I did a shower remodel that involved moving a wall and re-tiling my shower. The new width for the door opening is 33.5 inches. I see pre-made frameless glass shower doors that are listed as being acceptable for 33" openings. Do frameless glass shower doors have enough tolerance to make this work?
Doors – How much tolerance is there for a frameless glass shower door
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Expanding on my comment: I think that the main problem with the proposed setup is lacking a slide or rail on the bottom. Without a slide on the bottom the glass door can swing perpendicular to the sliding direction. See the below explanation for what I mean.
I have a sliding shower door with a sliding mechanism on the top (a stainless steel rail with 2 wheels per door on top of the rail) and a tiny U channel on the bottom to keep the door from swinging. I know, I need to clean the shower a little...
The door is sliding in the direction of the blue arrows. The U channel on the bottom is keeping the door from swinging in the direction of the red arrows. This U channel is about 2 CM long and seems to be made from aluminium.
the screw heads are starting to get chewed up
They are probably machine screws. I'd take one out and take it to a hardware store and buy a set with the same thread but with hex, star or square-drive heads. The length is not critical because you can always buy longer than needed and shorten them with a hacksaw (keeping a nut on the screw to straighten the thread with after cutting)
Is there a better solution
The shower door manufacturer may be able to supply replacement parts. I'd contact their customer support for advice.
Otherwise, after supporting the door securely, I would disassemble one hinge completely to see what is inside. Maybe there's a gasket of synthetic rubber that is supposed to grip the glass. It might be worth trying to supplement or replace that, for example, with a rectangle cut from a bicycle inner tube and maybe roughened a little.
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Best Answer
The maker of the door will give you the max and minimum opening it will fit in.
Off the shelf shower doors, so they will fit varying sizes of showers will make up the difference by the lap/overhang of the glass on the hinge side of the door. This will only allow the door to open out, which is code. If the door is custom made, it would be possible to have it swing in and out.
Typically the biggest concern is the plumb of the walls and level of the curb. The caulk that seals the glass can only fill up so big a gap.