Choosing Between a Swinging and Sliding Door for Your Glass Shower
A glass shower opens up a bathroom as the room feels like one big area, with the shower space not segregated by opaque screens. Thus, the bathroom tends to feel more spacious. Glass panels also bounce light around, creating an airier and brighter bathroom. One decision you'll need to make when planning the structure regards the shower door style. Two possible options, swinging and sliding doors, are described below.
Swinging Shower Doors
A swinging shower door rotates outwards to provide a wide entryway, which helps those with mobility issues. If you install a frameless model, the door will feature little hardware besides the hinges, creating an attractively sleek look. With less hardware, there will be fewer crevices that can trap soap scum and dirt. These clean lines, thus, not only create a svelte shower, but they make cleaning easier.
However, as the hinges carry the heavy door weight, they can eventually wear out and require replacing. Additionally, the outwards swinging action needs free floor area, which you may not be able to spare in a compact bathroom.
Sliding Shower Doors
Alternatively, you could opt for a sliding door in which shower screens, run along tracks at the top or bottom. The benefit of such sideways movement is that the door won't impinge on the floor space, making it a perfect choice for smaller bathrooms. However, the entryway into the shower is often narrower than that offered by a swinging model.
Because sliding doors need more obvious metal components like channels, they don't evoke the minimalism of a frameless swinging door. Plus, the extra hardware also offers grooves and crevises that capture grime. Tracks along the bottom of the enclosure, in particular, can catch water and grow mould.
Thus, both door styles have pros and cons, and it depends on your concerns which would be best for your bathroom. In a small area, you could install a space-saving sliding model, that will free up much-needed floor area. However, if you require a wide entry to the shower, a swinging door might be better, so long as your bathroom is big enough.
You also need to consider aesthetics. For a streamlined effect, a frameless swinging door with little metal becomes svelte and almost invisible, while the channels on a sliding door can be prominent. Remember that the fewer nooks within the shower enclosure, the fewer places it provides to court dirt and debris.
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