Clear (or obscure) glass showers are frequently preferred over shower curtains because they are fashionable, can create a sense of spaciousness, and are user-friendly. When planning a bathroom build or remodel, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with popular glass shower layouts and options. Even within the different categories of doors and enclosures, you can tailor the installation to your tastes by your selection of glass style, metal components, and hardware finish. We’ll look at three glass shower enclosure options: hinged door, sliding door, and screen (splash panel).

 

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1. Hinged Door Shower Enclosures

Hinged shower doors offer a popular classic look. This option has at least a swinging glass door and often one or more fixed glass panels as well. Depending on the configuration, the door panel is either hinged to the bathroom wall with wall mount hinges or to an adjacent glass panel with glass to glass hinges . Within the hinged door category, there are a few different options.

Inline glass showers have a swinging door beside a stationary piece of glass. One or two 90 degree return panels are included if needed to finish off the stall. This layout works on shower-only installations as well as tubs and tub-shower combos. Some prefer to have double swinging doors, also called French doors. Finally, in other bathrooms, the entrance to the shower is relatively narrow, and only the swinging door panel itself is needed.

Corner showers are also often equipped with a hinged door. On a neo-angle corner shower, the door is usually the central glass panel that is flanked by two fixed panels, which extend out from the bathroom walls at right angles and meet the door panel at 135 degree angles. On right angle corner showers, all angles are 90 degrees, and there are multiple options for the placement of the door panel.

 

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2. Sliding Shower Door Systems

Hinged doors offer a great look and appealing functionality, but they are not right for every bathroom. For one thing, some showers don’t have enough clearance around them for the door to swing open freely. Also, a sliding shower door system can offer a very modern look, which is preferred for some bathroom decorating schemes.

Bypass door systems have been around for many years. They are framed or semi-frameless and have two glass doors that slide past one another in parallel tracks. However, many homeowners have jumped on board the frameless glass trend and prefer a frameless rolling shower door system – see examples here. On this type of enclosure the door panel (or panels) hang from a header bar and roll along this bar to glide open and shut. Both frameless sliders and bypass systems offer space efficiency and require no more room than a curtain and rod.

 

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3. Shower Screens

Finally, we have a simple glass enclosure option that consists of a single piece of glass known as a screen, splash guard, or splash panel. Even within this category, there are variations:

The panel can be fixed and held in place by wall mount clamps. ( Click to see an example.)

Alternatively, it can be hinged to the adjacent wall so that you can swing it open if desired.

The glass corners can be square.

Or you can opt for radius corners.

A splash panel can be space efficient, less expensive, and effective at preserving continuity between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. However, keep in mind that it doesn’t provide the same type of barrier as a full enclosure, so additional steps are needed.

Extra waterproofing around the shower area

Correct shower floor slope toward the drain

Appropriate drain placement

Proper positioning of shower sprays relative to the splash guard

 

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Whichever option you choose, we invite you to browse the Glass Simple website for the hardware you need. We stock a range of shower hardware styles and finishes for clamps, hinges, U channel, pull handles and much more! Give us a call to learn more or create a B2B account and save – (571)707-7760.