Single Swing Frameless Shower Door: NYC's Most Popular Configuration

If you're looking at frameless shower doors for a NYC apartment, chances are you'll end up with a single swing door. It's the most common configuration we install — by a wide margin — and for good reason. One glass panel, two hinges, a handle. Clean, minimal, and it works in nearly every bathroom layout.

Why NYC apartments love the single swing door

Most NYC bathrooms are compact. A single swing door keeps things simple — there's no fixed panel eating into the opening width, no track system along the top or bottom, and no multi-panel engineering to complicate the install. You get one clean sheet of tempered glass that swings open and closed.

For apartment bathrooms with standard shower openings between 24" and 32", a single swing door is usually the right call. It maximizes the opening width (no frame or track taking up space), and the frameless look makes the bathroom feel bigger — critical when you're working with 40 square feet.

It's also the fastest to install and the most affordable frameless option, which is why it's the entry point for most NYC homeowners upgrading from old framed doors.

Glass thickness: 3/8" vs 1/2" for single doors

For single swing doors, 3/8" (10mm) tempered glass is the industry standard and what we recommend for the vast majority of NYC installations. Here's why:

• Weight: A 3/8" panel weighs roughly 5 lbs per square foot. A typical 30"×72" door comes in around 75 lbs — manageable for standard wall-mount hinges and safe for tile walls with proper anchoring.
• Strength: 3/8" tempered glass is extremely strong. It exceeds ANSI Z97.1 safety standards and handles daily use without any concern.
• Cost: 3/8" glass is more affordable than 1/2", and the hardware can be lighter-duty, which saves further.

When do we recommend 1/2" (12mm)? For oversized panels — anything wider than 32" or taller than 78" — where the extra rigidity prevents flex. Also for clients who simply prefer the heavier, more substantial feel. The weight difference is noticeable: a 1/2" panel of the same size weighs about 100 lbs, which requires heavier hinges and more robust wall anchoring.

Inward vs outward swing: which direction?

This is one of the first questions we address during measurement, and the answer depends entirely on your bathroom layout.

Outward swing (into the bathroom) is the default in most NYC apartments. The door swings away from the showerhead and water, which means less water escapes when you open it. It also means you don't lose any usable space inside the shower.

Inward swing (into the shower) makes sense when the bathroom is so tight that an outward-swinging door would hit the toilet, vanity, or bathroom door. This is more common than you'd think in NYC — especially in older co-ops where the toilet is 18" from the shower opening. Inward swing solves the clearance problem, though you lose a few inches of standing room inside the shower.

Many of the hinges we use — including the CRL Geneva — support 180° swing, meaning the door can swing both directions. We default to outward but can configure for either direction during fabrication.

The key measurement: you need at least the full width of the door panel as clear swing space. A 28" door needs 28" of clearance in the direction it swings. We check this during the measurement visit and recommend the best direction based on your specific layout.

What a single swing door costs in NYC

A single swing frameless door typically falls in the $800–$1,500 range installed, depending on glass thickness, hardware finish, and door size. This makes it the most affordable frameless configuration — and often the best value when upgrading from a framed door.