Barrier-Free And Aging-In-Place Shower Doors In Royal Oak, MI
A shower you can still use in twenty years is mostly decided at the entry. How low the step is, how wide the way in is, and what the door does to that opening when it moves. Here is how we configure glass around an easier entry, and where a grab bar has to anchor.
The Entry Decides The Rest Of The Design
Whatever opening you end up with, a curbless run, an alcove, or a tub opening, the glass question comes down to the same three things. Where is the way in, how wide is it, and what happens to it when the door moves. Get those right and the enclosure stays out of the way. Get them wrong and you have parked a swinging panel in the spot you were trying to keep clear. A low or curbless entry is easier to step over, and the glass should not put that step back.
Curbless showers are usually inline at heart, one long run of glass along a wall with a sliding or hinged opening in it. An inline enclosure is a fixed panel plus a door, the same arrangement that suits a straight alcove, and it gives you the most predictable walk through. Where a Royal Oak bathroom does not hand you a clean rectangle, and plenty of them do not, showers tucked into corners or set at an angle with walls nowhere near square are handled as custom glass shower enclosures in Royal Oak, cut to the shape the room actually is.
Door type is the other half of it. hinged swing shower doors in Royal Oak give you a completely open threshold, but the leaf needs an arc, and that arc has to clear the vanity, the toilet and whatever else is on the floor. In a compact bath it frequently does not, and then the honest answer is a fixed panel with a walk through, or a slider that keeps the swing off your floor entirely. We walk it with a tape at the measure. If the room is not settled yet, our overview of shower doors in Royal Oak lays the options out side by side.
The Three Things We Look At First
A Low Or Curbless Entry
The curb, the floor slope, the drain and the waterproofing under all of it belong to your tile and plumbing trades, and all of that finishes before we measure. Our part is to read the entry they leave us and configure the glass so the way in stays the widest clear thing in the room.
Grab Bars That Look Like Towel Bars
We carry and install INVISIA grab bars. They read as a towel bar, a shelf, a towel ring or a corner bar, and they are built to support real weight rather than just look the part. We finish match them to your enclosure hardware, and the family that sets your glass installs them.
Anchored Into Solid Backing
A decorative towel bar that was not built as a grab bar should never be used for support, however solid it feels when you pull on it. A real bar anchors into solid backing behind the wall, not into tile and thinset. So does the glass. That backing has to be there before the tile goes on.
Mark The Bar Before The Tile Goes On
The most useful hour on a project like this happens before any tile is set. Stand in the room with the person who will use the shower and mark where a bar would go, at the entry and inside where you turn around. Height and reach are personal, and they are obvious the moment somebody is standing there. Those marks become backing, set behind the tile by your carpenter or tile setter. In a Royal Oak bathroom standing the better part of a century, what is behind the plaster is anybody's guess. Smaller textured floor tiles and matte finishes are what we suggest for that floor, another tile decision made well before we measure.
Once the backing is in and the tile is finished, our side is straightforward. We measure the completed opening, build the glass to those numbers, and come back for the glass shower door installation in Royal Oak with our own crew, anchoring hinges and clips into the same solid backing the bars use. A bench is worth settling at the same time, because it changes where a door can swing and where a panel can land. And if you want the enclosure to read as open rather than divided, frameless shower doors in Royal Oak do that best, though heavy panels ask more of the wall behind them, which is one more reason backing comes first.
- Bar positions marked with the person who will use the shower
- Solid backing set behind the tile at every bar and hinge point
- The way in kept clear of the door's path when it opens
- Grab bar finish matched to the enclosure hardware
- Curb height, floor slope and drain settled by your other trades
- Glass measured only after the tile is complete
Common questions.
Do you install grab bars, or is that somebody else's job?
We do. We carry and install INVISIA bars, and the same family that sets your glass puts them in. They are finish matched to your enclosure hardware, so a bar reads as part of the room rather than something bolted on afterward. Raise it at the measure and we will show you the options.
Can I just use a sturdy towel bar instead?
No. A decorative towel bar was never built to be leaned on, and it should not be used for support whatever it feels like when you pull on it. A proper grab bar can look almost identical, doubling as a towel bar or a shelf, and it is built and anchored to support real weight.
Who actually builds a curbless entry?
Not us. Curb work, floor sloping, drain relocation, waterproofing and any framing are other trades, and all of it finishes before we arrive. We measure the opening they leave and build the glass to it. Tell us early what the entry will be, though, because that is what decides the configuration.
Which door type leaves the easiest opening?
It depends on the floor around it. A hinged door opens the threshold completely but needs a clear arc to swing through. A fixed panel with a walk through has nothing to swing at all. A slider keeps both panels on a track and out of the room. We measure and tell you which your bathroom supports.
Nobody needs any of this yet. Are we too early?
You are early in the best possible way. Backing is cheap and simple while a wall is open and awkward once it is tiled, so mark the positions and have it set now even if no bar goes up for years. The same goes for the height of the entry, which is hard to change later.
Will this work in an older Royal Oak bathroom?
Usually, and a measure tells us for certain. Older homes here have showers tucked into corners or set at angles, and walls a long way from square, which is ordinary work for us. What we look at hardest is the wall itself, because the glass and any bar both need solid backing rather than tile alone.
Planning An Easier Shower In Royal Oak?
Bring us in while the walls are still open if you can, so the backing goes where it belongs the first time. The in home measure costs you nothing and carries no pressure. Call (586) 315-8900, text (586) 800-9481, or email [email protected]. Showroom at 42624 Van Dyke Ave, Sterling Heights, Mon to Fri 9 to 5 and Sat 10 to 2.