Barrier-Free And Aging-In-Place Shower Doors In Birmingham, MI
A shower you will still be happy using in twenty years is mostly a question about the entry. How much there is to step over, how wide the way in stays, and what the wall behind the grab bar is made of.
Design The Entry, Then The Glass
Most people planning a barrier-free shower start with which door to buy. That is the second question. The first is the entry: a low or curbless opening with less to step over, a way in that stays clear rather than narrowed by hardware, and a bar you can put real weight on. Settle those and the enclosure nearly specifies itself. Settle the enclosure first and you end up with excellent glass in front of an entry nobody planned.
It helps to be blunt about who does what, because this pulls in more trades than a straight glass swap. Curb work, floor sloping, drain location, waterproofing, framing and tile all belong to other trades and happen before we take a number. Our part is the enclosure built to the opening they leave, plus telling you early what it needs from them. A curbless opening is usually inline at heart, one long run of glass along a wall with a fixed panel and one place where it opens, which is better settled while the layout is on paper. That is custom glass shower enclosures measured to your room rather than a kit sized to a catalog.
How the opening moves is the next decision, and it is about floor space more than glass. A panel that slides claims no floor outside the shower, which matters when a bench or a wide vanity already has a claim on it. A leaf on hinged swing shower doors in Birmingham gives the widest uninterrupted way in where there is room outside for it to open properly. Either way, the glass shower door installation is done by the same family that measured and built the enclosure, and anchors go into solid backing rather than tile and thinset alone.
Three Things That Decide How An Entry Works
How Much There Is To Step Over
A low or curbless entry gives you less to step over. The curb, the floor slope and the drain are other trades' work, and our enclosure is built to whatever they leave. Tell us the entry you are planning while it can still move and we will tell you how the glass should meet it.
Keeping The Way In Clear
The way in is decided by where the glass stops and where it moves, not by how big the shower is. A fixed panel carrying most of the run, with one opening, keeps the entry uninterrupted. A swinging door needs floor outside to open. A sliding panel takes none of that floor.
Grab Bars That Are Actually Grab Bars
We carry and install INVISIA bars, which read as a towel bar, shelf or corner bar and are built to support real weight, finish-matched to your hardware. A decorative towel bar that was not built as a grab bar should never be used for support. The same family that sets your glass installs them.
What The Wall Behind It Has To Be
Glass and grab bars both put real load into the wall, and both are anchored into solid backing rather than tile and thinset alone. That single detail separates a bar you can lean on from one that is merely mounted. It is also easiest to arrange while a wall is open and most disruptive after tile is set, because backing that was never there means opening a finished wall. If the studs are exposed, mark the bar locations then. Walk the shower the way it will be used, on the way in, at the controls and where a person turns, and get backing behind each spot even if no bar goes up today.
Around the entry, a handful of small choices make more difference than the glass does. We suggest smaller textured floor tiles and matte finishes rather than one large polished tile, and a teak mat or bench where the layout has room. A bench changes the glass, because a panel gets notched or stopped short to meet it, so decide it before we measure. Hardware deserves the same thought: a handle you can get a whole hand around, in a finish that matches the bar, on a door that opens toward the side you approach from.
- A low or curbless entry, so there is less to step over
- Solid backing behind every bar, not tile and thinset alone
- Bar locations marked while the wall is still open
- Glass configured so the way in stays clear
- Smaller textured floor tiles and matte finishes
- A teak mat or bench planned before the glass is measured
Common questions.
Do you install grab bars, or do we need someone else?
We install them. We carry INVISIA bars, which look like a towel bar, a shelf or a corner bar and are built to support real weight, finish-matched to your enclosure hardware. The same family that measures and sets your glass installs the bath accessories.
Can we just use a sturdy towel bar instead?
No. A decorative towel bar that was not built as a grab bar should never be used for support, however solid it feels. It is fastened for the weight of a towel and nothing beyond that. A bar built for the job, anchored into solid backing behind the tile, is different hardware doing a different job.
We want a curbless opening. What kind of enclosure suits it?
Usually an inline run: one long line of glass along the wall, most of it a fixed panel, with a sliding or hinged opening. That suits a curbless or low entry because the glass follows one plane and the way in lands where you decide, not where a prefabricated kit puts it. We measure once the other trades are done.
Our house is older. Will the walls take a grab bar?
Older Birmingham houses vary behind the tile, so we answer that at the measure rather than over the phone. We look at what the wall gives us and tell you what the enclosure and any bar need behind them. If the wall will be open for other work anyway, that is the moment to get backing in.
Does the whole bathroom have to be torn out for this?
It depends on the entry you have and the entry you want. If the opening is staying as it is, we measure it and build glass to it. If the opening is changing, the trades doing that work set the new numbers and we measure afterward. Either way we build to the opening that exists on measure day.
Is it worth planning for this before anyone needs it?
It is the much easier version of the project. Backing behind the tile, a low entry and an enclosure configured around a clear way in are straightforward while a bathroom is being built or rebuilt, and awkward to introduce to a finished room. Planning ahead is mostly about leaving options inside the wall.
Start With The Opening
Call (586) 315-8900 or text (586) 800-9481 and tell us what your entry is now and what you want it to be. The in-home measure in Birmingham is free, with a no-pressure quote. Showroom at 42624 Van Dyke Ave, Sterling Heights.