How to install a front sliding shower screen

What you need

• Drill with a 6 mm tungsten carbide or diamond tile bit
• Spirit level of 60 cm or more and a plumb line
• Tape measure, pencil and masking tape
• Phillips screwdriver and Allen keys (they come in the box)
• Silicone gun and a smoothing tool
• Cardboard or a blanket to protect the tray
• A second person
• Front sliding shower screen with an adjustment range that includes your measurement (Leroy Merlin, Bricodepot, GME, Kassandra, Roca, 150 to 500 euros)
• 6 mm Fischer SX nylon plugs and 4.5 by 45 mm stainless steel screws (or metal plasterboard fixings)
• Clear or white neutral anti-mould silicone (Pattex Baño Sano, Ceys Baño y Cocina, Sika Sanisil, 6 to 10 euros)
• Cleaning alcohol to degrease the wall and the tray
• Silicone spray for the tracks

Step by step

1. 1

   Check measurements and contents

   Open the box, check the glass for chips and count the parts against the list in the instructions. Measure the opening at three heights and confirm the smallest measurement falls within the screen's adjustment range.

2. 2

   Offer up and plumb the wall profiles

   Stand each wall profile on the edge of the tray, tight to the wall and at the distance from the edge given in the instructions (normally centred on the lip). Plumb it with the level on both faces and pencil the holes through the profile. Do the same on the other side.

3. 3

   Drill the tiles

   Stick masking tape over each mark and make a dent with a nail so the bit does not skate. Drill with the carbide bit at slow speed and no hammer until you are through the tile; then, if the wall is brick, finish to the depth of the plug. Clean out the dust and push the plugs in flush.

4. 4

   Screw on the wall profiles

   Fix each profile with its screws, tightening until the profile does not move but leaving a quarter turn for the final adjustment. Check the plumb again: if it has moved, loosen and correct.

5. 5

   Assemble the frame on the floor

   On cardboard, join the fixed panels to the top and bottom profiles in the order given in the instructions. Fit the seals on the fixed panels. Do not fit the sliding doors yet: the frame is easier to handle without them.

6. 6

   Slot the frame between the wall profiles

   With two of you, lift the frame and slot it into the wall profiles, centred over the tray. Level the top profile, share the adjustment equally between both sides and fit the profile-to-profile screws (Allen or Phillips). Now tighten the wall screws.

7. 7

   Hang the doors

   Hook the top rollers of each door into the top track, lower the door and press the bottom rollers in so they engage in the bottom guide. Check the doors slide the full length without rubbing.

8. 8

   Adjust and fit the seals

   Adjust the eccentric cams on the top rollers until each door sits parallel to the fixed panel and closes against the magnetic seal or the strip over its full height. Fit the bottom drip seals and the cover caps on the profiles. Spray silicone along the tracks.

9. 9

   Seal with silicone and wait 24 hours

   Clean the profile-to-wall and profile-to-tray joints on the outside of the shower with alcohol. Masking tape both sides, a continuous bead of neutral silicone along the outside (wall and tray) and up the inside vertical joints of the wall profiles; leave the bottom profile free on the inside. Smooth with a finger dipped in soapy water, remove the tape and do not use the shower for 24 hours.

Before installing a front sliding shower screen: measure the opening and choose well

Measure the width of the opening between the walls at three heights: 10 cm above the tray, halfway up and at 185 cm. They almost never match, because bathroom walls in Valencia and Alicante are rarely plumb. The measurement that counts is the smallest, and the screen must have an adjustment range that includes it: a 120 cm front screen usually accepts 116 to 121 cm, and it says so on the box. If the difference between top and bottom is more than 1.5 cm, you need wider compensation profiles or a model with more adjustment.

Measure the available height too (standard screens are 185 to 200 cm) and check whether the tray has a lip or upstand for the bottom profile to sit on. On ultra-flat resin trays the profile sits on the tray with no lip and the outside seal matters more. Check there is no tap, water outlet or shelf in the zone where the wall profiles will go.

For a corner shower, a corner screen is fitted by the same method but with two wall profiles and two panels meeting at a corner post; it is a little more fiddly to plumb. For an opening between three walls, the front sliding screen. Toughened glass of 5 or 6 mm for the doors; 4 mm is cheaper and lighter, but it rattles and you notice. And on the coast, the anti-limescale glass treatment is worth the extra 30 to 60 euros.

What comes in the box and what you have to buy separately

Screens from Leroy Merlin, Bricodepot, GME, Kassandra or Roca come with the wall profiles, the fixed panels and doors (sometimes pre-assembled, sometimes not), the rollers, the seals, the profile-to-profile screws and the cover caps. What almost never comes: the wall plugs and screws, which tend to be generic and poor quality, the tile drill bit and the silicone.

Buy separately good quality 6 mm nylon plugs (Fischer SX or similar) with 4.5 by 45 mm stainless steel screws, a 6 mm tungsten carbide or diamond tile bit, a tube of neutral anti-mould silicone (Pattex Baño Sano, Ceys Baño y Cocina or Sika Sanisil) and masking tape. If the wall is plasterboard, metal plasterboard fixings (Molly type) instead of the nylon plugs. The total cost of what is not in the box is around 15 to 25 euros.

Common mistakes when installing a shower screen

The first is drilling on hammer. The tile cracks or the glaze chips. Mark the centre with a nail or a fine bit so the drill does not wander, slow speed and no hammer until you are through the tile; then, if the wall is brick, you can switch the hammer on. Put a piece of masking tape over the mark: it stops the bit skating.

The second is plumbing the wall profile by eye. One millimetre out over 2 metres makes the doors slide open on their own or close badly. A long level or a plumb line on the face of the profile, and check both faces. The third is tightening the wall screws fully before slotting in the frame; leave them a quarter turn slack, fit everything, adjust and tighten at the end.

The fourth is sealing the whole of the bottom profile on the inside. Water that gets into the profiles needs to drain out onto the tray; if you block that outlet, it stays inside, grows mould and eventually leaks out the other side. And the fifth, showering the same day: neutral silicone needs 24 hours to cure.

• Two people, no exceptions: the frame weighs 30 to 45 kg and glass does not forgive a drop.
• Protect the tray with cardboard or a blanket for the whole job.
• Assemble the frame on the floor on cardboard following the manufacturer's instructions, not half-slotted into the shower.
• Do not drill into tile joints: the tile breaks and the plug does not grip.

When to call a professional

Call us if the walls are more than 1.5 cm out of plumb, if the tray is not level, if the wall is plasterboard or hollow brick and the plugs will not grip, if an old screen has to be taken down and removed, if the bathroom is small and there is no room to assemble the frame on the floor, or if you simply do not want to risk 300 euros of glass.

The Manitas Costa shower screen service fits a front sliding screen for 90 to 140 euros in labour and a corner screen for 110 to 170 euros, with plugs, screws and neutral silicone included. Removing and disposing of the old screen costs 50 to 65 euros. We fit screens from Leroy Merlin, IKEA, Bricodepot and any other brand, and if you bought it online and the box is sitting in the entrance hall, we carry it up. We arrive in 20 to 45 minutes in Valencia, Alicante, Torrevieja and Benidorm; we have dedicated pages for shower screens in Valencia and shower screens in Alicante. Fixed price by WhatsApp from a photo of the opening and the screen's reference, 6 months written guarantee and an invoice with IVA (VAT). All rates in how much it costs to install a shower screen.

Sealing, limescale and salt air: making the new screen last

A well-fitted screen fails in two places over the years: the silicone and the rollers. Use neutral anti-mould silicone, never acetic (it smells of vinegar and attacks anodised aluminium), apply it only where it belongs and check it every two years; the method is in how to seal a shower screen with silicone.

With the hard water in Alicante and Valencia, the glass is covered in limescale within weeks and the tracks within a month. Squeegee after every shower, a towel along the bottom track, vinegar in the rails once a month and silicone spray every three months. On the seafront, choose anodised or powder-coated aluminium profiles rather than bright chrome, and stainless steel rollers. If in a few years the doors run stiffly, it is usually limescale or the rollers: how to fix a sliding shower screen.