Pivoting Shower Door Replacement Questions - Kitchen & Bath ...

I have a friend who is asking me to help him find, and then install, a new pivoting shower door for him. It will replace the existing light-weight clear plastic paneled door which is very weak/ thin and flimsy (causing it to close improperly at this point) that's on the small shower stall in his basement washroom.

The inside walls of the shower stall are lined with that white vinyl paneling (~1/8" thick). The stall is framed at the front by two ~4.5" wide x 1.85" thick x 71" tall aluminum pieces (fairly light gauged/ hollow), which are attached to a top aluminum bar piece as well as some other thin aluminum cross bars that span horizontally across the middle of the inside walls of the shower for additional structural support. The door is attached to the left side aluminum frame piece by way of small plastic hinges.

So, as you can probably tell by the description - it's a very cheap/ low quality set-up all around, as it is, and my friend just wants the cheapest fix possible that will take care of the leaking and instability problems that the existing door is giving him.

I took some measurements when I was at his place last weekend.

These were the basic dimensions:
- width of the shower stall from wall to wall: 36 -3/8" (just over 3 ft)
- width of the front framing: 34 -5/8"
- width of shower door: 26 -3/4"
- height of shower stall framing from top of shower basin to top framing piece: 72 - 3/16"
- height of shower door: 65"

I also made this little mock-up drawing to help give people a better idea of what I'll be working with, measurement/ space-wise:
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/2584/showerdoor.jpg

My friend seems to expect to be able to buy/ replace just the actual door portion of the stall - then fit the new door onto the existing aluminum framing (the left side piece) by screwing new holes/ hinges into it. And he wants the door to be glass this time.

My questions are:

1. Can you even buy just the door, alone (from big box stores and the like), or are they always sold in kits (door with the framing, etc)?

As mentioned, he wants to do this on the cheap and I was telling him that I wasn't sure it was possible to just replace the door by itself without having to buy a whole new shower door kit to do it (unless he went to a glass shop and had a door custom made... which would probably be far more costly than he is budgeting for).

2. If we were able to get just the new glass door by itself, does it seem plausible that it could even be mounted properly on the existing (not very strong) aluminum side framing pieces, given that the door would probably be ~ twice as heavy as the existing plastic panel door? And if we did need to replace the framing as well (with a whole new kit), is the white vinyl siding likely to cause any installation issues that I should be aware of?

3. When they give the dimensions of these kits/ door sizes, for example:
http://www.acehardwaresuperstore.com...oors/2496.html
(24 " 27.5" ) I assume that this always accounts for the full width of the door, including the framing dimensions. So, if that's the case, is there ever any way to find out the actual door width, separate from the added framing width (aside from actually going to the store and measuring it)?

4. Does anyone know where I might be able to find a good deal on a fairly low priced glass panel door (or the whole kit if that's the only option) in the GTA region of Ontario, Canada (that would fit the dimensions provided above)?

Thanks
(and sorry about the post length)

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Last edited by inspectator; Yesterday at 06:47 AM.

Source: http://www.diychatroom.com/f80/pivoting-shower-door-replacement-questions-111588/

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