Glass Shower Door - Has Anyone Done It Before?

[mrjeffreygee]

I'm in the process of building my skoolie and I want to put a glass shower door in. I was wondering if anyone out there has done this before and if they had any problems with it shattering on bump roads. I've attached 2 photos of examples of what I'm thinking. I think the swinging doors would have more problems than the sliding doors, but I don't know. Thoughts and experiences?

 

[PNW_Steve]

I had a glass neo-angle shower in my last bus. I had to make sure that it was VERY secure before travel. I managed to put 250k miles on that shower without breaking anything.

 

[Drop out]

My current residence has a small shower stall. It is inconvenient and claustrophobic at about 30" by 30". 30" one way isn't too bad but I would like a longer dimension for bending down to wash my legs more easily.

Since a bus conversion would allow me to choose my floor plan, my dream would be a slightly sunken shower of about 36" by 48" with a half wall about 30" long on one 48" side with a glass divider on top of it and no shower door. The shower head would be aimed away from the half wall side to keep almost all the water in the shower. A good ventilation fan would control the humidity.

That would give me the long dimension to bend down, the glass divider would make it feel open and not claustrophobic but being on a half wall the glass would be lighter, smaller and less likely to break.

I see showers like this (just bigger) in custom homes all the time but not RVs for some reason. It does take up more space. I might compromise and make it 30" wide instead of 36" but it would still be a lot more spacious than a neo angle, nothing would need to be stowed for travel and I don't think I would feel bad at all for losing a few inches to make a nice shower in a full timing RV.

I really hope I can figure out how to do a sunken shower floor, it would make it feel that much larger and keep the water in the shower.

I'm also pretty baffled by not seeing any pocket doors in RVs. I think I want at least two. One would be the bathroom door and the other would be inside the 48" shower stall side wall (between the bath and kitchen) to close off the "master suite" from the living area. I figure an inch or two thicker wall would give doors that don't swing in to walkways and they make nice soft open/soft close sliders for them like fancy cabinet drawers, they are nice.

 

[JDOnTheGo]

I'm just finishing up a neo shower enclosure. Details:
Waterless Shower? - JdFinley.com

 

[mrjeffreygee]

I had a glass neo-angle shower in my last bus. I had to make sure that it was VERY secure before travel. I managed to put 250k miles on that shower without breaking anything.

Thanks for the info. I'm just curious... What exactly did you do to make it very secure?

 

[mrjeffreygee]

I've read that there's a film or sticker that you can put on the glass, so that when it does shatter it's not messy. Not sure if that's something you leave on 24/7 or you only put on when moving the skoolie. Anyone ever use that or heard of it?

I was also thinking laminated glass might be good for this application as well.

 

[JDOnTheGo]

I've been using these WonderKid child safety locks and am happy with them. They are on my refrigerator doors/drawers and glass shower door.

 

[family wagon]

I've read that there's a film or sticker that you can put on the glass, so that when it does shatter it's not messy. Not sure if that's something you leave on 24/7 or you only put on when moving the skoolie. Anyone ever use that or heard of it?

Solar Gard is one manufacturer of such safety films. They're available in a range of light transmittance from "clear and undetectable" to very dark tinted. It's a permanently installed product, not removable.

 

[pengyou]

Is tempered glass an option for the shower door? I have seen people use neoprene washers with the mounting hardware to give it a little bit of shock absorbency.

 

[Twigg-SKO]

Is tempered glass an option for the shower door? I have seen people use neoprene washers with the mounting hardware to give it a little bit of shock absorbency.

Tempered glass is also referred to as toughened glass. It is much stronger than regular glass, but it can break. Most shower doors should be tempered glass.

If it does break, it breaks into small pieces much like a car window, rather than jagged shards as a regular window would.

Better would be laminated glass. This is what car windshields are made of. They are a laminate of two sheets of glass and a middle sheet of plastic. When they break they stay in one piece ... but you pay for the privilege.

Properly secured, a glass shower door in an RV should not break ... but there is a clear difference between "should not" and "will not".

 

[JDOnTheGo]

Is tempered glass an option for the shower door?

Agree with Steve and I think all the commercially available glass shower enclosures/doors that I have seen are tempered.

The only fear (of breaking) I have is that I'll forget to secure the door and then have some event (emergency stop) that causes it to go flying. Emergency stops are very rare (for me) and forgetting to secure it is sorta rare. So, very little concern. I suppose there may be some rigs that are very flexible (walls moving) and that might be an issue - I don't have that to worry about.

 

[miltruckman]

My 32” x 32” swinging shower door goes down the road just fine. The sliding door would be a problem. As every time you started or stopped it would try to go sliding and hit the stop hard enough it would probably break.

If you have ever had a van with a sliding side door you know how hard you can slam that door by starting or stopping the van.

Bill

 

[Iceni John]

I want to have a frameless bi-fold door for my shower. The only challenge for me is engineering a rail system at the top that will help support the end of the door furthest from the main hinge - C.R.Lawrence and U.S.Horizon (owned by CRL) don't have anything suitable, but I think I can make the rail from 1" square aluminum tube with a small wheeled carrier inside it that the door will hang from. The wall-to-glass hinges and the center glass-to-glass hinges are CRL's Hydroslide, so no problem there. If I can do this, the shower will look really good! My idea for this type of door is that when it opens after having a shower, all the drips remain inside the shower.

I'm using Delta Vero shower fixtures in stainless finish, with faux-stone tiles on the floor and sides, and the shower pan is custom-made stainless to eliminate any leaks. I even made the drain cover myself because I couldn't find anything ready-made that looked right! Everything is modern looking and very Euro-chic, just like how I want the entire inside of the bus to be. It's been a lot of work so far, but I hate cheap-looking plasticky showers like in most RVs, so for me it's worth it.

John

 

[jazty]

I would not care to have a sliding glass door within my bus. That adds one more (big) item to the pre launch checklist. As it is, I often forget to secure something. Usually it's not a problem though. Maybe a cabinet door will fly open and I'll have to pull over to sort it out.
Forgetting to secure a glass door would be much worse. You'll know you forgot to secure it by the loud crash and the mess.
Not to mention, even if I did secure it I would probably second guess myself an hour later.. I wouldn't want that additional stress and cognitive load.

 

[Stuntmanmitch]

My shower is a 38inch neo angle that is up against the wall, I wanted to keep a center aisle. I would like to do an enclosure and started looking into DIY stuff. I'm thinking of buying the hardware and some custom cast acrylic sheets as they only need to be about 5ft high. I've only looked at one site, the two end sheets came to 398$. 5 or 600 might get me what I need. Kinda too close to the price of the kits but the exact fit is tempting. I'm still searching for a solution.

 

[pengyou]

I would not care to have a sliding glass door within my bus. That adds one more (big) item to the pre launch checklist. As it is, I often forget to secure something. Usually it's not a problem though. Maybe a cabinet door will fly open and I'll have to pull over to sort it out.
Forgetting to secure a glass door would be much worse. You'll know you forgot to secure it by the loud crash and the mess.
Not to mention, even if I did secure it I would probably second guess myself an hour later.. I wouldn't want that additional stress and cognitive load.

One way around this is to engineer the door so that the normal status of the door is latched shut. You wall have to unlatch it each time you want to close or open it.