Most shower hardware is designed for these angles, so planning your shower with this in mind ensures a cost-effective installation and a functioning shower enclosure.

While eliminating the curb is beneficial when planning a handicap accessible shower enclosure, you should keep in mind that a properly constructed curb helps prevent water from leaking or pooling onto your bathroom floor.

The curb or lip around the bottom of the shower should to be slanted inward at a 5-degree (approx. 3/16″ to 1/4″) “pitch” or slope so water flows in toward the drain. (A level curb would cause the water to stand, while a curb angled away from the drain would cause water to leak onto the bathroom floor.)

Positioning shower heads toward tiled walls or your fixed panels will help to minimize leakage. Shower heads should never be positioned opposite a door or other opening. Exceptions may be made for smaller or low-flow shower heads or shower heads that point straight down at the floor.

A few reasons to use a glass transom is to vent steam, to stabilize floor-to-ceiling showers, and when installing pivot doors. You will want to make sure the shower door won't be hampered by anything installed on the ceiling when it swings open. If an exhaust fan, vent or light fixture is in the path of a swinging door, a glass transom may be needed to give the door clearance.

Hinged shower doors that swing inwards only are not permitted by code. However, your shower door can open in both directions, outward-opening and inward-swinging. You will need about 30" of clearance space outside your shower to install a swinging shower door.

Do not mount glass hinges or door clips to glass tiles as breakage is likely to occur during and even after installation. This can result in delays in getting the project finished and additional charges from the tile installers for repairs.

Shower seats need to have a slope of 5 degrees. This helps water move from your shower seat to the floor of your shower. Having a shower seat that does not angle forward can cause water to pool or level.

Be sure the wall on which you would like to install a hinged shower door has proper studding behind it. Always provide wood studs or blocking where doors hinge or panels are anchored, especially when metal studs were used in the original construction of the wall.

Never run plumbing pipe or electrical wiring through walls or studs. Anchoring screw for the shower enclosure hardware might puncture it causing major damage.

Any walls that are more than 1/4" out of plumb make it very difficult to install a shower properly since they cause unsightly gaps and are more likely to bend. For less than 1/4" out of plumb walls, we will cut the glass so it will lie flush against your wall.

When designing your shower enclosure, keep in mind that each glass panel needs to be at least 4 1/2" wide, which is the minimum width for tempering glass and supporting the hardware. Also, the door will need to be a minimum of 22" wide and no more than 36" wide.

The "soffits" or eaves along the top of the shower enclosure must line up perfectly with the angles in the curb below in order to avoid an uneven look.

Shower doors should be installed in such a way that nothing interferes with their movement and there are no gaps between the door and the wall. The tile or granite can be modified to allow for door operation, but a filler might need to be applied, negatively impacting the look of the finished product.

Keep in mind that solid pieces of tile, marble or granite are best for the top of a curb. Tiled curb tops increase the likelihood of leakage and encourage the growth of mold or mildew because water collects in grout joints on horizontal tiles. The shower door seal functions best on a smooth surface.

When designing an enclosure that has a buttress or "knee" wall, plan on including an in-line panel into your design. That way, you can modify the fixed panel to accommodate the buttress wall instead of trying to modify the door.

If your neo angle shower enclosure includes a "knee" wall or wall, make sure that the shower door meets the structure at a 90 degree angle to accommodate the requirements of the hinges. This is not a restriction when glass meets glass at the 135 degree angle.