DIY Shower Door Removal

Hello My Lovelies!

Today’s post is a little DIY. Do It Yourself Shower Door Removal. I wanted to take out the shower doors in the master bathroom at my house. I’m not a huge fan of shower doors..especially old ones that have seen better days. A few reasons..they are very hard to keep clean, they cause moisture to hang around, they are loud and annoying.

What You Need

Materials
Caulk remover (I used Motsenbockers Lift Off gel)
Curtain rod
Shower curtain (a liner at minimum, plus outer decorative curtain if you like)
Shower curtain hooks
Silicone caulk

Tools
Utility knife
Screw driver
Plastic scraper or an old credit card
Caulk gun

How to Do It Yourself

You might want to enlist the help of someone. I attempted to do this project on my own but you can’t hold doors and lift stuff at the same time..so I called my partner in crime. Mom took one look at me awkwardly standing in the shower balancing the doors, laughed, and then said Let’s do this.

Step 1 • Remove the shower doors from the track.
Mine lifted up and out from a top track. The doors can be heavy, so get help on this part if you need it.

Step 2 • Remove all screws from the shower door frame.
My frame had three screws on each side and on in the bottom track. There actually was one small screw in the bottom track that was the reason I was a little hesitant when I saw the screw in the track. I had this moment of fear that their would be a hole in the bathtub, but it turned out to just be a set screw for the guide on the track. So, if that’s holding you back, do a little investigative work to determine whether the screw actually penetrates the tub body.

Step 3 • Carefully cut any caulked joints between the frame and the walls/ tub.
Be sure to hold the knife parallel to the wall and tub, not perpendicular. You don’t want to leave cuts in the wall and tub surfaces, you just want to separate the frame from the wall. Mine was caulked, and re-caulked, and caulked some more. I ended up wedging the screwdriver between the wall and the track and wiggling it until the caulk started coming loose.

Step 4 • Pop off the top track.
Mine was just kind of sitting on top. It wasn’t attached to the rest of the frame at all. A simple double tap with the palm of my hand loosened it and it lifted out easily.

Step 5 • Remove the side frames.
Have your utility knife handy in case you need to cut a little more caulk as you pull the frames from the walls. There will be caulk left behind on the tile – don’t worry about it yet!

Step 6 • Remove the bottom rail from the tub.
Prepare yourself – this is going to yucky! But this moment is also liberating; seeing your tub free of cumbersome metal frames. Think of it as having those annoying braces removed!

Step 7 • Scrape any caulk you can from the tub and the wall tiles.
This is where an old credit card can come in handy! I found it most effective in scraping up the discolored caulking left behind once the door frames were removed. You likely won’t get all of the caulk removed in this step, but that’s okay! Just get as much as you can without damaging any surfaces.

Step 8 • Use caulk remover according to packaging directions on any stubborn spots.
I applied a gel to the strips stuck on the tub, let it sit a few minutes, then scraped again with the plastic card. (As a side note, I skipped this step on the wall tiles, as my tiles are unfortunately painted. So, the caulk peeled right off of my walls, along with strips of paint, revealing pink tiles beneath the paint. Because of this, I left strips of caulk on the walls in some places, as I plan to replace the tile down the road. In the meantime, I will likely peel off the rest of caulk and touch up the tile paint, but this wasn’t done as a part of this project.) Also, our tub surface beneath the old track is pretty rough, but any discoloration came off with this step. There are still a few spots in the surface, but I far prefer them to the constantly dirty old shower door frame!

Step 9 • Fill the screw holes in the walls.
This can be done in a few ways: with special plugs inserted into the holes, or with silicone caulk matching your tile. I opted for caulk, and filled the holes with white silicone caulk. This is where the old credit card comes in handy again. Fill the holes with silicone caulk then remove excess with that credit card! Allow the caulk to set for 8 hours before exposing to moisture. If the holes have plastic anchors in them (mine did), just pull them out with a pair of needle nosed pliers before filling them.

Step 10 • Hang that glorious new rod and curtain!
I love the shower liners from Ollie’s ($3). I found my shower curtain at JCPenney’s a few months ago. Snagged it on sale, had a $10 off coupon, and another in-store 20% off coupon. I usually lay my liner out and place the shower curtain on top of it. It makes putting the shower curtain rings in easier and you’re not wobbling on a tub trying to put them in whilst holding the curtain and liner. I got my shower curtain rings from HomeGoods ($4.99 with coupon).

Then..sit back and look at your masterpiece :)

And that’s how you Do It Yourself! (BTW..the contractor was going to charge me $60 bucks to do that..it took me less than 30mts..)

XoXo!

One Handy Lemon

 

(Images Courtesy of Regina Yunghans)