How To Adjust Glass Shower Door Hinges? (4 Step Guide)

Step #1. Slightly Loosen Shower Door Hinges

Before you start adjusting the shower door, you will need to slightly loosen the hinges.

The glass shower door hinges are a type of clamp with rubber gaskets on each side. Gently loosening the hinges will make the shower door a bit loose which will give you the wiggle room to get the desired levelness.

You don't need to loosen any hinges that are attached to the shower wall, but only the hinges that are connected to the shower door that you want to adjust.

For most shower doors, you will just need a hex(Allen) keys or phillips screwdriver. If you only have a powered drill, make sure to put it on the lowest torque setting, and to be quick on the trigger.

Once you have loosed a few brackets a tiny bit, and there is some play in the door, you can move on to the next step.

Step #2. Insert solid plastic/Wood Shims To Level Shower Door

The second step in adjusting a glass shower door is to insert solid plastic/wood shims into the low spots of the door. Shims are thin pieces of plastic/wood that are thicker at one side. Wood shims will allow you to get the door perfectly level before you retighten the hinges.

If you don't have wood shims, you may be able to use other objects or plastic pieces to achieve the same goal of door levelness.

You will probably want to insert at least two sets of shims at the bottom of the door, and one or more shims along the side. If you have a partner with you, they may be able to just hold the door level by holding onto the glass or carefully holding onto handle.

And your shower door may have a clear rubber gasket or plastic lining on the bottom of the door that needs to be removed to make room for the shims. You will have to remove this gasket by sliding it out before you can put any wood shims.

Step #3. Check Glass Shower Door Gap

Before you retighten the hinges, it's important that you leave a little gap between the shower door and the wall (or other glass panel).

You will need to open the shower door a bit, and make sure there is the right amount of side gap between it and the wall.

You don't want to retighten the hinges, and then when you open the door, the glass door touches the wall which may cause the door to shatter.

Step #4. Retighten Shower Door Hinges

And now that the door is perfectly level with the shims, and you left a little gap between the door and the wall, it's time to retighten the hinges.

Go through each hinge that you loosened and hand tighten them. You don't want to over-tighten the hinges and strip the threads, but make sure they are nice and hand tight.

After tightening the hinges, you can remove the shims. If you removed a rubber door gasket at the bottom, simply reinsert the gasket.