Add Blocking for the Shower Door While the Walls Are Open
Technique: Shower Door Blocking
The Problem
The shower door is the last thing installed and the first thing forgotten. Framing goes up, backer board and tile go on — and months later the glass installer's mounting screws land in nothing but tile and drywall, because nobody put wood where the hinges and clips would need it. A frameless glass panel hanging on hollow-wall anchors is not a comforting thought.
The Technique
One stick of blocking during framing solves it.
- Find the centerline of the shower curb — that's the plane the glass door or panel will sit on.
- Set a 2x4 vertically in the wall on that centerline.
- Anchor it into the bottom plate, the top plate, and the adjacent stud using 3-inch construction screws — tied off at three points so it can't rotate or drift when it's fastened into later.
Now everything about the door installation lands in solid wood: hinges, clips, and channel screws all bite into the blocking through the tile.
Pro tip: Take a photo of the open wall with a tape held to a reference point before it's covered — future-you (or the glass installer) will know exactly where the blocking centerline runs behind the finished tile. The same open-wall moment is when grab-bar blocking should go in too; wood is free when the wall's open and impossible after.