Glass doors: detailed installation instructions

A glass door, equipped instead of the usual wooden device, advantageously decorates almost any room and attracts the attention of visitors, especially if the product is located in a residential area. Everywhere, glass doors swing open to welcome guests of shopping centers, store customers and clients of offices and beauty salons. Why are they so popular?

A glass door creates a feeling of airiness in the room, visually expands it, adds freshness and freedom, is easy to perceive and provides the opportunity to create interesting effects using light points.

Despite the fact that glass, due to its matte finish and vice versa transparency, seems almost weightless, overall the product is quite heavy. But there is a plus here - due to the large thickness and special hardening of the material, it is difficult to break or partially damage.

If you want to use a new model of interior doors made from traditional materials, you should learn how to install a glass door yourself. Do not forget that installation of the device by the service department will hurt your wallet.

Glass door manufacturing technology

Door leaves for home and public interiors are made from tempered glass (7 times stronger than usual) or triplex. These are two or more sheets glued together with a film (you can lay fabric between them, apply UV printing, etc.). This design becomes even more impact-resistant - breaking it is extremely problematic, but if this happens, the fragments on both sides hang on the film and have blunt edges.

A glass door can be made from sheets of varying thicknesses, usually from 8 to 12 mm. The canvas has a perfectly smooth surface without bubbles or optical defects.

Triplex

Triplex glass is widely used in the glazing of premises - this is an option with a fairly high level of reliability.

It is made of two glass plates, between which there is a polymer film inside. It is quite difficult to mechanically destroy it, and if it does break, then its fragments do not crumble, but continue to adhere to the film.

Based on these qualities, triplex glass is most often installed in the doors of a children's room - even if it is somehow damaged, the baby's health will not be threatened.

Types of glass doors

The door leaf is a part of the structure, which comes in two types: framed (has a frame) and frameless (all-glass). It also matters by what principle the door will open. There are several most popular systems on the market, radically different from each other. To understand how to install a glass door of one type or another, let’s consider the operating principle of each option.

Hinged glass doors in a frame

This is a traditional system in which the door leaf opens only in one direction. Fastening is carried out on hinges to the box. The box can be made of wood or aluminum.

Glass sliding (sliding) doors

They work on the principle of a sliding wardrobe: sliding along a roller mechanism allows the sash to roll left and right. The guide is usually attached at the top, but if the blade is heavy, double-sided fastening is also possible. This is an ergonomic solution that helps to zone space and saves space in small rooms. Stores often install automatic sliding structures that roll away when signaled by a motion sensor.

Radius glass doors

They have a spectacular appearance and are often used in designer interiors. Their highlight is their unusual shape: curved glass is used in concave or convex versions. The overall look of the design is futuristic and elegant.

Swing glass doors

The main advantage of the system is that the structure opens both inward and outward, which is very convenient. It is advisable to install an interior glass swing door for large rooms, so that there is enough free space both in front and behind it. But the interior format is unimportant - it is suitable for both home and commercial buildings.

Rotary glass doors

The structure simultaneously shifts around its axis and moves forward. The opening radius is reduced, saving space, and the system swings open in both directions. Otherwise, these doors are called bar doors, because they are often used in establishments of this kind.

Sliding glass structures

Installing a sliding glass door will help you avoid many troubles in the future, for example, blocking the entrance to other rooms, taking up a significant part of the space, or causing injury to a person passing by.
The elegant design of these glass openings will add modernity and elegance to the interior of your apartment, and in a larger room the sliding glass structure will look even more impressive. For sliding door structures, mechanisms are used that include guides with rollers, and a glass sheet is attached to them. This device is made of thick profiles, and the rollers are made of abrasion-resistant polymer. Bearings allow the doors to open smoothly and easily.

Before placing sliding doors, it is necessary to take into account the following nuances: there must be space in the room so that the doors can hide; correctly calculate the size of the opening; strengthen the openings, since the glass itself is very heavy.

Glass doors for showers and saunas

Scope of application of glass doors

Entrance structures made of glass, especially all-glass ones, symbolize openness, and at the same time speak eloquently of status.
Because of these two qualities, they are ordered for commercial premises. Marketers conducted research on focus groups and came up with a pattern: from two neighboring stores, customers more often go to the one where the door is made of glass. Subconsciously, people interpret establishments with such an interior as more inviting. If we quote the survey results verbatim, the survey participants said that the owners of such businesses “have nothing to hide.” That is why glass structures are so often chosen by banks, investment and insurance companies, trade enterprises, the hotel sector, entertainment centers, and cafes. In a home interior, an interior glass door is a way to make the design individual, reflect the owner’s taste, his values, and his view of architectural aesthetics. They visually increase the free space of small rooms, give the missing volume to the room, make it airy and uncluttered. In large apartments and cottages, it makes sense to install an interior glass door for neat zoning. Glass allows you to unobtrusively differentiate between rooms with different interior styles or create the effect of a single space. In the halls it gives a feeling of palace scale and huge areas (even if this is not the case in terms of squares).

The decision to install a glass door in the steam room of public and private baths and saunas is quite justified. They are in harmony with wood and are perceived as a natural material. In addition, they allow you to notice in time if the steamer becomes ill.

And, of course, the most fashionable trend of recent years dictates that we need to install a glass door in the shower. For the past 3-4 years, all major world architectural and design exhibitions have been focusing on this method of finishing a bathroom.

Briefly about the main thing

To enter the steam room you need a door that meets many requirements. A special glass design is best suited. The material is distinguished by special hardening, in which the door acquires high heat resistance and impact resistance.

Any of the three types of bath door leaves can be installed independently. But you will need a partner, since glass structures are always heavier than a regular door. And holding it while tightening the fasteners is extremely difficult without some experience.

The nuances of installing glass doors: what experts advise

If you make a mistake in the size of the product, you will have to order a new one. The finished tempered sheet cannot be adjusted in height or width to fit the opening. This leads to a simple thing: you need to use the services of a professional measurer.
You can install either a wooden box or a metal mounting system - both look impressive with glass.
You need to choose the opening system and design of the structure before repairs are made. This will determine how to design the doorway.
A three-millimeter gap must be left between the frame and the door leaf.
For buildings with high visitor traffic, we recommend mounting the swing door on two types of fastening: upper and lower. This design has the greatest wear resistance.

Glass doors for baths, saunas and steam rooms: installation features

Today, most steam room owners prefer to install a glass door in it. Swing models are best suited for baths, saunas and steam rooms. When installing them, the hinges must be secured so that the canvas opens outward and not inward. Otherwise, you may accidentally hit a steaming person with the heated glass.

Sliding systems are not suitable for a bathhouse; they do not provide complete tightness: steam will escape and the energy intensity of the room will decrease. There is moisture in a Russian steam room, so it is better not to place the door in a regular wooden frame - it can swell and increase in size. A frame made of specially treated, heat-tempered hardwood is preferable.

For a Finnish sauna with dry steam, this requirement is not necessary. But there is another nuance: the principle of its operation is based on constant convection, so during installation there is no threshold set - a gap of 1-2 cm is left between the floor and the door leaf.

In a Russian steam room, on the contrary, there is no need for unplanned air exchange, and to prevent it, they traditionally install a high threshold so that cold air does not stretch across the floor.

Features of installing a glass door in a shower

Tempered glass is moisture-resistant, easily tolerates temperature changes, is not a favorable environment for the growth of mold fungi and bacteria, and divides space with minimal loss of area. Therefore, it is highly rated as a shower partition material.

Before you install a glass door in your shower, there are a few things you need to remember.

The design does not need a box.
For a non-standard opening, the canvas is made to order to the required size. Another option is to mount an additional fixed glass panel on part of the empty space. A movable screen will be adjacent to it.
The hinges are attached to an adjacent partition or wall. Depending on the choice, glass-to-glass or wall-to-glass hinges are used.
If the wall is not permanent, embedded elements are installed to support the weight of the structure.
The slope for water on the floor is made on the side opposite to the doorway in order to achieve greater tightness.
Instead of a threshold, a side is installed, and the top is sealed with a sealant or silicone. This will prevent accumulated water from spilling throughout the room.
The end of the doors fits more tightly if you use magnetic seals between the door and the fixed leaf. Fixed junctions between glass and walls are coated with silicone.

How to change?

Before directly replacing the damaged part, it is necessary to free the door from it.

First, you should remove the door from its hinges (for more convenient operation) and acquire some devices.

Thick gloves to protect against cuts.
Slotted wide screwdriver. With this tool you can pry off the wooden trims that hold the glass in the door. If your canvas is paneled (collapsible), then a screwdriver may not be useful at all.
Chisel. You cannot do without this tool when working with materials such as wood.
Small hammer. A hammer will be needed to secure the glazing beads with small finishing nails. If you are working with a paneled model, it is better to buy a special rubber hammer to lightly hammer the panels while assembling the structure.
Stationery knife. Such a knife will be needed to remove the old sealant at the installation site of the new glass.
Rubberized insert or sealant. Special seals not only ensure high-quality shrinkage of the fragile insert, but also prevent the occurrence of rattling during operation of the door leaf. A loose structure may also rattle during use.
Construction paper bag, cardboard box or piece of thick paper. The paper will be needed to carefully and safely wrap and remove the fragments remaining from the previous glass insert.

The following designs are used to install glazed interior doors.

Shield ones. These are products where glass is attached using special glazing beads by overlaying.
With grooves for insertion on one of the sides (they are also drawer grooves). These are models in which the glass is installed in the cavity of the door leaf.
Paneled. In these models, the glass is inserted into grooves.

Paneled

In order to repair paneled panels, they must be almost completely disassembled into different parts. Many people are intimidated by the large number of parts that go into a door like this, but don't panic.

The structure does not need to be disassembled, but just opens access to the glass.

To do this, you need to know the design of such a door.

Support in a vertical position – side door pillars;
Transverse support – holds longitudinal parts and glass;
Panels are thin components of inserts located between the transverse elements;
The baguette part is the same transverse support, but serves as a decorative insert.

Many panel doors are made using the tongue-and-groove principle. They are very easy and simple to understand. Faced with such options, you will not have to clean the necessary areas of old sealant. After removing the damaged insert, a new glass is installed in the same place, and the door is assembled in the reverse order, after which it can be installed in its original place in the apartment.

Tsargovye

To replace the glass in a side door, it is also removed from its hinges and laid on a flat surface. After this, using a ruler and a chisel, you need to remove all the plugs located at the edges of the base. Using a screwdriver, remove all fasteners. Now you need to take a small hammer and a block and use them to separate the drawer over the entire surface of the canvas. This needs to be done from the bottom up.

After removing the drawer, you need to remove the old glass from the grooves along with the silicone (while wearing gloves, of course). At the end, you can safely install a new glass sheet of a suitable size into the grooves, place the frame in its original place, assemble the structure and install it on the hinges in the opening.

Panel

As a rule, glass in such traditional panels is installed on the sash using glazing beads (wooden fasteners). To replace the insert, it is better to purchase new parts, since the old ones can easily be damaged during installation or dismantling of the glass.

First you need to lightly tap the glazing beads using a screwdriver and a small hammer. You need to loosen the insert a little, but do not remove the fasteners. Then you should remove the glazing beads located at the top (only if the canvas is removed from the hinges).

After this, the remains of the old glass are removed. Do not forget about removing the previous sealing compound from the door leaf.

The new glass insert in such products is installed in the lumen, previously treated with sealant. If necessary, glass sealant can be used. Glazing beads are installed on top.

Install it yourself or order professional services?

Skilled men will be able to install the door structure themselves. However, when it comes to an expensive system and good repairs, it is not recommended to do the installation yourself. In our experience (and we have been working in this field for many years), in 90% of cases the result does not reach the desired level, including due to the lack of professional tools. Often we are asked to redo work that we did ourselves - this is longer, more expensive and more problematic than installing from scratch.

What difficulties might arise?

Tempered glass, and especially double triplex, have sufficient weight. You cannot install them alone.
For sliding models, it is quite difficult to set the guides and roller mechanisms so that sliding remains easy for a long time. Usually failures appear after 3-4 months, which prematurely wears out even high-quality fittings.
Rotary doors have the most complex opening system, as they simultaneously move in two planes. Engineering knowledge and installation skills are required to calculate the correct trajectory.
Not everyone knows how to install a glass door in a bathhouse. But it depends on it whether a pocket for the “steam cake” will be formed in a heated room. This is the most saturated half-meter layer of steam under the ceiling, from where the steamer scoops up the “reserve” with a broom if necessary. In order for it to form above the lintel, and not above the heads of sitting people, you need to correctly correlate the height of the door leaf and the threshold.
In a sauna, the main difficulty is to calculate the geometry of the entire structure, including hinges, canvas and box, so that it does not “lead”.
And in the shower, unprofessional installation most often leads to splashes of water leaking onto the floor through the screen.

Film abundance and its use

Films for glass are:

Protective. Their strength is such that glass coated with such a film cannot be broken with a hammer.
Thermal. After gluing such a film onto glass, the glass almost stops conducting heat (up to 80% of thermal energy is retained).
Mirror (architectural). After gluing such a film, sauna visitors will see everything in the dressing room, but it will be impossible to see them (especially if the light is on near the entrance to the steam room) - the door will seem like a huge mirror.
Decorative. They allow you to imitate stained glass, etching, matting, painted paintings and other beautiful exotic things on glass.

Using self-adhesive opaque films is simple - just cut the workpiece exactly to the size of the glass, separate the base layer and gradually apply the film to the glass, carefully smoothing it out.

Secondly, because of the need to use special tools. Their presence makes installation easier:

It is best to purchase a squeegee (sometimes also called a squeegee) where they sell the film.
Squeegee for washing windows. Allows you to quickly wash glass. It is advisable to buy not a plastic “disposable” product, but a metal professional one.
Spray bottle for spraying cleaning solution onto glass and film.
A sharp utility knife with replaceable blades.
Soap solution. For a liter of water (it is advisable to use soft filtered or distilled water), a few drops of neutral shampoo are enough.

Procedure for covering a sauna door with transparent film

Before you start pasting, wet clean the dressing room and wash the glass door.
We mark the material according to the size of the door, depending on the design of the pasting. Be sure to cut out the material with an allowance of two to three centimeters.
Spray the glass door with a soap solution from a spray bottle.
We wet the film on both sides with a soap solution to remove dust from it. We remove the protective layer from the film (it is better to do the operation with an assistant) and wet the adhesive surface.
We glue the film onto the glass and smooth it, simultaneously removing air bubbles from under the film.
Using a squeegee, we smooth the surface of the film several times, removing the soap solution.
Cut off the excess film with a knife.

The film dries in 2-3 days. After this, the glass sauna door is ready for use.

Features of operation of glass doors

Correct installation makes operation easy and trouble-free. Difficulties may arise when:

use of low-quality fittings;
the weight of the door leaf is too heavy for the selected guides or hinges;
natural shrinkage of the building.

Glass does not age, does not lose its original properties, and does not need to be replaced during cosmetic repairs. You will have to reinstall it only after the design becomes obsolete.

Caring for it is simple: in residential areas, wipe the surface with a glass cleaner and a soft cloth as it gets dirty. If you decide to install a glass door in your shower, order it to be treated with water-repellent compounds so that limescale deposits from tap water do not settle on the glass, and you do not have to wash it after each use of water procedures.