My sister’s custom bathroom has a frameless shower door that swings both ways that you enter from the side with the hinge on the fixtures ‘ end. The shower pan ledge is slightly tilted down to the door opening and slightly tilted down to the outside of the shower. This causes any water that hits the door to run down to the ledge of the pan and down to the door opening and out of the shower at the little gap at the bottom between the fixed panel and the door. The tile floor outside the shower gets soaked everytime and has caused the subfloor to get wet many times. I can put about about 3-5 sheets of paper in the gap between the fixed panel and the door along the door’s edge depending on the location on the door. They have put a small ” hard rubber” seal on the edge of the fixed panel but it doesn’t make contact. Personally, I think it is stupid to have the door swing both ways- it is hard to get something to seal edge-edge for 72″. The larger problem is the ledge- I figure I need to put some kind of threshold on the pan ledge to get the water to stop running out the bottom but it needs to be small so the door sweep can contact it but not prevent the door from “closing”. I haven’t seen anything good at the big boxes. Any ideas?
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Replies
Fix both problems and add a "stop" to the ledge, so that the door will only open inward. Could be made out of aluminum angle iron, held in place with 2-3 screws and bedded in caulk.
It is not safe for a shower door to only open in. It is against many codes.
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This situation is too bad,,, there's a probably lot of time and money in this shower.
The door sill should slope very slightly toward the shower across it's entire width. It should not slope toward the room at all.
This is probably the main issue.
I have found most of the water that excapes a shower happens right at the bottom of the door. So although I don't like the way they look, I will install a sweep on the bottom of the door to "just kiss" the sill and keep the water in the shower.
I don't think you should need all kinds of seals in other areas. The vertical openings don't leak as much splash as you would think. But, like my glass installer says, some people think the door should be as tight as the hatch on a submarine.
The door swings both ways because - I figure - that's how the hinges are made, and, when you are getting ready to get in the shower and the water is running, you want the door out. But when the shower is over, you want the door in the shower so it doesn't drip all over the floor.
How old is the shower???
A good tile setter/shower builder can likely straighten you out.
It shouldn't be too difficult to re work the sill.
Best of luck, Harry
"It shouldn't be too difficult to re work the sill."Amen!But I was thinking too, that the door might be installed too far out. In other owrds, if the wall is five inches through where the shower door is mounted, the door should be about an inch and a half from the inside face. I see some mounted all the way to the outer edge trying to maximize shower space, but that invites more water to the room side.
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Correct, I should re phrase that."shouldn't be impossible to re work the sill".After I posted, I was out shovelling for the millionth time this winter, and I got to thinking about this fellows "double sloped sill", and maybe the tile guy had a sound idea, and the door was installed in the wrong spot,,,,, too far out, as you posted.I have noticed that the person that comes out to measure for the glass is usually really sharp,,,,,,, but the guys doing the install, are shall we say, really fast.H
Short of a do over.................
and depending on the threshold material.............
What if you (someone) were to rout a small grove abot and inch or so from the outside edge of the threshold perpendicular to the long edge.
Then a bunch of 'fingers' grooved into the material in the direction of the shower itself, possibly even sloping in nature.
Of course I am assuming that you have a solid piece of material there...........problem with repacing it is will the door go back exactly in the same place when you are done?
would takeing the shower head and position it for a rain drop shower head [over head] help