Here’s today’s question: How do you install a glass shower wall?
Specifically, how do you install glass shower walls on a knee wall?
Last week I gave you quick tips on how to tile a knee wall.
Today we’re going to show you how to template the glass and install it on that knee wall.
And by the way, before we start, if you want our latest bathroom remodeling guide, you
can get it right here for free.
Okay, so we’re going to measure a custom piece of glass for this edge of this tub surround.
Obviously this is definitely an abnormal angle in this Cape Cod type of style bathroom.
So really rather than trying to get a mathematical equation for what this angle is, it’s just
going to be easier to have a template made of what the glass we want to have formed here.
Essentially I’m just going to go off the edge of the tub and bring this glass straight
up.
We’re not going all the way to the ceiling—I don’t see any reason to go all the way to
the ceiling—but at least go to two to three inches above where the shower curtain rod
is going to actually be.
Now a normal shower curtain is about 58” off of the tub surround.
So right about here, you’re going to have your shower curtain.
So we’re probably going to make the glass 63” tall.
So we’re going to go like five inches above more than that shower curtain is.
So what we’re going to do is we’re going to make a template.
I’m just going to use a scrap piece of GoBoard to demonstrate.
So let’s determine how far out we actually want to make it.
And I’ll say let’s just go 33”.
Because you’re going to want to have that hole on the glass to support the towel bar
at least an inch in from the edge of the glass.
So we want to have our shower curtain… is going to be in the center of our tub surround,
which would be 29”.
So we’ll go 31” total on the glass.
And then above here, so we have 19”.
And what did I say we’re going to go?
We’re going to go… so this is 58”.
Yeah, let’s just go 60” actually.
Let’s make it a straight five-foot.
Yeah, we’ll go 60”.
So sixty minus nineteen, 41”.
So when you take this to a local black shop, you just want to be sure that whatever your
cut, they’re going to make it exact.
Any little imperfection that you put into this board, they’re going to translate that
to the glass.
So try to get a straight edge.
Okay now we’re going to cut it.
Thirty-one inches.
And measure over what we have to cut this.
So we got nine inches to nine inches.
We measure up nine inches.
Will straighten the line.
We’ll just have to put the level right at this point where the transition happens just
to make sure that your level’s level to the corner.
So let’s make a mark right at the edge there.
Measure nine inches from the top, and make the angle.
That works pretty good.
So again, just to reiterate, when you get the size of the glass where you want it, just
take out the level and go from the edge of your point where the change of plane happens.
And then the next thing we’re going to do is measure from the wall to the board.
We’ve got nine inches.
So we transfers that from the top over.
So nine inches can be measured from there, and then this will be your angle.
You just cut that, and that will be the angle.
The place that I use is called CRLaurence.com.
It’s a place that you can get all your hinges and stuff for glass.
And what I’m going to do is get a support bar that’s going to be at 58” high up,
and it’s just going to anchor to the 3/8 glass, and an anchor against the wall for
a shower curtain.
Obviously this bathroom is really small.
If you build this all the way up, the whole bathroom will be smaller.
So having this piece of glass is definitely going to make this feel a lot more open.
You want to go 58” to where the center glass is going to be.
And then we’re going to bring this out two inches because you want to have your shower
curtain be in the center of your tub.
So that’ll be our mark for where we have a half-inch hole.
But you want to have your shower curtain be in the center of the shower or the bathtub
curve.
So again, this is our opening for the shower glass wall.
You can use an angle grinder with a special metal cutting blade to make odd angular cuts.
You can also use a miter saw with a special metal blade.
Get the blade up to full speed before you cut any piece of metal.
Be very, very careful doing it.
And then dry fit the metal trim pieces.
Now what Steve is doing is placing the glass in the bottom metal piece, and he’s dry
fitting the vertical metal pieces.
So you can drill holes in the metal using a special bit.
Place the vertical pieces on the wall.
Make sure they’re perfectly plumb.
And then mark the whole position using a Sharpie.
Now this is a special bit for cutting through porcelain tile.
You want to start that bit out at an angle—like a 45° angle—and then slowly make it a 90°
angle, and drill through the porcelain.
This is just the Milwaukee diamond drill bit for porcelain and tile.
Now you want to drill those holes for a few seconds and then dip the bit in cold water
so that you can preserve it.
So in this case, we had to use plastic inserts in the tile to hold the screws in place.
So that’s what you see Steve doing here, and that’s a really nice, solid way to hold
the metal channel on the wall.
So again, you just want to dry fit.
In this case, we have an angled metal trim piece, so we’re checking to make sure that
everything fits perfectly.
And then Steve is marking the position at the top of the glass on that last piece.
He cut it to size using a miter saw.
So again, just drilling the holes through that piece with an impact driver, and then
cutting out the holes using that diamond bit.
So again, get everything in place.
Install the channels on the tile.
And then you dry fit the glass one more time to make sure that it’s going to fit perfectly
in the channels.
So that’s what we’re doing there.
And then you clean off the edge of the glass using acetone and the piece of marble.
In this case we cleaned it off.
We just double checked to make sure there are no bits on it and dust on it.
Now what Steve is doing is using clear, 100% silicone in the channel.
He’s not filling it fully but probably about halfway with this clear silicone.
Then on the bottom channel there, as you can see, he’s fitting that onto the marble like
so.
And then he’s filling that bottom channel with silicone.
And again, only about half of the channel is being filled with 100% clear silicone.
So there you go.
All of your channels are in place.
Now it’s time to embed that glass in that silicone.
You want to slide the glass in place and embed it really good into the silicone.
Make sure it fits perfectly.
And as you can see, we’re just getting the final position of that bottom piece which
floats on the marble.
So we didn’t drill that down into the marble.
We’re just getting it right.
And then what Steve is doing here—a little bit hard to see—but he’s using a clear
plastic shim to get it to stay in place.
So you can get that shim from the place of business where you get the channel.
Now he’s also measuring to make sure that the bottom channel is even across the marble
slab there, and then cutting the plastic shim with a utility knife.
So we’ve got everything in place.
The last step is to silicone where the channels meet up with the porcelain tile and also with
the marble slab.
And then just smoothing out that silicone with his finger.
You can dip your finger in water to help with the smoothing process.
So we did that on the shower side and then also on the other side of the glass for the
shower wall.
So again, you want silicone on both sides for a waterproof seal, and then just smoothing
it out with your finger.
It’s as simple as that.
As you can see in the video, glass shower walls are a great way to make a small bathroom
look awesome.
Now if you want to remodel a tub/shower combo, and you want all the video tutorials in one
spot—not only the videos but also the written tutorials; so if you like to read directions,
and you want to learn how to do that project before you dive into it—you can check out
our course right here, which is “How to Remodel a Tub/Shower Combo.”
So it’s great because all the videos and written tutorials are in one spot.
And if you get stuck, we have one-on-one support for you.
We really think this is a great course for anybody doing a tub/shower remodel.
So that’s it for today.
Thanks for watching the video.
If you’ve got any questions, let us know in the comments.
We’d be more than happy to help you out.
Take care, and we’ll see you next week.