I need professional advice, shower door install

10 years ago

Ok so twice now the shower glass door guys have come and tried to install the glass door (bracket side) it is a seamless glass door with a hinge. The 1st time they cracked the bullnose piece of porcelain tile at the point where the screw went into the tile, the shower guy tried to say there must have been an area behind the tile with not enough thinset.

Tile guy said the ceramic tile is low density and the face glazed is fragile and there has to be proper care in installing the bracket, proper drill, proper drill bit, use of a shim etc.

2nd time shower door guy tries to install once tile is fixed and now tells me the shower wall tile is not flush with the bullnose piece therefore the bullnose piece bumps up a little and thus is causing cracking.

I dont know what to believe, i dont know what to do, should i call another glass installer? Another tile person?

The shower company is owned by a friend and gave us a great deal (his cost)

Thanks for any advice.
Cheri

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Comments (10)

geoffrey_b
10 years ago
I think the shower installer should be talking to the tile guy directly.
millworkman
10 years ago
How about pictures as it is impossible to tell from a description alone.
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I need help to understand what I'm looking at. I am an engineer and used to reading drawings with certain symbols. You have used different symbols than I've seen, so can you please explain what yours mean? Normally I would make some guesses at what the symbols mean but I see enough inconsistency that I hesitate to guess. I think I recognize the toilet and doors, and possibly the sink, but what do the sunspots and various colored ovals mean? And why is the floor partially shown with "tiles" and part of the floor is not? Is the space outlined in blue "walls" a separate room? If so can't the door open inward to that room? Otherwise you have a door in your back at the sink or a door blocking the heater. What is the meaning of the color of the walls? You have skinny thin black walls, blue, aqua, and pink/flesh colored walls. By using your own symbol for a toilet, you may not be representing the actual size. The front of a toilet is usually 30 inches from the wall. If your floor markings are 1-foot squares, then you might have problems. For another example, a 36 inch wide entry door is very large, and your drawing shows the door through to the wet room being more like 29 inches. One of the reasons for making drawings before hand is to fit everything in. If your drawings are not accurate to at least the 1/4 inch, it could very easily double your costs when the plumbers and carpenters cannot make everything fit in the room. How do you put a 62.00 inch long tub into a 60-inch long room? Where does your waste basket go? Where does your toilet paper holder go? Where do the towel racks/hangers go? What is the prominent pink arrow? What are the blue and white dots in the wall by the heater in Plan A? Why is the wet room in Plan B larger than Plan A? Plan A has a black area in the upper left corner of the wet room. What is that? And is that a tub to the right? I don't get that room at all. Do you have ventilation in the wet room? What is the symbol in the middle of the right hand wall (I assume the pinkish thing outlined in dashed lines is a wall), back of the toilet, and back of the sink? If your shower is really six feet long, you can easily keep the towels inside the room with you and they should not get wet. My parents used to have a 5-foot long shower and much of it stayed very dry. And if that is your shower and some of those ovals are faucet handles, that means you have to walk all the way in to the shower, right under the shower head, to turn on the water to heat it up. If you put the faucet handles near the door and the shower head on the far wall, then you can reach in, turn on the water, and not get wet. Is your wet room completely sealed by the door?
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cherij0411
Original Author
10 years ago
here is a pic
millworkman
10 years ago
How about backing up a few feet and giving us several pictures of the entire shower as well as closeups not quite so close up. Is there a GC involved? Did you hire the glass co and the tile setter independently of each other? Was there any coordination between the trades as to what was going to be installed? Were there architectural drawings that were given to the trades? Did anyone do shop drawings showing the products in relation to each other?
MongoCT
10 years ago
I presume there is proper purchase for the screw threads behind the tile. A wall stud, for example.

Here's my recommendation since this is a fail times two.

Have them remove the bracket and drill an oversized hole the depth of the tile, the thinset, and if the backer board is frangible or compressible, the depth of the backer board as well. In a typical situation that might be 1/4" + 1/8" + 1/2", or 7/8" depth total.

So drill a hole 3/8" in diameter (or whatever diameter your sleeve is) and 7/8" depth (or as needed per the explanation above).

Insert a metal sleeve bushing into that oversized hole. The goal is for the sleeve to be at least flush with or just slightly proud of the face of the tile.

Here's an example. Not the perfect size or proportion, but a quick grab off the internet to define "metal sleeve":

Aluminum or copper is fine, if steel I recommend spot priming them for corrosion protection.

Install the sleeve into the oversized hole. Then install the hinge bracket. The sleeve will transfer the compression forces from the hinge brackets directly to the studs, bypassing the fragile tile, grout, and backer board.

Just an idea.
geoffrey_b
10 years ago
The shower guy should be using a 'core drill' - this drills the outer circle of the hole. Using a carbide tipped drill bit can crack the tile.

The Brutus drill has a little resiviour that gets stuck to the wall with double faced tape. Then it gets filled with water, which cools the bit.

I've used it as a DIY'er for towel bars.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tile Core Drill
MongoCT
10 years ago
My impression was that there is not a problem with drilling the holes, but that the cracking is occurring when the screws are tightened down.
millworkman
10 years ago
I would concur with mongo's assessment and fix..
cherij0411
Original Author
10 years ago
Here are some more pics. it is not cracking when they drill the holes, it is cracking when they are tightening the screws from what I understand.
Sfoster1
9 years ago
I am a professional shower door installer. I can give you my opinion on whats happening.
These hinges are supplied by CR lawrence. They come with a set of screws, and some plastic shields. It appears to me that the correct shields were not used. The holes in your tile are too small to revieve the screws provided. A screw is a wedge, and puts pressure on the surrounding materials. Small hole+big screw=crack

I need professional advice, shower door install

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geoffrey_b

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I need professional advice, shower door install

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