Request for Advice: Bathroom Door Build

[Andy Kev.]

I intend to replace my bathroom door and want to make one with glass panels. I've still got the old one which, being made as far as I can tell from man made materials does not go out of shape at all and so will serve as the biggest story stick in the world. The size is fairly normal: roughly six and half feet by roughly two and a half feet and about 1 1/2" thick.

What I'd like is to end up with is a door with three frosted glass panels, the reason for wanting glass is that it will let a bit more light through into the corridor than the previous solid one did. I wanted to make it out of aspen as I like the wood but the local timber yard hasn't had any in for a year, so I'm thinking of using tulip wood for two reasons: if I get nicely grained stuff, it will look OK but if it's got the green bits in it, I can paint it white and secondly, if I screw anything up, it's cheap enough to allow me to start again.

So what I need to know is, roughly how wide should the vertical bits and the rails be (the thickness will be the same as for the previous door) and what thickness glass panels should I use? I'm guessing at about 1/2" for the glass but maybe there's a standard. Also, is it normal for all the panels to be the same size or should there be a difference for aesthetic reasons? I have a dim memory of reading that in normal panelled doors, the one at the bottom should be a bit bigger for reasons of visual balance. Or should the bottom panel be solid, again for aesthetic reasons?

I intend to use hand tools although I can imagine using a table top thicknesser to get the initial sizing done. Or should I just get stuck in with a No 8?

Thanks in advance for suggestions/ideas.

 

[Mike Jordan]

I would expect that the most economic timber would be unsorted grade pine, that's the best grade stocked by most merchants. I suggest 100mm wide for the stiles and top rail, with 200mm for the bottom rail.(finished sizes) That would allow you to rip down 225mm wide to make the stiles.
It's the glass that is giving me the creeps! I wouldn't be happy with anything less than toughened or laminated glazing. You can get patterned glass toughened but I don't know about laminated. I have this terrible thought of a naked bather falling through ordinary float glass!!

 

[sunnybob]

Have you asked the other occupants how they feel about parading around behind a glass door? Frosted doesnt hide much you know :shock:
And also you need to consider how much condensation you will get on it if theres a shower inside #-o #-o
definitely need safety glass too.

 

[Andy Kev.]

They're good points.

For the sake of modesty I would put a pull down roll blind on the inside. The shower, while open at the top, sits behind a 7' high glass partition and that catches most of the condensation and of course the latter is not a problem in summer as one has the window open.

There would be no danger of falling through the door as there is no chance on earth of being soaking wet and slippy while in falling distance of it. When I got the bathroom refitted last year I also specified roughish black floor tiles in order to completely eliminate the danger of slipping.

The only reason I mentioned cost is because of the potential of mistakes leading to a second go. Tulipwood would be well within budget whereas I'd hesitate to make a door of e.g. cherry without having one under my belt first. Not that I can imagine making a door of cherry.

 

[Mike Jordan]

If you look at the GGF rules, all glazing below 800 mm up from the floor must be toughened glass.

 

[Andy Kev.]

I didn't know that and I'm sure it is so for very good reasons. I'll look into toughened glass then. Is there a minimum thickness?

 

[Trevanion]

You should get away with 8mm toughened glass without any issue, you don't want to know the price vs 12mm toughened. The only reason you would recommend thicker panes of glass than 8mm is where you have a large span of glass or it's likely to be kicked or bumped into like balustrade glass. As Mike Jordan says, anything below 800mm needs to be toughened BUT anything that's part of a door or within a certain distance of a door needs to be toughened also by building regulations, so this includes the glass in the door itself and side lights (If any). Toughened glass tends to be twice the price of standard but it does make 4mm toughened much stronger than 12mm non toughened.

Tulip would make for a pretty good door but you could also use pine if you wanted to keep the price down. If it's sealed well it won't get affected too much by the condensation. There really isn't much gain of using tulip over pine, especially if you're painting the door.

I usually use 95mm wide stiles and rails with a 205mm bottom rail, can easily be got out of a 9x2 piece of pine if you're going for 44mm thick doors. If you buy the PAR stuff from wherever it tends to be not flat and can be twisted by the time you buy it, so you might have to pull out the no 8 just to correct those issues, from there you can use your thicknesser. I would recommend buying the rough sawn stuff though as it is far cheaper.

Most people don't notice "visual balance" so you can just go with even sized panes to allow more light to pass in. My stable doors tend to have a smaller bottom door with a larger top door to allow more light, as the same with any other door I do with a panel bottom and glass top.

 

[sunnybob]

"There would be no danger of falling through the door as there is no chance on earth of being soaking wet and slippy while in falling distance of it".

Oh boy, thats a sentence that could come back to haunt you #-o You have to assume a complete silly person will do completely idiotic things, and then protect them from themselves. #-o

The price of that glass might convince you to have a half and half door though.

 

[Doug71]

You should get away with 8mm toughened glass without any issue.

Just curious why you suggest 8mm toughened glass, I would have thought 6mm would be plenty and have seen much bigger panes in only 4mm, the panes will only be about 600mm square?

 

[Andy Kev.]

"There would be no danger of falling through the door as there is no chance on earth of being soaking wet and slippy while in falling distance of it".

Oh boy, thats a sentence that could come back to haunt you #-o You have to assume a complete silly person will do completely idiotic things, and then protect them from themselves. #-o

The price of that glass might convince you to have a half and half door though.

Yes, it is a bit of a hostage to fortune, isn't it?

I think that to slip in my bathroom you would have to have feet made of jelly coated in vaseline and be drunk. That said, I suppose if you dropped a towel on the floor, you could trip over it.

Trevanion, I'll be buying rough sawn planks and planing down from there. Given the choice between tulip and pine I usually go for tulip as I have developed a cheerful dislike of pine because it can be a pain to mark and work. Tulip, on the other hand, usually behaves itself.

 

[Trevanion]

You should get away with 8mm toughened glass without any issue.

Just curious why you suggest 8mm toughened glass, I would have thought 6mm would be plenty and have seen much bigger panes in only 4mm, the panes will only be about 600mm square?

Mainly because 8mm will be a better barrier against the noise of a shower or bath running or the noise of someone splashing about. 4mm is more than plenty strength-wise but it doesn't hold back much noise.

I really should've mentioned that in my first post #-o