Shower Door "twisting"?

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me. We have a shower stall (no tub) with a seat in it and it has a glass door. The door has what I'd call a "sidelight" that's a solid piece and doesn't move, and then the door piece that moves. The house was built about 4.5 years ago so the door/sidelight isn't that old. We've noticed in recent months that the door hits the magnetic strip and closes at the top before the bottom does... so it must be twisting/warping somewhere. It's getting hard and harder to pull the door closed from inside the shower since the handle is in the middle and there's no real way to pull the bottom closed. Any ideas why this has happened and what can be done? It doesn't look like the frame or anything has moved.

Thanks!

Well, something is twisted, either the door itself or the frame. Get a straitedge, such as a yardstick or a 36 or 48 inch level. Maybe also a plumb line. You should be able to figure out what is twisted. It is more likely that the house moved than that the shower just went awry on its own, but only an on-site evaluation will determine that.

Assuming it's the house...

I guess maybe settling could be the house "movement". Is think something that is fixable? I don't see any door adjustments... it's just two dowel looking things on the door into holes on the frame.

Why don't you post a photo of it.

You might be able to carefully twist the frame back into the correct position. If not, you might be able to screw in a little knob or handle toward the bottom of the door that you can pull closed. A strong suction cup with a handle might do the same thing, if you don't have to pull too hard.

If you try to twist a framed glass, you run a high risk of breakage.

Most shower doors have some adujstment for out of parallel walls, and this would help also if it was racked by house movement, but I don't think you can adjust out twisting. I think you will need to take the whole thing apart, and put it back in level and plumb.

I also just noticed...

I took a good look at the bottom of the door and there appears to be a 3/4" - 1" strip of clear plastic like a weather strip that's somewhat rigid. It's getting wavy (not curled up and down but wavy from side to side) and I'm wondering if a high spot in the wave is hitting first and making it harder to pull closed. If that's the case, perhaps I can just replace the weather strip type piece.

There should be at the top and bottom of the door frame, a square headed set screw that can be loosened to allow the pins to be repositioned. The set screw is about 1" away from the top and bottom pins and is part of the door itself. You need to loosen the bottom set screw to adjust the bottom of the door over to clear the strike jamb and align with the magnetic strip. It will take a very narrow wrench to fit between the curb and the bottom of the door. We usually remove the door to make the adjustment.

Guy

While researching my DIY bathroom remodel, I noticed that just about all shower door manufacturers call for the frame to be mounted right to a stud. After demolition of the old stall, I noticed that this was not the case in the builder's installation. My house was built about 20 years ago. We had sliding glass doors and it never caused an issue, but I will have to add studs at the exact spot the shower door will go (which will be very close to, if not exactly, where the old ones was).

In your case I would wonder if the shower door frame itself is indeed mounted to studs.