Buying Shower Doors and Enclosures Online

More and more people are shopping online these days. It is a convenient way to shop for a lot of different items. People even buy shower doors online, if you can believe it! There are a lot of options available, and some are actually quite good. Showcase Shower Door Company carries a full line of shower doors and enclosures manufactured by Fleurco. They are some of the finest shower enclosures you will find anywhere. We can offer our customers a complete package including the shower pan, glass, hardware, and instructions. All of this delivered right to your front door!

There is the challenge, however, of getting your shower enclosure installed once it arrives. We offer the service of installing customer-supplied shower enclosures for people in our area, whether they buy it from us or not. Wherever it is that you live, there is a good chance that there is a qualified shower enclosure installer available in your area. We here at Showcase Shower Door Company are taking steps to put together a network of quality shower door installers in different parts of the United States. We hope to be able to refer these experts to people who need their services. This will also allow shower enclosure manufacturers who sell their products across the country to take advantage of the skills of qualified installers in every area. Anyway, it’s something we are working on, and I’ll let you know as things develop.

Sagging Framed Shower Door – Can it Be Repaired?

Dear Chris.

My shower door is sagging and the gap at the top of the door is wider than the gap at the bottom of the door.  There is also some black plastic coming out of the hinge area of the piano hinge on the shower door. Can I just replace the hinge or do I need a new shower door?

Thanks,

Don

     

Hi Don,

The type of shower door you are describing is what I call a “manufactured” shower door. These are also known as “standard” shower doors. They have a gasket that runs the entire length (height) of the glass, and the panel is held in place by friction. On the inside of the door there are usually a few screws that are tightened down to cause the aluminum assembly to clamp down on the glass, holding it in place.

Over time, the glass may begin to slip out of the channel that it is being held by. The most common cause of this is people hanging their wet towels (bath mats) over the door to dry. These doors just aren’t designed to hold any extra weight at all. Once the door starts to fail, there is no amount of tightening the screws that is going to hold the glass in place any more. In short, you really do need a new door.

That being said, I have had success in the past with taking the door apart, cleaning out the aluminum very carefully, and replacing the rubber gasket with silicone (wet silicone out of a caulk tube). The silicone was able to hold the glass even though the vinyl gasket had failed. It is quite a bit of work, and you will have to gauge whether or not it is worth the effort.

Thanks for writing!

-Chris

Showcase Shower Door Company

RE: Replacing Shower Door Hinge Gaskets

How difficult is it to replace the gaskets in the frameless glass shower door hinges? Do you have to take the door all the way off or can you do it one hinge at a time and leave the other two hinges attached?  If you do have to take the door all the way off, do you also have to unscrew the hinges from the wall or can you leave the hinges attached to the wall and just remove them from the glass?

      

You may be able to do them one at a time with the glass in place. It will be a little more challenging with three hinges rather than two, but the gaskets are pretty thin, and should be easy enough to change in a small space.

I normally have one guy inside and one guy outside. I put wood shims under the glass to make sure it doesn’t shift when the hinge cover plate comes off. You should be able to remove the two screws in the cover plate without removing the four screws that anchor the hinge to the wall. If you wet the gaskets with a little rubbing alcohol they will slip right into place, and get a good seal.

Let me know how it works out,

Chris Phillips – Owner

RE: Glass Door Off Kilter

Hi Chris

Love your blog!

Quick question.  I have two homes with high end frameless glass shower doors. On two occasions I have left shower doors open for a few days, returning home to find the doors hanging too low (and not able to fully close).  This has happened at each house.

I assume this is because the doors are very heavy and weight of glass puts extra pressure on hinges making door sag off kilter.  Is this possible?

My contractor tells me no.

Your thoughts?

Michelle

Frameless shower doors to have a tendency to settle a bit. The hinges are held in place by friction, and if the screws in the hinges aren’t tightened enough the glass will need to be readjusted from time to time. I offer a one-year warranty on shower doors, and offer to make this adjustment for free during the first year after installation.

It is possible that the house itself has settled a bit, but it is more likely that the hinges need adjustment. I’m surprised that your contractor would tell you otherwise… this is a common occurrence. It’s pretty easy to adjust the door. The secret is torquing down those screws nice and tight!

RE: Shower Door Question – Frameless Door Hinges

Chris,

I have a frameless shower door that swings freely in both directions. There is no catch and no sweep on the bottom of the door. For the first several years after installation the door would always return to rest at an exactly centered position when closed. If moved an inch or two in one direction or the other, the door would always return to exact center. Over the past several months the door began to no longer rest in a centered position. Instead, the door has it begun to rest in a slightly open position. The gap is getting larger as time goes on. Now the door is resting in a position leaving a gap of an inch or so between the door and the adjacent glass panel. Any idea what might be causing this? Is there something I can do to adjust the door or the hinges so the door will once again rest in a centered position? I’ll call a glass company for a service call if necessary but if there is something simple I can do I’d rather try that first.

I appreciate any assistance.

Thank you,

Brian

Hi Brian,

Most likely, your hinges are suffering from soap build-up, or are just wearing out. Frameless shower door hinges come with a three-year warranty. The manufacturers of these hinges don’t recommend using any kind of lubrication on them. Since they are out of warranty anyway, you may want to consider trying some type of lube and see if it helps. I would go with a silicone spray rather than WD-40… I think you will get better results that way. If all else fails, you can have the hinges replaced, but that won’t be cheap. It sounds like your hinges are still working, just not self-centering the way that they used to.

Let me know how things work out,

-Chris