My Glass Shower door does not fit...

Oh no, You have found yourself with a glass shower door that does not fit your space right,  and now you need a custom glass shower door panel. Do not worry, you are not the only person this has happened to, and there are solutions out there. Here are a few examples of how best to handle a glass shower installation that does not go as planned.

Shopping for your glass shower door

This is the first place most people can go wrong when buying a glass door for their shower. When shopping, you should consider the overall investment and decide if you want to get good quality glass and hardware or cost-effective hardware with poor quality glass. When you buy a boxed shower from an online store or the big box store near you, here are the main things to consider before purchasing another shower door that may not fit again.

Width and Height

You will need to know the lengths and height needed to enclose your shower. Depending on your design, you will decide how many measurements you will need. To simplify the measurement,  you will want the glass at the height of your shower head or shorter, if you decide to save money. However it is ideal to be at the height of your shower head. Next, figure out your width,  which would be any measurement where you like glass from wall to wall, or panel to wall, or even panel to panel, depending on your space. Do your best to measure the space and share with experts like Dulles Glass to receive an estimate for the glass and hardware; they even offer installation.

Outages in the Walls and Curbs/Benches

This is where most projects fail if you take the right measurements but do not check the outages on each surface the glass touches, then you may have gaps, or even the glass will not fit into the space. To check outages in a space, you will need either an auto level laser or a couple of levels to place on the walls/floors where the glass is intended to be placed.

Sliding or swing door

How to decide if your space should have a swing door or a sliding shower door. The most important thing to know when deciding if you can have a sliding door is how wide the main opening of your shower space is. If you have a 60” wide opening for your shower and you place a sliding door, that means you will have a 33” wide door and a 27” opening to get into the shower. This means the smaller your opening, the smaller your door will have to be as well, making the opening even smaller. The next thing to consider is whether you have anything outside of the shower space that a swing door could hit, like a toilet or towel bar. This can be a good reason to go with a sliding door. Sliding doors also come as kits, so this means that the hardware is not purchased individually, making the cost a little more depending on the quality.
 

Quality of material

This is where the big box stores and online outlets make the most money because they minimize quality for profit, which will leave you with an unfixable shower system that will need to be entirely replaced when you need one of the parts that only came in that kit. When you work with a company that offers a warranty, ensuring they will come and fix it themselves, that's how you know they believe in the quality of their materials and service. 
 

Warranty and return policy

Before ordering or purchasing a shower door,  make sure you understand any warranty offered, or if the product can be returned if it does not work in the space. It is recommended when installing a shower DIY to always double-check measurements and compare with what's on the box before opening the box to make returning that system easy if needed.

Should you go with premade products or custom

If your space does not have any outages for where the glass is going and you are confident in yourself or the contractor, then a premade system can work just fine. Most likely, there is a good chance quality might be lower than expert companies, and mistakes will outweigh the savings. If you and your contractor have not installed glass before and the space is not plumbed please call an expert and schedule an appointment to have the space measured. Dulles Glass can give a free estimate if you can share a photo and rough measurements of the space.

Installing your Glass shower door

When you are working with glass, it is recommended and safest to have two people work together to install. Before you install, the space should be measured properly to ensure that the glass is made to fit into the space. It is recommended to reach out to an expert to confirm your measurements were done correctly before ordering your glass. If you install glass yourself, it goes without saying that glass is delicate and hard to handle, so take extra precaution to keep glass in a safe location and to handle it with care at all times, because replacing a broken panel can sometimes double the cost and time to complete an installation.

DIY vs. Expert Installation: Weighing the Benefits of Doing It Yourself vs. Hiring a Professional

FAQs: Fixing a Shower Door That Doesn’t Fit

What should I do with my shower that did not fit?

If you can not return your shower or it is broken, ask the experts who installed your new one to dispose of the old shower. We at Dulles Glass will dispose of your old material no problem as long as we are aware before the day of installation of what we will be disposing of. You can always take the material to your local dump to safely dispose of it.

What are the best solutions for fixing a glass shower door that does not fit?

Sadly, there are not many solutions for when the glass is too big for the space; you will have to get a panel that will fit in the space in order to install a glass shower. If the glass fits in the space but there are gaps and the panels are not level, then you can use clear rubber shims to level out the panel, then you use clear silicone as needed to fill in the gaps created by the outages. If you are installing a sliding system, then you will want to use plastic sweeps and shims on the inside to help adjust the plastic sweep to meet the walls. These solutions will be less effective the farther the space is from plum. 

How quickly can I get a custom shower door installed to replace my shower that does not fit?

Some companies will take longer to acquire the glass and hardware, depending on the quality you are looking for. Most can come out to measure within a week, and take about 3 weeks if they do not have access to their own fabrication center. Dulles Glass will come out to measure within 1-3 business days, and once final approval is given, they will be back in 7-9 business days for installation.