Very happy to have a door

Thank you for your feedback!

We have a 42”w x 72” long curbless shower with a curtain, but in all honesty, the curtain rarely gets wet, we could forego if we wanted, but I like the pattern and color it adds to the bathroom and it keeps the shower room a bit warmer, I think. I would never, ever have a shower door, far too much cleaning and daily (!) squeegeeing is required to keep it looking good and I am a lazy old lady who’d rather be reading than cleaning.

I have swing-in/swing-out French shower doors. Cost a pretty penny and was a huge mistake. I am looking to replace them, but not for another glass door. In your small shower stall, I can't belive water won't be all over the floor. Think of a body in there, washing hair, scrubbing away.

So, I am investigating a pull down curtain, hung from the ceiling or a disappearing stack-back one. Either one would still require drying time in the open position. Just food for thought.

https://www.yankodesign.com/2021/06/07/the-worlds-most-compact-mold-proof-and-water-tight-rolling-shower-screen/

Door. Open showers are cold. I had a shower without a door but it was large so no issues with water splashing out but it was very drafty. I hated taking a shower in there in the winter. I said no open showers ever again. My current shower is smaller and has a glass door. We rinse, squeegee and wipe our entire shower down with a microfiber towel after use. I rarely have to clean the shower.

It is clearly a personal choice. For me a curtain on this type of shower set up looks unfinished and like someone didn’t see project through or ran out of finds. I find it completely painless to wipe down the shower while in it and still enjoying the warm water.

@oncape what didn’t you like about the french doors? Our glass guy has suggested a fixed panel and a single glass door that swings in or out. Sounds nice but hoping for no issues with swinging in and out.

Ours have glass doors. BTW, even though I squeegee them after use I believe they’re treated a with a coating that repels water spots, the showers used by our grandchildren always look spotless & I really doubt.that they squeegee them ….. I like a glass door, not a shower curtain fan.

@Clyde Kalvin We will have heated floors and the room is quite small. But I also don’t want to be cold for the sake of sleek design ;)

Our bathroom and shower stall are much larger than yours and the double French door arrangement fits well, (especially when my husband was in a no weight bearing boot for a torn Achilles). Plain and simple, the doors, any door, IMO, get in the way. A fixed panel, and a door still limits accessibility. Been there with my broken ankle.

I want a shower with nothing to interfere with getting in and getting out. That is why I am investigating other options. Will follow your post and see what you decide to do.

@oncape thank you for your feedback. I’m still on the fence to be honest, but will definitely update on what we decide. We have to make a decision in the next few days!

Your shower is the same size as ours. We have a fixed glass pane and a glass swing door. Both the fixed pane and the door get wet during a shower. If you do not have a door you will have a wet floor outside your shower.

I'm guessing your walls are 9 ft. If so, likely having a rainhead shower will have enough clearance for a door to swing both in and out. Our shower is 45" wide and the water does get on the glass so I can only imagine yours at 30" wide would definitely have water spilling outside of the shower. If you went with a traditional showerhead you could possibly have just one pane of glass at the showerhead wall. But know that it isn't typically warm in there without something (curtain, glass, etc.) to keep heat in.

Thanks @bearbev Can I ask you what type of shower head (or wand or both) you have? Trying learn more about water spray management so I can make it work, but I’m going try to be realistic as well ;)

@Suki Mom how do you like this setup? Does the glass go right to the ceiling? Our ceilings are 8’, btw.

I like the glass pane and outswing door just fine. We squeegee after every shower. No big deal, and are nice and toasty warm in the shower.

The glass pane and door are about 6 ft 5 in tall including the frame. Our bathroom ceiling is 9 ft.

• @mrs_d71 we remodeled 5 years ago and bought the Delta Stryker set that included all the hookups needed for both a shower head and hand sprayer. I notice it looks like you already have the shower head hookup done? If so, you'll need to have a diverter installed to operate a handheld separately. Perhaps you'll like the style where the handheld is also the shower head for one seamless connection.

I have a much larger shower, no door, no problems with water on the floor. I believe that it is approximately 7'6" -8' x 42"- 46". It does not get cold or drafty in my shower, in fact, I always get nice and warm. So it is always interesting to me that people say they get cold in their large doorless showers. I also have solid walls, no glass, so that may be more insulating, and keep the heat in better. I think cold in a large shower may be a problem with house heating or insulation problem rather than a large, doorless shower problem.

Your shower looks far too small/narrow to go without a door. You will have water on the floor without a door.

There are a lot of options for your open space. Some shower doors are barely visible. A bi-fold will have a visible line in the middle.
Here are options. I would go with the clearest glass since your interior shower tiles are so pretty. The handles are the most visible part of these.

We had to forego a glass door because we put in a wheelchair accessible shower. I went to a decorator who picked out a fabulous fabric for us to have a custom made shower curtain. It brings the room to life and with the light on behind it, it has a wonderful shimmer. Think outside the box.

I'm going to throw out the too-often overlooked option of a shower curtain:

- No, don't go with a small Walmart or Target curtain; instead get a floor-to-ceiling curtain in a fantastic fabric. You might have to have it custom made, but it will look polished and elegant.

- You'll need an extra-long plastic liner too.

- A shower curtain'll add softness, color, pattern and texture to a room often void of those things.

- It'll hide your ugly pump-top shampoo bottle.

- While a glass door is never clean, a shower curtain (or maybe just its plastic liner) is easy to toss into the washing machine with a few towels.

- If aging-in-place is a concern for you, the shower curtain can be pulled waaay back, allowing larger access to the shower. Unlike hinged doors, you can pull back either side of the shower curtain, so it will never block access to the towels hanging on the wall.

@Suki Mom ….. yes, you will have a wet floor. Our shower is larger, probably 55-60” + square but water still splashes onto the glass doors, especially when shampooing & rinsing my hair, which I do daily.

Unless your shower controls are on the opposite wall of your handheld and rainshower head, both a fixed glass panel and a panel plus door are going to mean that you have to get into the shower to turn it on and stand in the cold water until it warms up. It seems as though a pretty shower curtain would solve that problem. I have a frameless door with fixed panel. My shower is 42x42 on the inside and I usually shower with the door open. My side panel still gets wet. I can't imagine that you won't have unwanted water in a 30" wide shower.

I have a walk-in shower about the size of yours with a fixed panel and a low entry threshold. The controls are near the entry on the left; the rain shower head and hand held are on the right, so I can easily reach in to turn on the water and wait outside the shower for the water to warm up. The design works very well and there is no issue with water going outside the shower. I love the open feeling. I live in the SF Bay Area, so very cold weather is not an issue, and the floor has radiant heating.

I have to add that my walk-in shower is a bit wider than yours; it’s more like 36 inches by 60.

Ours is 37x60, (new build), & we opted for no door as well. My walls do extend all of the way to the ceiling, so possibly that will help with the drafts other ppl are mentioning. However, I don’t get chilly in or out of the shower, so I don’t foresee a problem. If so, I’ll rethink adding a door.

When traveling through Italy, I was excited to try showering in four different hotels with fixed panels and no doors. They were all about 30" wide and all got water on the floor.

I think there are too many issues relating to heat capture to know if that will be an issue for you with open fixed panel.

Your tile is gorgous as is your floor. I see why you want a minimal look in here and absolutely no shower curtain. I'd think you can find a frameless shower with a swinging door that isn't too visible.

You converted a bathtub to a shower, when the lowly shower curtain was there , wasn't the shower liner wet all all over? Of course it was.

I will never understand the hand wring over shower doors, They are not ugly when frameless heavy glass.

You have the contractor call his local glass source, They come and template, You can do a fixed pane of glass and a double hinge shower door ,

No matter what, at a length of 57 " ......and an entrance of 28? HALF of your shower would be spewing water all over creation,,,,,,unless you planned to squeeze in sideways.

All you will notice is a couple hinges in your choice of finish, and a double handle, style and finish , yours as well. .

The only way to get a great shower, a great fit, is local/ custom glass shop, and even then? You use a step out mat at the exit of shower. Water.......: ) from your body. Shake it off first., squeeze it out of your hair , BEFORE you exit.

Handheld shower wand + no door = water on floor.

Our shower is 10" wider than yours and if we had no door there would be water on the floor from just the wall-mounted showerhead. Have the glass treated with Showerguard prior to installation and give it a quick squeegee & wipe with a microfiber. Honestly cleaning the glass is much easier than cleaning the tile.

@Kendrah Thank you! We love this tile as well. The frameless glass is an ideal situation for both form and function.

I’d personally do bi pass doors so you can turn the water on from the outside. Unless you have instant hot water? The time to think of the water containment solution is before plumbing is done. It’s not expensive at all to move the controls to the opposite wall so you don’t have to step all the way in to turn the water on. Pretty tile! Good luck with your final solution.

@thinkdesignlive I totally wish we would have moved the controls to the entry side when we were roughing everything in. Too late for that, unfortunately. As for testing the water (as I have in past shower setups), I usually just hold the wand in my hand, turn on the water, and run it until it's hot enough to put back into the cradle and shower under that or switch over to the rain head. It's never been an issue. We didn't like the look of sliding doors. Too much hardware, less custom looking. We love the look of clean glass with minimal hardware, which is why we were originally looking at a single pane of glass. All good! We're happy with our decision. :)

My 2 cents,

1. consider using low-iron glass so it doesn't look green, and change the color of your tile, and

2. have it treated with ShowerGuard as kas4 said to minimize water spots.