At Home In The Woods
- Thread starter Obed
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OP
Obed
Elite Member
Finally we have a master bath we can use. Getting a properly working shower door was an endeavor. In May the first attempt at installing a shower door occurred. The door leaked at the bottom where the installer did not provide the threshold that should have come with the door. We ended up letting the company who sold and installed the door take it back. We didn't pay anything for it. We decided to buy a different door from another company and install it ourselves. With the expense involved putting in a tile shower, it really bugged me that the original shower door installation was obviously put in not square and plumb. Thus, we didn't want to go to the headache of having someone else install the door incorrectly.
My wife actually performed the installation. I just helped carry the door and hold it it in place. We made certain we had a threshold at the bottom of the door to prevent water from seeping out from under the door. Not having a threshold makes no sense to me.
The first thing my wife did was to purchase a chemical to help remove the silicon caulk that was left from the original door installation. Even using the chemical, she had to scrub and scrub to best remove the caulk. Removing the original caulk will help the new caulk to adhere to the tile. Next she filled in the holes drilled through the tile from the original door installation. Then she installed the threshold using only silicon caulk. You don't use screws to install the threshold because screw holes would provide a potential place for water to leak. She installed the door frame and then we installed the door. Lastly she caulked around the door frame.
Tomorrow we get to use the shower! I'm confident my wife's installation will not leak. Don't be confused by the shower pictures; we have two shower heads in the shower. One shower head is attached to a flexible hose. My wife wanted the hand-held shower head to make it easier to clean the shower. We have the controls in the shower to use either shower head or both. There is enough room in the shower for two people, as long as they are opposite sexes and married.
My wife actually performed the installation. I just helped carry the door and hold it it in place. We made certain we had a threshold at the bottom of the door to prevent water from seeping out from under the door. Not having a threshold makes no sense to me.
The first thing my wife did was to purchase a chemical to help remove the silicon caulk that was left from the original door installation. Even using the chemical, she had to scrub and scrub to best remove the caulk. Removing the original caulk will help the new caulk to adhere to the tile. Next she filled in the holes drilled through the tile from the original door installation. Then she installed the threshold using only silicon caulk. You don't use screws to install the threshold because screw holes would provide a potential place for water to leak. She installed the door frame and then we installed the door. Lastly she caulked around the door frame.
Tomorrow we get to use the shower! I'm confident my wife's installation will not leak. Don't be confused by the shower pictures; we have two shower heads in the shower. One shower head is attached to a flexible hose. My wife wanted the hand-held shower head to make it easier to clean the shower. We have the controls in the shower to use either shower head or both. There is enough room in the shower for two people, as long as they are opposite sexes and married.
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OP
Obed
Elite Member
Locating the handheld shower head on the opposite wall from the main shower head was not part of the original shower design. We had originally planned to tap a flexible hose off of the primary shower head supply line. The two shower heads would have been located right beside each other. As part of the original shower plan, we installed blocking for a horizontally oriented grab bar, not a vertical grab bar. So the original blocking did not work when we decided to use a vertical grab bar to hold the handheld shower head.
After the walls were drywalled and painted we figured out we needed additional blocking to support the vertical grab bar we wanted to use. Therefore we had a worker cut a hole in the drywall behind the shower wall, install 2x10 blocking in the framing, and patch the drywall. My wife repainted the patch work. When it came time to install the vertical grab bar, we discovered that the new blocking had been installed in the wrong place. So my wife tore out the drywall behind the shower again, correctly installed the blocking, patched the wall, and repainted again. It took three tries to get the blocking for the vertical grab bar correct.
After the walls were drywalled and painted we figured out we needed additional blocking to support the vertical grab bar we wanted to use. Therefore we had a worker cut a hole in the drywall behind the shower wall, install 2x10 blocking in the framing, and patch the drywall. My wife repainted the patch work. When it came time to install the vertical grab bar, we discovered that the new blocking had been installed in the wrong place. So my wife tore out the drywall behind the shower again, correctly installed the blocking, patched the wall, and repainted again. It took three tries to get the blocking for the vertical grab bar correct.
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Joe H
Bronze Member
Obed, did you buy the second door locally or internet. Looking for one like it and no luck locally unless I'm willing to pay more than the whole shower cost. Looks nice, wish I had it.
Thanks, Joe H
Thanks, Joe H
Kyle_in_Tex
Super Star Member
totally concur, but I will bet your baby daughter will want to sneak in there with either of you willing to let her in.
buckeyefarmer
Epic Contributor
I like the light color of tile in the shower. We had a shower like that in a rental house at the beach last week, it was a dark blue tile, and you couldn't see in there even with a light.
your wife did a nice job installing the door.
your wife did a nice job installing the door.
OP
Obed
Elite Member
We bought the second shower door from a local company. The cost was $485 plus sales tax. There was obviously no installation cost; we installed it ourselves. Our glass shower door is the "frameless" kind. A tile shower is extremely expensive. I seem to think we only paid $300 for our fiberglass tub/shower in the hall bath. The hall shower curtain rod was $15 and the shower curtain was maybe $20. The glass door for the master shower cost more than the hall bath tub/shower.
Obed
Kyle_in_Tex
Super Star Member
I guess thats why my friend built his shower as a "walk in" type with no door. It has 2 shower heads with some other nifty waterfall type stuff. I didn't ask if the other stuff recycles or runs off of a pump or if it is all fresh out of the faucet.
patrick_g
Elite Member
My absolute all time best shower door is... (drum roll please) NO door at all. The master bath room floor rises up toward the shower entry and then at the entry starts down again. There is no curb. Very little water besides what is tracked on our feet ever gets out of the shower.
Shower doors and or curtains are always a significant cleaning chore/challenge. Hard water is a problem, soap scum is a problem, mildew/mold tries to gain a foothold and on and on and on... I have radiant heat in the floor and walls of the shower (had it to do again I'd put it in the ceiling too!) You can do it electrically if you don't have a convenient source of hot water like I do (WaterFurnace geothermal heat pump.) This is LUXURY! Wanna go low cost? Put a bunch of heat lamps in the ceiling of the shower. Oh, by the way. you want an exhaust register in the shower to extract humid air before it gets out of the shower.
I prefer a remote fan as they are so very much quieter. In my case the shower register is "Yed" into the Energy Recovery Ventilation system which runs on low speed 24-7 to provide fresh air and exhaust stale air but will switch to a higher speed if the bathroom humidity rises above a humidistat set point.
Pat
Shower doors and or curtains are always a significant cleaning chore/challenge. Hard water is a problem, soap scum is a problem, mildew/mold tries to gain a foothold and on and on and on... I have radiant heat in the floor and walls of the shower (had it to do again I'd put it in the ceiling too!) You can do it electrically if you don't have a convenient source of hot water like I do (WaterFurnace geothermal heat pump.) This is LUXURY! Wanna go low cost? Put a bunch of heat lamps in the ceiling of the shower. Oh, by the way. you want an exhaust register in the shower to extract humid air before it gets out of the shower.
I prefer a remote fan as they are so very much quieter. In my case the shower register is "Yed" into the Energy Recovery Ventilation system which runs on low speed 24-7 to provide fresh air and exhaust stale air but will switch to a higher speed if the bathroom humidity rises above a humidistat set point.
Pat
OP
Obed
Elite Member
Pat,patrick_g said:
It sounds like you went all out in your shower. Do you have any pictures? We have an exhaust fan in the master shower exits to the outdoors. The fan is very quiet. I tested the fan's noise before ww installed it. I really dislike a noisy bathroom fan.
Our master shower would need to be larger to work with no door. Personally, we chose to not have a super large master suite. We don't spend much time in the bedroom other than sleeping. Our master BR, bath, and closet are a little smaller than most newer houses in the same price range as ours. I've seen lots of new houses with huge master suites but with tiny hall baths and kids' bedrooms. We opted for a nice sized hall bath and decent sized 2nd and 3rd bedrooms.
We also chose to put the bedrooms on one end of the house and the kitchen/great room on the other end to keep the sleeping areas as far from the noisy areas as possible. The current trend for ranch homes is a split BR layout with the BRs surrounding the LR/ktichen.
Our house is also basically a traditional rectangular shape to allow for a cross breeze, something not seen in most newer house plans because a rectangular shaped ranch house requires a lot with more road frontage than a narrow/deep house.
Our layout might seem a little more old fashioned compared to what is seen in the latest trends but it seems a little more practical for our wishes.
Obed
