Shower Doors

It seems like there are always so many things to do when you own your home. There are the basic housekeeping tasks to keep up with and also the constant minor repairs to keep everything in good working order. We have found that as we replace items in our home we are always looking for ways to decrease the amount of time we have to put in to maintain the new items. One of the best time savers we found for keeping the bathrooms clean and sanitary is installing shower doors.

The home that we moved into has two bathrooms. The downstairs bath has a shower stall and the upstairs bath has a tub/shower combination. Both had shower curtains. When we moved in I bought new shower curtains and decorated the bathrooms around the themes on the curtains. This is very easy to do with the many bath accessories that are available. The bathrooms looked fresh and clean. It did not take long for us to realize that we needed to make sure that the curtain in the shower stall was pulled into place properly to avoid getting the floor wet. This is the bathroom that guests use when they stay, so we needed to show them how to position the curtain before they took a shower. We had several incidents where guests ended up mopping up the floor. We decided we needed to have a different system. We went to a home improvement store to find out what options we had. The sales clerk suggested that we install shower doors. There were several styles to choose from. There are shower doors that open and close like a regular door. We could not go with this style because the door would bump against the toilet. There were also shower doors that sit on a track and slide past each other. There were models that allowed for both doors to slide and there were other models that featured one stationary door and the other moved. The sales clerk stated that the doors that both move allow for easier cleaning of the shower stall. The shower doors were available in plastic, fiberglass and glass. The fiberglass shower doors were available in clear or frosted. There were also models that had mirrors on the side that faced the room. Each model came with framing that could be custom fitted for the shower opening.

We bought the shower doors that slid past each other in a frosted glass. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install the frame and to place the glass doors. The room appeared much larger and neater without the shower curtain hanging there. We purchased a squeegee to clean the glass shower doors.

We were so pleased with the glass shower doors in the small bathroom that we went back to the store and purchased sliding glass doors for the shower/tub combination. The framing is anchored to the tub and the doors slide on the track. The time it takes to clean the bathrooms is greatly reduced and I do not have to be concerned about mold building up on the glass shower doors like it did on the plastic liner of the curtains.

Installing shower doors is well within the capabilities of most do-it-yourselfers. All that is usually needed is a drill and some common hand tools. However, if you are not handy or don’t have the time or patience to install a shower door, most home centers offer complete installation for a small fee. If they don’t have an installer on staff, they usually can refer you to a reputable handyman who can install your new shower door for you.