At Caledora, we produce and install all types of hinged and bifold shower doors and are the best! You can customise door hinges, finishes and glass types with us. We take care of any project, whether it's challenging or straightforward.
Do you have an unusual space or a specific vision? Don't hesitate to reach out with any inquiries; we welcome the opportunity to take on a challenge.
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A hinged shower door is a type of enclosure that opens and closes like a traditional door. It attaches to the shower wall or another glass panel with hinges, allowing it to swing both inwards and outwards. In most cases, it has elastic door seals attached to the edges. Some door types can be in a frame, helping to keep the seals hidden.
Hinged doors offer a spacious feel compared to sliding doors, which move along a track. Hinged doors require enough space in front of the enclosure to open properly. You can find a range of styles and finishes to suit various bathroom designs, enhancing the overall aesthetic.
Consider bifold doors if you're limited on space in front of the entry. These doors are a variation of hinged doors that fold in on themselves. Doing so provides easy access while using less swing space, making them a practical option for compact bathrooms.
Shower bifold doors have several glass panels that can fold against each other and stay flat next to another surface. It substantially reduces the required door swing and allows its use in tight spaces like on small shower trays. A bifold is often the only option on small trays with minimum space in front of the opening.
Bifold hinges have a limited colour range. We supply them in chrome and black. However, other finishes can be obtained if required. These doors work best on trays less than 1,000mm.
Clients often mistake genuine pivot doors (top and bottom fix) for hinged doors (side fix). The least preferred choice for any shower is a pivot door. One of the pivot hinges should be at floor level. This makes these doors less effective at stopping water than other options. Pivot hinges swing both ways, so they have unsealed gaps in the hinges close to the floor.
Another disadvantage is the small plate that holds the pivot hinge. For frameless doors, you must screw this to the tray. The hinge later moves, and it's hard to keep it sealed for years, so there is a high risk of leakage. Besides, as many wrongly think, they won't give you wider entry than standard hinges.
We can install pivot hinge shower doors, but we strongly advise our clients not to choose them for showers. Instead, it is safer to have a regular wall-hinged door.
When attaching single doors to a wall with long screws, a reinforced wall makes a noticeable difference. Ensuring that both sides of the wall are flat enough is important in installation.
Wavy or ribbed tile surfaces can lead to complications during the setup. The door comes with perimeter seals that can compress about 6mm. This flexibility may not be enough with deeper grout lines or textured areas, which might make the door feel tight when you open it.
We can install the door from another glass panel if both walls lack reinforcement. This also applies if you have a towel radiator or if the opening is too wide for a single door. This slim panel supports the door, whether it's near the radiator or filling a gap. We secure these fixed panels with screws and silicone mastic, ensuring they stay firmly in place.
Using glass-to-glass hinges is ideal for the situations mentioned earlier. However, if possible, attach the hinged door directly to the wall in a shower enclosure. Choosing glass-to-glass frameless door hinges is costlier because of the pricier hinges and additional glass processing.
Consider using a wall-fixed shower door if your shower has a flat and sturdy tiled wall. This option tends to be the most affordable and durable, especially with a strongly built wall. Additionally, a door that swings towards the wall will save space in your bathroom.
When you opt for a door attached to the wall, choosing a doorknob is smart. Knobs project less from the glass than handles do. This design helps ensure that the knob won't touch the wall when the door swings open, particularly in frameless shower designs.
Our bifold and hinged shower doors can be both framed and frameless.
Our frameless bifold shower doors stand out because they don't need an overhead track. This innovative design gives you a truly frameless look, making your space feel open and modern. With spring-loaded hinges, these doors align perfectly and stay straight, enhancing both function and style.
A frameless, hinged shower door works in much the same way. The hinges keep the door aligned and looking sleek. This combination of functionality and style elevates your shower experience and adds a touch of elegance to the bathroom.
Frameless doors are the most affordable for showers, and we offer complete customisation. We offer a variety of hinges, knobs, handles, towel rails and other parts for frameless doors.
Framed doors offer a safer and smarter alternative compared to frameless options. They need less wall space and can attach easily to thin stud walls or those without much reinforcement. Discreet small hinges sit on the frame while all gaskets remain out of sight, creating a sleek look.
Using framed hinged doors allows for any type of glass. For example, for extra safety, choose toughened and laminated glass. If damaged, this safety glass stays in one piece and won't fall. The frame also protects the edges, making glass harder to break.
Our framed doors have a slim design and lack visible bolts. The frames can accommodate both hinged and bifold styles. Instead of springs, we use magnets to keep the doors aligned and closed. This lets us reduce the hinges to a compact diameter of just 10mm.
Shower door hinges are the second most crucial part after glass in a glass cubicle. We use only well-known brands of the most reliable hinges in our showers. Our collection offers more than 24 different finishes, but we can make bespoke finishes if required.
Our shower door hinges (frameless) can swing 90 degrees inwards and outwards. The springs inside help align the glass at the final 15 degrees of closing.
Our bifold door hinges (frameless) can swing 180 degrees in one way. They also feature aligning springs for better functionality.
Our framed doors swing to 180 degrees in one direction only. Magnets keep the doors aligned and closed, and the hinges themselves are compact, with a diameter of just 10mm.
Not only glass and hinges form hinged shower doors. Besides them are other elements of the door you cannot avoid having.
Door perimeter gaskets are one of the main elements that make the difference between a bathroom door and one for a shower. Without the seals, the water would have penetrated through the edges.
Our door seals are tiny 8mm PVC, which we attach on the edge. The absence of cavities prevents water and soap from getting trapped inside. It helps seals last significantly longer than standard clip-on styles.
Hinged doors that open outwards require a floor barrier to function properly. The best solution is to install a small threshold on the floor and attach an elastic seal to the bottom of the door. This combination effectively seals any gap at the bottom of a closed door.
When a door seal touches the floor, it will wear over time, causing it to lose effectiveness. The door should have both the threshold and seal to avoid the issue. By doing so, you can ensure that the door lasts longer and maintains its functionality.
Opening a door without a pull handle is challenging, so it's a necessary item. Besides handles, we offer a variety of knobs or towel rails. All can be in various finishes, or we can make a bespoke one for you.
Opt for a towel rail outside a door if the hinges are glass-to-glass. Towel rails can also be handy if the door swings inwards only. For example, place a towel on the rail before showering and reach it by opening the door once finished.
If your hinged door is part of a cubicle, then the fixed panels must have fixtures for the wall. We could avoid the metal fixtures, but something still should hold the glass panel in place. Let's discuss all three types.
We attach frameless hinged enclosures directly to walls using real perimeter frames. For our fixed frameless screens, we utilise U-channels, resulting in a semi-frameless appearance. While the door remains completely frameless, the fixed screens will have profiles that are visible on the adjacent surfaces.
We can leave all edges clean and polished for a more frameless look. Instead of profiles, we use small wall brackets aligned with door hinges. The gap next to the wall must be watertight, so we use a tiny and accurate layer of mastic. This option provides a clean and sleek look.
If you pursue a fully frameless look and don't like any fixtures, we can recess the glass into the wall. We can instruct your tiler on how to do the tile, position a guide, and get a nice U-channel made of the tile or stone. Such a groove allows us to use the tiled wall and avoid metal parts to support fixed panels of the enclosure.
Whatever the type of shower, good ventilation is a must. Since shower sizes and setups can differ, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. What works best depends on the specific shower and what the user needs. That's why we look at each project individually and get all the details we can to give the best advice possible.
Shower door hinges for frameless doors can support doors up to 1,000mm wide. On the other hand, our framed doors can accommodate sizes up to 850mm. However, sticking to a smaller door proves to be better. A more compact design leads to easier usage and better performance overall.
Wide doors come with challenges, like requiring a larger swing size. Heavier doors tend to strain the hinges, which increases the chance of failure. Plus, wider doors have more risk of the water escaping. When selecting a size, most hinged doors we install range from 600mm to 750mm.
If the door can swing inwards, ensure it won't interfere with the shower head. The door equivalent to the shower head height is sufficient to prevent splashes from escaping. So, something between your height and the showerhead's works well.
If the door reaches the ceiling, you must leave a sufficient gap above a hinged door that swings outwards. This avoids damage to the ceiling and provides ventilation. Bathroom ceilings tend to drop over time, and you might end up with the door scratching it.
Hinged doors in showers have perimeter seals that stop air circulation. If your enclosure is full height, you must have a spot-on extractor fan inside the shower. If your extractor is weak or you don't have one inside, don't go full height with the hinged door or the cubicle.
Leave a significant gap above if you place your bathroom extractor outside the shower. Anything over 300mm is best. In addition, you could keep the doors open after showering. By ignoring this, get ready to replace the mastic in the shower quite often.
We use clear, toughened glass with mirror-polished edges as the standard for all our bifold or hinged shower doors. We coat all shower glass with an "easy-clean glass coating" that repels soap, limescale, and hard water residue. However, we also offer some other glass options.
Frameless door hinges require notches or holes in the glass door. We must screw the hinge onto the glass which holds it. Besides, the frameless door exposes the edge to air and water. So, not all glass is suited for frameless doors, yet it can work with the frames.
Reeded glass has vertical flutes so that glass hinges won't hold it. After a while, the door will drop and reposition. For this reason, we only use fluted glass glued into our frames.
Any laminated glass has an interlayer between the glass panels, which can be damaged by water. If water gets to it, it will slowly ruin the layer. Even EVA interlayer, which withstands it best, won't guarantee longevity. So, we seal and protect the lami edges in our framed doors.
We offer several choices for frameless folding shower doors if standard clear glass is not for you.
Ultra Clear (low-iron glass) is an alternative to clear glass. Standard clear glass has a slightly greenish tint because of iron. The greenish effect might be noticeable when looking through clear glass on white walls. The quality of the Ultra Clear allows you to see the same with or without the glass in front.
Tinted glass (grey, bronze, green) can add a tone to your bathroom. The 10mm grey is more than twice as dark as the 4mm grey, so request samples with the required thickness.
Frosted glass provides the best privacy if required. Objects near the outside of glass will still be visible. However, from 100mm away, the same object will be hard to see. We use acid-etched glass for entirely frosted surfaces or can sandblast if you need partially frosted glass.
If none of this works, we can make you bespoke fused glass, which we melt in a furnace. The glass can reflect almost any shape or design pattern. We will ensure that the spots where the hinges or the frame must go are flat. The price will be higher than all other options but provides a unique glass type.
We take care of everything for your hinged or bifold shower doors. We not only produce them but also supply them as a package. The service always includes a site survey, design, production and installation.
By ordering from us, you get a bespoke door or enclosure which will fit precisely in your bathroom the way you want. Our quality checks ensure you're getting what you expect at every stage.
