Add Blocking for the Shower Door While the Walls Are Open
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.