the outside of the wall. Here is the one we did in our bath.

and door closed

They are real easy to install and you can use any door.

HTH,

Laura
house_vixen
15 years ago
Since you want to leave that end section open, seems as if you might be better off with a multi-panel bifold glass door. Seems like going fixed on the left then with a bifold would get you the coverage you need without the swing issue.

Someone here linked to Wilson Glass and it certainly helped me get an idea of the possibilities. They show bifold for a tub, but looks like customizing is possible.

Good luck -- I know how it is with a small bath!

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilson Glass
marisany
Original Author
15 years ago
lauraella, I like your sliding door, but we don't have room to do that on the outside walls, either - one side is too short, the other has a thermostat.

Thank you for the suggestion, housevixen. I'm not sure that I like the looks of the bifold door, with all those hinges. And I think there might need to be even more hinges without a tub; since the panels will be longer, they will be heavier, too.

It occurred to me that since the external door is about 24", and I have 5' along the shower, I could set it up so that hinge point is past where the external door would hit,and put a transparent "stop" on the panel to prevent the door from hitting it. Then I'd only have to worry if the swinging shower door went well past 90 degrees - maybe this could be restricted?
pupwhipped
15 years ago
I have a very similar set-up as you except that where you have a window I have yet another door! Anyway, I was worried about the door that swings into our bath hitting the glass so we switched the door and made it open out into the bedroom instead of into the bath. This is an old 1952 lake place and the door is rather small so with it swinging into the bedroom it's not all that bad. Probably won't work for you, and not perfect for me, but it was the best option we had.

lauraella, never seen a pocket door like that. COOL! Wish I had seen it before we did our redo.
pineapplecake
15 years ago
FWIW, our shower door is set up in a way that the main door can hit the shower door, due to a variety of reasons (we didn't have much choice). So far, we haven't found it to be a big problem. The shower door opens both in and out, and we just make a habit of opening it inward. That way, we never accidentally hit the doors. And when the shower door is shut, the main door won't hit it (it stops at the curb).
beyondhr_gmail_com
15 years ago
We have a similar problem, and we are thinking about doing fixed glass all along with just enough of an opening to get in and out (instead of your fixed glass by the window, make that the opening. We are trying to figure out what the smallest practical opening size might be - anyone here have a suggestion?

Thanks

Urgent request for help designing shower doors

Comments (10)

pepperidge_farm

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Urgent request for help designing shower doors

Comments (10)

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