How To Install a Shower Door in 93 Easy Steps

Photo by Steven Ungermann on Unsplash

A few months back, I stepped out of the shower one morning, and noticed that there was water all over the floor, and the rug outside the shower was soaked. I looked at the underside of the shower door, and noticed that there was a gap in the strip that was allowing water to escape the shower.

After discussing the problem with my wife, we decided it would be best to go ahead and get a new shower door. After my experience, I thought it might be helpful to show others how to do this simple do-it-yourself project.

1. Measure the opening
2. Check out your local home improvement store
3. Find a door that will fit in the opening that you measured
4. Purchase the only door that will fit your shower size; don’t look at the display model too closely
5. Wonder why you didn’t get a cart
6. Find a cart
7. Put the shower door on the cart
8. Figure out some way to get the damn thing in your car/truck/van
9. Haul it inside
10. Carefully open the box and lay out all the pieces
11. Get slightly overwhelmed and wonder why in the world you thought you could do this project in the first place
12. Take a potty break
13. Decide that you need to stall a little bit more and get a beverage of your choice
14. Find the directions, casually glance over them and set them aside
15. Go out to the garage (or your specific tool storage area) and gather up the tools that you will need for the job
16. Look for that one tool that you put somewhere you would remember
17. Find lost tool in a place that makes no sense whatsoever
18. Carry all the tools into the shower
19. Realize that you forgot a tool, go back into the garage and get it
20. Inspect the old shower door
21. Decide the best way to remove it
22. Using a screwdriver or power drill, remove the screws hold the old door to the frame; set aside & keep the screws, you’ll need them later
23. Begin unscrewing the frame from the shower lining
24. Take a potty break
25. Select another beverage of your choice, and maybe a small snack
26. Sit down and watch an episode of your favorite show
27. And then maybe a second episode
28. Go back to the bathroom and look at the project
29. Spend 10 minutes trying to find an album or artist to listen to while you are working
30. Spend 10 minutes trying to figure out why the Bluetooth speaker isn’t working
31. Connect the speaker
32. Put on some hype music to motivate you to get back to work
33. Finish unscrewing the frame from the shower lining
34. Set screws aside, you’ll need them later
35. Use a scraper to get the caulk off the shower lining and frame
36. Scratch the shower lining
37. Curse, and then remind yourself that it will “buff out” later
38. Clean the shower lining where the old door frame used to be; it’s going to be disgusting because you are disgusting… that’s why you were taking a shower in the first place
39. Look over the pieces of the new shower door that you laid out earlier
40. Take a potty break
41. Grab a quick bite to eat
42. Watch an episode of your favorite show
43. Take a nap on the couch
44. Wake up, wonder what time it is
45. Go to the bathroom and remember that you have a project to finish
46. Begin installing new shower door
47. Discover that the old holes in the shower lining don’t match up with the new frame
48. Mark new holes in shower lining
49. Drill new holes and put anchors into the wall
50. Screw in the new frame
51. Realize that you should have put the base of the frame in first
52. Remove frame from sides of shower opening
53. Put frame base down
54. Cut frame base so that it will fit in the opening
55. Screw frame base into place
56. Put side frames back up
57. Find your caulk gun
58. Realize that the caulk you have is six years old and solidified in the tube
59. Go back to home improvement store and buy new caulk
60. Grab a bite to eat while you are out
61. Return to bathroom, caulk gun in hand, locked and loaded
62. Run the caulk in an uneven pattern so that it looks like a 5 year old just caulked the new shower frame
63. Look at the directions again and realize that your new shower door has a crossbar that will force you to duck every time you try to get into the shower
64. Read a little further ahead in the directions
65. Notice that there is a 5" piece of the door that will make your small opening even smaller, thus making it impossible to get into your shower without hitting your head and shoulder simultaneously
66. Walk away out of frustration
67. Take a potty break
68. Stress eat
69. Make the critical decision to either continue with the installation anyway or give up altogether
70. Give up… just… give up
71. Get your scraper back out
72. Remove the caulk that you just put up
73. Take down the new shower frame
74. Try to get everything back in the box the same way that it came
75. Settle for “good enough”
76. Reinstall the old frame
77. Reinstall the door to the old frame
78. Decide that the problem could be fixed by simply buying a new strip for the bottom of the old shower door
79. Take a potty break
80. Go to bed
81. Wake up the next morning, refreshed and ready to complete the project
82. Take a potty break… don’t get in the shower, the problem causing you to replace the door in the first place is still there
83. Take the new shower door back to the home improvement center
84. Say something like, “Yeah, I don’t think this is going to work for my shower after all.”
85. Go back to the shower door department and find the new strip
86. Purchase the new strip
87. Remove the old shower door so you can get an accurate measurement
88. Measure the new strip and make sure you cut it the right length to fit your old door
89. Put some caulk in the underside of the shower door
90. Force the strip to fit, even if it may seem like it is a little too small
91. Rehang the old shower door
92. Pray it actually works
93. Take a shower

CONGRATULATIONS! You have just experienced the joy of DIY!!!