What Glass and Hardware Are Needed for An In-Line Shower Enclosure?
5th Aug 2025
Many homeowners choose to upgrade their bathrooms by replacing a curtain, liner, and rod with some type of glass enclosure. The term “glass shower door” refers to a piece of glass that is either hinged, moves along a bar on rollers, or slides in tracks. On the other hand, “shower enclosure” can refer to the same thing OR to a glass construction that includes one or more door panels AND one or more fixed pieces. One popular option is an in-line door and panel enclosure. This configuration can be used on a tub/shower combo or on a shower-only installation. In today’s piece, we’ll look at the glass and metal typically needed to construct this type of shower enclosure.
Pieces of Glass Needed
Glass takes center stage on an in-line enclosure, so we’ll start with the glass. An in-line enclosure includes at least these two pieces of glass:
- A fixed panel of glass
- A swinging door panel attached to the fixed piece of glass, the adjoining bathroom wall, or the surfaces above and below it.
However, some tubs or shower areas are not already enclosed on three sides and one or more additional pieces of fixed glass are needed to finish off the stall. In summary, you’ll generally need to purchase two, three, or four pieces of glass – a door panel, a fixed panel, and possibly one or two 90 degree return panels.
Hardware for the Fixed Glass
Most in-line door and panel enclosures these days are frameless, so this is the type of construction we’ll consider. The fixed panels are usually held in place primarily through the use of small clamps – see options here. Since you’ll be attaching this panel to surrounding bathroom surfaces, you’ll want wall-mount clamps such as this and will choose either square edge or beveled edge products.
U-channel, as its name suggest, is a type of metal channel with a profile resembling the letter “U”. (You can click here to see examples of this product.) While it does not yield the frameless look provided by clamps, U-channel can also be used to attache a fixed piece of glass if desired.
Hardware for the Swinging Door
Turning to the door panel, we’ll look at hinge options first. The type of hinge you need will depend on the specific design chosen for the enclosure.
- One option is to attach the door to the piece of fixed glass beside it. In this case, you’ll use glass – to-glass hinges that join the side of the door to the stationary glass.
- Alternatively, wall mount hinges like allow you to hinge the door to the bathroom wall beside it.
- Finally, if you prefer a more modern look, you can use pivot hinges that attach the door to the surfaces above and below it. Note that if the enclosure is not going all the way up to the ceiling, you will need to include a metal header across the top of the enclosure to which to attach the upper pivot hinge.
Whichever type of hinge you use, you’ll want some type of door handle, and there are lots of options from which to choose in the following categories:
If you need hardware for an in-line or a different type of glass shower enclosure, stock glass panels, or other related items, we invite you to shop the Glass Simple website or give our helpful team a call at (571)707-7760!