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Curbless shower - sliding door or regular door

11 years ago

We have a 6ft X 44in curbless shower. The door will be on the 6ft side. Question is should I do a sliding door or a door that swings in? My elderly mother will use this bathroom and sometime in the future, I may need to factor in a walker or a wheelchair possibly. Please help me understand the pros and cons.

Lalitha

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Comments (3)

MongoCT
11 years ago
For a roll-in shower you're going to want a 36" wide doorway at a minimum.

That's a big slab of glass to be swung on one set of hinges. It could be broken up into two doors, like saloon doors.

For hinging, you don't want the door to just swing in to the shower. A bather could become incapacitated, fall, and block entry to the shower if the door can only swing inwards.

Same thing if this bathroom has a toilet closet. Use an outward swinging door for the same reason.

Doors need to swing out, or swing both ways, in and out. Again, like saloon doors.

Or a sliding door would suffice.

For any sort of ADA shower, I always recommend NOT adding a built-in bench inside the shower. Use a moveable seat or stool. Much more flexibility.

Consider having your shower controls just inside the entry so that the water can be turned on without the bather having to fully enter the shower, or be in the stream of water, when the shower is turned on.

You'll want a handheld shower (plus other heads should you chose to go bigger). It'll help with washing down the walls in a large shower now, and it'll help with wheelchair bathing later.

Just a few things to think over.
lalithar
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks Mongo. You are one of the best things about GW forums. You advised me on this before and based on your advice, I did a folding ADA rated seat as opposed to building with tiles. I also did the shower controls near the seat with a handshower with a longish hose to help the bath as well as washing down the walls.

With the doors, My concern is the potential for leakage in the bottom. The curblessness does not have enough of a drop to the drain level. I would like to minimize puddles or potentially flooding. The shower side is one end of the 6ft and the door is at the other end. I wanted to make sure the door type helps with preventing water seepage. If I do sliding doors to make the opening larger, should the moving part be on the inside of the shower or outside?
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User
11 years ago
I would have to ask what you mean by, "The curblessness does not have enough of a drop to the drain level." If the shower isn't built correctly, then you are going to have water issues that no type of door can contain.

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